Lanky Announces ‘Wait’ 2026 Remastered Reissue

Born from friendship, a shared desire to make music outside the mainstream, Lanky’s Wait finally emerges on limited-edition vinyl – a fitting tribute to the late Jim Laing and a musical collaboration and friendship that spanned decades.

Newly remastered by Angus McNaughton, Wait is out on November 20th on limited edition vinyl via Flying Nun Records and Holiday Records. This is the first time the album will be released digitally and on vinyl, after the Arch Hill CD release in 2000, and includes two unreleased tracks; How Sweet and Big Plans.

Pre-Order Wait (White Vinyl) Here

Pre-Order Wait (Orange Vinyl) Here

It all began with a meeting between musicians Jim Laing (Jean-Paul Sartre Experience) and Robert Key (The Cake Kitchen, The Expendables, David Kilgour’s Heavy Eights) in the mid-1980’s; Robert recalls it was most likely at an orientation gig in Dunedin featuring JPSE and The Cake Kitchen. What followed was a deep friendship and creative partnership built around a shared affinity for melodic grooves, drawing from the low-glow worlds of post-punk, alt-country, glam and soul, with influences ranging from Marvin Gaye to Neil Young.

The collaboration took its first significant step when Jim invited Robert to play drums on a song he was developing. That track was Wait – a song that would become the foundation of Lanky and remain central to its story for years to come.

In the early 1990’s, following Robert’s overseas stint with Stalker Stilt Theatre, the pair found themselves back in Auckland, both between bands and eventually sharing a flat. The city’s live music scene had changed considerably. Venues had closed, nightlife was increasingly moving underground, and DJ-driven clubs were taking precedence over guitar-based live bands.

But for Jim and Robert, the desire to create music remained. Returning to basics, they began recording songs on four-track cassette in their lounge before graduating to an eight-track reel-to-reel setup in the basement studio Jim and Buzz Moller (Voom) had established on Elmstone Avenue. Working outside the prevailing musical trends, they continued to develop their own sound, driven by instinct, collaboration and a shared love of songwriting.

The next stage took them to Frisbee Studios on Symonds Street, where they locked themselves away in a former bank vault for a couple of weeks and emerged with a new track, Amazon. In 1997, they headed to Airforce Studio with bass player Tony de Raad (David Kilgour’s Heavy Eights) and producer Nick Roughan (Skeptics) to record the single Wait. By 1998, with a growing collection of songs, they entered Arch Hill Studios to record with fellow musicians Tony de Raad, Noel Ward (David Kilgour’s Heavy Eights, The Strangeloves) and Ed Case producing.

Wait was eventually released on CD in 2000 via Arch Hill Recordings (see original artwork pictured).

Lanky marked the occasion with just two release gigs, one in Auckland and one in Wellington, followed by occasional appearances at the Squid Bar and the Kings Arms. With so few live performances, the band remained something of an underground secret – a small but significant project that quietly existed beyond the spotlight.

Someone who was witness to the unassuming Lanky magic was Jim’s partner, Caroline Herdson: “It was a fair bit of both Jim and Robert sitting around chatting and drinking coffee. Talking about all sorts, then maybe something to do with the music. The title of a song. Or some idea for artwork. But just briefly and lightly as though neither of them really cared. That’s how Jim came across to do with music. The thing he cared about hugely he made light of and almost pretended he wasn’t doing. But that’s what he did almost every evening, go out to the hut or the garage and make music. “

As Aotearoa music journalist Angela Walker originally said about the album in her PAVEMENT article, “Listening to Wait, it should become clear that this isn’t a record that’s been rushed or brought to fruition prematurely. It has the feel of a group of songs that belong together, songs that have been given time to grow and mature. It’s an album that possesses only a faint sense of a hand delicately pushing it along, guiding it to a natural conclusion. And it’s a conclusion that reveals beautifully-crafted pop songs that revel in their space and freedom.”

In 2010, Jim and Robert revisited their partnership with enough new material for another album. Rhythm tracks were recorded with Nick Roughan at Jim and Caroline’s place at Muriwai Beach, with overdubs beginning at Roughan’s studio in 2011. Four songs for the new album were brought close to completion before the demands of everyday life intervened, momentum faded, and the recordings were sadly shelved.

By late 2015, the pair were preparing for another creative reboot, returning to the spirit of where Lanky had begun. They were trying to find time in their schedules to get together and play when tragedy struck; Jim died suddenly in 2016 while running in the Muriwai pine forests.

Caroline looks back on this time: “When Jim died, Robert and I played the Wait album over and over. Drinking whisky, his voice still with us. The poignancy of Under the Pines. Then I kept playing it over and over in the car with the girls.”

The photograph of Jim and Robert beneath those same Muriwai pines would decades later become the upcoming Wait album cover – an image that captures something of the friendship, the landscape and the enduring connection behind the music.

The limited-edition vinyl reissue of Wait brings this long, largely overlooked chapter of New Zealand music back into the light. Initially considering a digital-only release to simply put the music out into the world, Robert was encouraged by Ben Howe’s (Flying Nun Records / Arch Hill Records) suggestion to press the record on vinyl – a format that feels particularly fitting for a project shaped by patience, intimacy and a genuine love of music.

More than two decades after its original CD release, Wait stands as both a document of Lanky’s creative journey and a tribute to Jim Laing: a musician, friend and collaborator whose influence continues to resonate through the songs they made together.

There may be more to come, with some of the unreleased recordings potentially finding their way onto digital platforms in the future.

For now, the vinyl release of Wait offers an opportunity to rediscover Lanky – a band that may have flown under the radar, but whose music has endured through friendship, memory and the quiet persistence of a shared creative vision. Wait is out on the 20th of November via Flying Nun Records and Holiday Records.