Psychedelic folk artist Tom Lark - the musical project of Shannon Fowler - will release his new album, Moonlight Hotel, on 4 April on vinyl and compact disc and has also announced his first live shows in Aotearoa since May 2024.
Moonlight Hotel is the artist’s second album and fans have already been given a sneak peak of the record, by way of the single ‘Dumb Luck’.
Steeped in the Tom Lark persona's whimsical yet pragmatic sensibility, Moonlight Hotel is an evolution of what his debut album, Brave Star, introduced: sun-drenched odes to taking things as they come and rolling with the punches.
Fowler was born in Ōtautahi and relocated to Tāmaki Makaurau in 2012, after a stint recording in Berlin. He works from his Okie Dokie Studio, situated just off Karangahape Road.

When I began writing ‘Dumb Luck’ I was thinking a lot about perseverance but also how funny ‘dumb luck’ is as a phrase. Despite hard work, sometimes things don’t pay off and other times things work out in total naiveté, for no other reason than some weird cosmic alignment. That said, I don’t really subscribe to the idea of ‘dumb luck’. Instead perhaps being ‘lucky’ is the ability to make the best of the circumstances as they present themselves; maybe luck is no more than finding a silver lining.
Shannon Fowler