In November 2022, Princess Chelsea and her band The Dream Warriors recorded a one-day live session at Abbey Road’s Studio Two. Yes that room, made famous by The Beatles and Pink Floyd.
The ten-song performance was filmed by London-based Kiwi director Marc Swadel, alongside the team behind the legendary All Tomorrow’s Parties festival films. Studio Two was transformed by London artists Pat Grimm and Reuben Sutherland, who filled the space with more than 300 colourful balloons, creating a playful, surreal environment inside one of the most revered rooms in music history.
Today we present 'Time' from this session as a preview of what is to come. 'Time' illustrates the difference between studio and live performance in Princess Chelsea’s music, with her band The Dream Warriors beginning the song with a stripped-back acoustic guitar that gradually builds into a hypnotic chamber pop jam. The full magic of the space is captured via a 360-degree dolly shot, with musicians appearing through glass baffles providing extra depth and detail.
Princess Chelsea is joined by guest harpist Tara Viscardi and cellist Nathan Giorgetti, alongside The Dream Warriors: Jasmine Balmer, Joshua Worthington-Church, Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent (all multi-instrumentalists) David Harris (drums, bass), and Joe Kaptein (keys, bass).
The full one-hour visual special will be released in late February. The special leans heavily on Princess Chelsea’s latest album Everything Is Going To Be Alright, which went on to win the Taite Music Prize for outstanding artistic achievement and was recently voted #2 Best New Zealand Album of the 2020s by Rolling Stone. To accompany it, Lil' Chief Records has announced an exclusive yellow vinyl edition featuring selected songs from the session.
