King Stingray Have Started Recording Album #2

King Stingray have confirmed that work on their second studio album is officially underway.

READ MORE: King Stingray: “When We Heard People Singing Back It Was Like, ‘What The Hell?’”

The news came by way of a casual post on social media, sharing a series of photos of themselves recording at The Grove Studios in Sydney. It’s a new setting for the surf-rock stalwarts, who recorded their self-titled debut album in a handful of shops between the Northern Territory, Brisbane and Byron Bay.

That album was also self-produced by guitarist and vocalist Roy Kellaway, who appears to have a close hand in putting LP2 together (several of these new shots show him sitting at a recording console).

King Stingray’s eponymous debut arrived in August of 2022, with six singles hyping it up to be one of the year’s biggest releases. We heard our first preview of the album, Hey Wanhaka, all the way back in October of 2020, followed by Get Me Out in January of 2021, then Milkumana that August, Camp Dog in March of 2022, Let’s Go that June, and finally Lupa at the start of August.

The album was met with universal acclaim, peaking at #6 on the ARIA Charts and earning King Stingray a suite of prestigious awards. In addition to the 2022 Australian Music Prize, the band won three titles at last year’s AIR Awards, three National Indigenous Music Awards (one in 2022 and two in 2023), and a National Live Music Award. They also won the Michael Gudinski Breakthrough Artist Award at the 2022 ARIAs, and came first in that year’s Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition.

Meanwhile, the band were recently shortlisted for the 2024 APRA Song Of The Year, earning a nod for their recent standalone single Lookin’ Out (which hit streaming platforms last June). Earlier this year, too, they locked in a new clothing collaboration with Billabong.

Reviewing a show of theirs in April 2022, Mick Radojkovic wrote for TheMusic.com.au: “There seemed to be little nerves, despite playing to what is surely one of their biggest audience yet. Their songs, representing camp-life, being one people, coming together and generally uplifting subjects, combined with a stomping guitar and driving drums, ensured the rock-thirsty crowd's appetite was sufficiently whetted.”