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Luke Buda, Conrad Wedde, and Samuel Flynn Scott are three guys from New Zealand who grew up listening to Pantera, Slayer, and Sepultura and decided to form a band. However, the band they formed, the Phoenix Foundation, suggested they left all their adolescent influences at the door once they picked up guitars -- embracing a sound that incorporates the pastoral calm of alt-country and freak folk as well as the cool passion and sonic wanderlust of indie rock, the Phoenix Foundation play smart, mature, and expressive pop music that has made them one of the most successful independent acts to emerge from New Zealand in recent years. Singer and guitarist Scott, guitarist and keyboard man Wedde, and Buda on vocals, guitars, and keyboards formed the Phoenix Foundation in 1997, but spent their first two years woodshedding and mapping out their creative direction. The Phoenix Foundation released their first EP, China Cove, in 2000, and a year later the band grew to a six-piece with the addition...