Ha the Unclear – Astigmatic! EP Release TOur

In 2024, Ōtepoti | Dunedin indie band Ha the Unclear released their amalgam album A Kingdom in a Cul-de-Sac (Think Zik!/Virgin). Described in the French press as “a kaleidoscopic and surreal pop journey” (FIP), the band played their debut European headline show in Paris to promote the release following a stint back in Dunedin where songwriter Michael Cathro was writing songs in a shared space by the wharf. Those songs are now rearing their heads on the new 5-track EP, Astigmatic!.

First single ‘Cumberland Street (Astigmatic)’ extols the joy of hitting a run of green lights on the titular Dunedin street. The cry of “Astigmatic!” for which the EP is named serves as a central optical metaphor: the line “staring at the stars, no? They were streetlights leaking in a row” comes, Cathro says, from “a very early memory of pointing out stars to my parents on a Dunedin evening, not realising they were just streetlights on the opposite hill”.

Now living back in Tāmaki Makaurau, ‘The Good Times Always End in Tears’ is a nostalgia-tinged goodbye-for-now to the old hometown, while levity abounds in songs like ‘Earth Grazer’, a jittery pop number where a missed encounter devolves into a reflection on existential brevity. In the frantic pub-rock-esque second single ‘The Cold’, Cathro says, “The Cold is a song about trying to write The Cold, a frustration with the creative process. I felt like I had a pestle and mortar and I was trying to grind a song out, overly complicating it. This was my effort to reset and rip the lid off the can to get the rest of the sauce out.”

This summer, the band is bringing the EP, alongside much-loved numbers and other new songs to 4 dates across Aotearoa:

Astigmatic! Tour

6 November – Crown Hotel – Ōtepoti / Dunedin
13 November – Whammy – Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland
14 November – Space Academy – Ōtautahi / Christchurch
4 December – Meow – Pōneke / Wellington

Tickets available here

Since forming circa 2012, Ha the Unclear have built a loyal following internationally and in Aotearoa, broken into the Top 10 on the Aotearoa Albums Chart, been nominated twice for the APRA Silver Scroll, and have supported The Shins and toured with Courtney Barnett and The Dandy Warhols.

After showcasing at MaMA Festival and signing to a French imprint, the band made their European debut in 2024 with a headline Paris show at Supersonic, plus dates supporting Lime Garden (Paris) and Feldup (Nantes). A Kingdom in a Cul-de-Sac was praised by Le Figaro, Libération, Télérama, Rock & Folk and Rolling Stone France, with rotation on France Inter, FIP and Europe 2.

The Astigmatic! EP will be followed by a full LP in 2027.

Astigmatic! is available to pre-order via Bandcamp

PRAISE FROM MEDIA:

Spontaneous, electrifying and kind. – Rolling Stone France
Never encumbered by any pretence. – Le Figaro
Hook-laden, vocally rich. – Rolling Stone AU/NZ
Cheerfully oblivious but secretly smart – Radio New Zealand
Infectious pop music with lyrics that are as quirky as they are heartfelt. Irresistible. – François Gorin (Télérama) (Translated from French)