Tora
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Tora

It seems that every band you talk to has a story about Glastonbury. About the size of a small city partying it up with 135,000 of your closest friends, what could go wrong right?

Although Jo Loewenthal doesn’t really remember much, from all reports by his fellow bandmates it was a great experience. In the midst of their 100-city tour which took them across the world racking up 55,000 kilometres, it was a slightly altered experience due to the party culture of the festival.

“We were playing at Glasto on the Sunday and decided it would be cool to camp there on the Saturday night. I went off to this party with a whole stack of random people and it was about an hour before everyone realised I had the keys to our van in my pocket,” he says, disaster looming.

“The rest of the band had to slum it sleeping under the van until my return. With not much sleep, we hit the stage to play a great set. It was only after our set that we realised the Dalai Lama was speaking after us. Security was tight and we were sectioned into our green room for an hour before we could go and get some food. It’s not everyday you can say you supported the Dalai Lama.”

Having spent the best part of 2015 on the road across Europe and the US, Tora are back in the country once again and are set to tour their latest single ‘Poly Amor’. Currently relaxing in the Byron Bay weather, the band are in the full swing of producing their debut LP.

“We are hanging out working on some new material at the moment and things are sounding great. The songwriting for our debut record is complete and we are in the mixing and playing around with different sounds and things [stage]. It’s hard to say when we’re going to release it but I think sometime next year. It’s probably about 60% of the way there and if you come out to these shows on tour, you will definitely be hearing a lot of new stuff,” Loewenthal says.

It’s a great success story. What was once a small time electronic act from regional NSW (Mullumbimby to be exact), the group are now slaying it all around the world. The name Tora is derived from the Greek language translating as ‘now’. From just one look at their accomplishments thus far, their time is definitely that. With twenty-thousand Facebook likes, the catalyst of the big time came when they uploaded their track ‘These Eyes’ to Soundcloud. Within three weeks, it was listened to 120 thousand times and from there, the only way was up.

“It was crazy how quickly people were getting around that track,” he says.

“We had no idea that it was going to be that well received. We are creating music that we want to listen to and we are so humbled by the amount of people that are enjoying what we do. “

Over the course of the next month, Tora will hit the road with dates in both metropolitan and regional centres – the latter including Geelong.

“This tour is going to be fantastic. It’s a really exciting time for us as a band and we can’t wait to show you our new record sometime in 2017. Come out and dance Forte, you won’t regret it, I promise.”
Written by Tex Miller

When & Where: Workers Club, Geelong – August 18, Workers Club, Melbourne – August 19 & Tap House, Bendigo – August 20