Surprise Chef Shares ‘Inside Voice’ + ‘Outside Voice’, Two-Part Opening To New Album ‘Frogs In A Pond’

Surprise Chef share Inside Voice and Outside Voice, the two-part opening to their forthcoming album Frogs In A Pond, out October 23 on Concord Jazz.

The Naarm-based instrumental quartet will preview their new album with a series of shows down the east coast through September and October, including a special release day celebration at Quadraphonic Club in Brunswick, VIC. This run of shows was intentionally put together to take them through some very different venues. They wanted to play rooms that reflect the different sides of their music, from intimate band rooms to listening spaces with world-class sound, to feel how each room shapes their tracks. A North American tour will follow, marking their fourth time traversing the U.S.

Inside Voice and Outside Voice follow the album’s first single, Leg Day, a funk-studded introduction to Frogs In A Pond that arrived last month. The tracks offer a window into the cinematic world of Frogs In A Pond, a lush, intricately crafted 40-minute suite inspired in part by Italian giallo cinema and European film composers of the 1960s and ’70s. Surprise Chef approached the record as a continuous body of work rather than a collection of standalone songs, imagining it as the soundtrack to a film that doesn’t exist.

Written early in the making of Frogs In A Pond, Inside Voice and Outside Voice became a foundation for the mood and flow of the album. They share, “Understanding when to use one’s inside voice and when to use one’s outside voice is a highly beneficial skill for living.”

The band originally wrote the pieces as a single composition before splitting them in two with the record’s sequencing in mind. Inside Voice functions like the theme to a film’s opening sequence, while Outside Voice follows as the world of Frogs In A Pond begins to unfold. Leon Michels contributes flute, appearing on several songs across the album.

Frogs In A Pond was recorded over a continuous nine-day session at Surprise Chef’s College of Knowledge studio in Melbourne, where three members of the group also reside. It was recorded almost entirely live with minimal overdubs. The instrumentation includes drums, electric bass, electric guitar, nylon acoustic guitar, piano, clavinet, Arp Odyssey, vibraphone and tuned wood blocks, inspired by European composers’ approach to film in the ‘60s and ‘70s that opted for small ensembles over orchestras. Great care was taken in the sequencing of the album, establishing a flow was as crucial as each individual song. Listeners will notice rhythmic and melodic motifs interpolated with different instruments throughout.

Frogs In A Pond follows 2025’s Superb, featured on Rolling Stone Australia’s Best Albums of 2025 list. Surprise Chef have been celebrated across the globe for a sound informed equally by their isolation in Australia and their deep love for soul, hip-hop, funk, David Axelrod and other contemporary instrumental artists including Menahan Street Band. Highlights include support from KCRW, KEXP and Gilles Peterson, praise from Questlove, and festival appearances at Reeperbahn, Desert Daze, Pickathon and London Calling. They’ve been sampled for a collaboration between 88 Rising’s Rich Brian and Ghostface Killah, and provided the soundtrack to a Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime commercial.

Surprise Chef is guitarist Lachlan Stuckey, keyboardist Jethro Curtin, bassist Carl Lindeberg and drummer Andrew Congues, with producer/composer/percussionist/multi-instrumentalist Hudson Whitlock also on the recording. Special guest Leon Michels performs flute on several songs on Frogs In A Pond.

AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES
Thursday 24 Sept – Phoenix Central Park, Sydney, NSW
Friday 25 Sept – Crowbar, Sydney, NSW
Thursday 15 Oct – The Brightside, Brisbane, QLA
Friday 16 Oct – A&I Hall, Bangalow, NSW
Friday 23 Oct – Quadraphonic Club, Melbourne, VIC
Sunday 25 Oct – The Tote, Melbourne, VIC

TICKETS ON SALE HERE

Surprise Chef Frogs In A Pond – Out Oct 23 via Concord Jazz

Tracklist

1. Inside Voice
2. Outside Voice
3. Frog Technique
4. Knuckle Sandwich
5. I Love What You’ve Done With The Place
6. Get Well Soon
7. Rupture and Repair
8. The Reno
9. Tadpoles
10. Leg Day
11. Where the Crows Fly Backwards
12. Omnipresence
13. Frogs in a Pond