Byron Bay isn’t often associated with electronic music. But local lads Tora are bucking the trend, trading the beachside surf rock status quo for chillwave beats and bass. Since 2013, the four-piece have racked up over 20 million online streams – courtesy of singles ‘Poly Amor’ and ‘Twice’, as well as EPs Eat The Sun and the eponymous Tora.
After touring extensively, appearing at esteemed UK festivals Glastonbury and The Great Escape, and premier German festivals Fusion and Reeperbahn, the boys from Byron have clocked up over 70 festival slots worldwide. And all this before a single album has dropped.
Now, after four years, their long-awaited debut full-length, Take A Rest, is out this week – and Jo Loewenthal, the band’s vocalist, is ecstatic to finally get it over the line.
“It’s been such a long time coming,” says Loewenthal. “There’s been so much anticipation for the last four or five years working towards our first full-length album – I think it’s going to feel amazing. It’s been almost an internal battle, wanting to share the ideas and songs with the world but having to control those urges and be patient.”
Fans will be happy to hear that the band hasn’t strayed too far from its previous sound. As writers, producers and mixers of the album, Tora control every aspect of their music – the key, according to Loewenthal, to keeping things distinctly Tora.
“I think that’s why this record has a familiar sound to previous music we’ve put out,” he says. “That said, we’ve definitely made a conscious effort to bring new elements to the table and keep it fresh and interesting.
“I feel like this time around we’ve put a bit more effort into everything. There’s been more energy put into the lyrics, the storytelling and the melodies that we work with.”
Loewenthal points out that Tora’s heightened focus on the writing itself aims to create music that people can relate to on a “simple, instinctual level”, citing a mix of their previous two EPs as a combining force for their current sound.
“The first EP was more focused on songwriting, and the second EP was more focused on production – I think this one is a good middle ground.”
The title of Take A Rest followed a period in which Tora stepped away from the stage to work at a more comfortable pace. After intensive touring in 2014/15, 2016 was the year Tora could finally “knuckle down and create”. From the listener’s perspective, Loewenthal adds, the name is simply a reflection of the album’s chilled-out state, a place where fans can “take a rest from everything else that’s going on in life”. It’s a far cry from ‘Evil Dolphin Laser Party’, one of Tora’s many “ridiculous ideas” for potential album names during a four-month deliberation period.
Their debut album might have been in the making since 2013, but Tora’s history actually stretches back even further. Back in 2006 at the Shearwater Steiner School in Mullumbimby, New South Wales, good mates Loewenthal, Toby Tunis (drums) and Shaun Johnston (bass) formed an indie rock band called Alice Blu, with a sound akin to The Kooks and Arctic Monkeys. In 2010, the trio left school early in pursuit of a career in music.
“The teacher just saw that I didn’t want to be there and thought I’d be better off doing a diploma in music – doing stuff that I’m passionate about instead of upsetting every teacher in every class,” Loewenthal remembers.
It’s been almost an internal battle, wanting to share the ideas and songs with the world but having to control those urges.
Loewenthal and Johnston spent 12 months in Melbourne – and with Tunis departing for Greece for a short while – but soon found themselves back in Byron. After recruiting Jai Piccone (vocals and guitar) – a former music student of Loewenthal’s and five years his junior – the foursome began a transition towards the sound they have today.
“We were really inspired by James Blake, Alt-J and Little Dragon at that time,” says Loewenthal. “That was when we started producing, trying to actually make music at the computer.
“So with Take A Rest it was just another step in that direction. At the same time, we wanted to make the album sound organic – a lot more vocals, guitar and drums in there, and sounds from the garden, sampling washing machines and kitchen utensils. Just weird stuff to make it sound like the environment that we were recording and producing in.”
According to Loewenthal, the album is more “dance-y” than previous Tora output, having been influenced by touring Europe and spending a lot of time in Germany – particularly the world capital of techno, Berlin. However, the band comprises a broad spectrum of individual tastes – from club bangers to mellow songwriting – and the resultant album is, as Loewenthal puts it, a “fusion of all our tastes mashed into one”.
But how much of the Tora sound – and by extension the writing process – is influenced by the wider world? In what many would consider dangerous and uncertain times, Loewenthal is resolutely defiant.
“There’s a lot of media focus on all of the bad things at the moment. My outlook on it all is quite positive. I think it’s easy to get caught up in negative things. Although there’s some daunting things happening, there are also so many technological advancements and colourful things happening.
“With that said, the stuff that’s going on in the world does obviously impact my personal mood. I have to admit I’ve been tempted to write songs that wake people up to some of the stuff that’s going on.”
Take A Rest is out Friday June 9 through Lustre. Tora play Oxford Art Factory on Saturday June 24.
