Builders is a New Zealand band formed in 1980, a collective of musicians who issued self-recorded 7-inch vinyl releases that led to Beatin Hearts, recorded in 1982 and the first studio album on the Flying Nun Records label. The group’s early names, including Die Bilder, Bilderbergers, Soluble Fish, Feast of Frogs and High Thirties Piano, reflect a playful resistance to fixed branding. The band does not keep a steady profile, and long stretches can pass without a performance, yet it has continued to release music, including High 30s Piano (recorded in 1981 and 1982, released in 2012), CoNCH3(1985) and Divina Comedia (1989). A remastering and reissue push in 2018 returned Cut to circulation on vinyl, and Beatin Hearts has also been reissued on vinyl. After intensive work with Alex McManus and Matthew Swanson in 2023 and 2024, the band released the vinyl LP Dustbin of Empathy in 2024, followed by Neverlasting in 2025. The band has toured New Zealand, the United States and Europe, and “The Alligator Song” gained cult status on New Zealand student radio, while later releases on labels such as Grapefruit, Sophomore Lounge and Zelle Records have kept its recordings in circulation.
