Tora (band)

2006-2012: Early Career

All future Tora band members: Jai Piccone, Jo Loewenthal, Shaun Johnston, Thorne Davis and Tobias Tunis-Plant attended Shearwater Steiner School in Mullumbimby, a small New South Wales town. In 2006 while still at high school, they formed an indie-rock band with Loewenthal on lead guitar and vocals, Tunis on drums and Johnston on bass guitar; it was later named, Alice Blu. In 2010 the three left Shearwater to attain a diploma in contemporary music served by Northern Rivers Conservatorium Arts Centre (NRCAC). While completing the course they continued to perform as Alice Blu, including supporting gigs by the Beautiful Girls and by Daryl Braithwaite. According to Loewenthal "The business classes helped us a lot with negotiating gigs and money and knowing how to promote ourselves."

2012-2013: Formation

In mid-2012 Loewenthal began experimenting in Melbourne with electronic music using Reason software and still working full-time in call centre. He reconnected with Davis. Tunis-Plant was travelling Europe and developing new song ideas while Johnston was undertaking a Bachelor of Audio Engineering at John Martin Cass Academy. At the end of that year, Davis and Loewenthal moved back to Byron Bay; "After moving back up from Melbourne, we decided to make a more electronic-fused band and incorporate electronic production." From October Loewenthal and Tunis-Plant rekindled their songwriting partnership for electronic-infused music. In January of the following year, Loewenthal began teaching music to Piccone, which developed into a songwriting partnership. When Johnston returned from Melbourne in May 2013, Tora officially formed as a five piece band. The group's name is from the Greek word τώρα tṓra meaning "now". They released their first single, "Unobtainable", co-written by Loewenthal and Tunis-Plant.

Loewenthal later recalled, "we just started making music in our bedroom, which was like a big granny flat sort of thing. The first Tora track we made in four days – 'Unobtainable' – it just came together and we were like 'wow'. Electronic music is so much more fun to play and make... So we made that track then stewed on it, then made heaps of tracks – then after a while we just decided to put them up and see what people thought. We got a much better reaction than we'd ever had for Alice Blu – so we were a bit excited about that." According to Byron Bay Festival's correspondent, they played a "blend of ambient harmonies, layered rhythms and pulsing soundscapes." Aside from electronica they perform in the new-age genre, chillwave.

2013: Debut extended play

Tora released their debut self-titled seven-track extended play in October 2013, which had "swirling, electronica influenced pop, drawing from the likes of SOHN & James Blake". Crack in the Road reviewer, Josh, opined that the group were "rather bizarre in a way, in that they’re seemingly the opposite of the 'make a shit load of noise' model, keeping it somber yet beautiful, opting to rely on minimal, sparse beats and haunting vocals." The band received high rotation on national radio as the single, "Calming Her", was entered in the Triple J Unearthed competition. It received 100,000+ plays in its first three months of release. The band was invited to play their first large scale performance, at Falls Festival Byron Bay, on NYE.

2014: Eat the Sun

March 2014 Tora released their single, "These Eyes", which received 120,000+ plays within the first three weeks with support from blogs. It was written by Loewenthal and Tunis-Plant. Amrap's AirIt's reviewer described the track, "The vocal soothes our soul, and reminds us we still have one. We're not left waiting for a drop or a climax because all we want is for the chill wave to continue indefinitely. Vocal cutting, lush synths and xylophone attach to your psyche, leaving you nothing but residual warmth." The release was followed up with a tour across some of the state capital cities (Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne) in April 2014. Over the next few months Tunis began working with female vocalist Merryn Jeann from fellow band, Potato Potato. According to Loewenthal, "most of the song was created in our bedrooms." Soon after her vocals were developed into a track titled 'Overcome ft. Merryn Jeann' which was released early July 2014 and marked as the most successful release the band had made at this point, receiving huge blog action from channels like 'TheSoundYouNeed'. A month earlier Tora won the regional leg of the Unearthed competition; consequently they opened the main stage at Splendour in the Grass, Byron Bay.

September 2014 Tora accepted a support slot with Miami Horror on their "Wild Motion (Set it Free)' tour again playing Australia's major cities. On return Tora released their second EP, Eat the Sun, in November 2014 with tracks "from candle-lit R&B jams, to soothing, electronically laced ballads." They embarked on a national tour with their Sydney and Port Macquarie performances completely sold-out. The year finished up with a run of shows at 'The Falls Arts & Music Festival 2014' in Byron Bay with Tora on the line-up along with bands such as Alt-J, Jamie XX, BadBadNotGood & Glass Animals. Their tracks, "Overcome" (featuring Potato Potato), "Admire", "Jigantic" and "High Enough", have received high rotation on national radio station, Triple J's playlist.

2015: International Tour

Attracting worldwide attention with over 2 million streams on Soundcloud alone Tora embarked on an international tour in April 2015. In June they were at the Canadian Music Week after having performed in Los Angeles, New York, Montreal, Quebec and Sherbrooke. Starting with the 'High Enough' tour in Canada the band continued through to Europe for the summer playing internationally acclaimed festivals, such as The Great Escape Festival in Brighton, Fusion Festival in Germany, and Glastonbury Music Festival in UK alongside acts such as Pharrell Williams, The Who, Glass Animals, Jon Hopkins, & Jack Garratt. August 25 the quintet release an original work titled “LATP” Early October the band returned to Canada for another run of shows before finishing up in America with CMJ Festival in New York City and a North American tour with fellow Australian band SAFIA. The European leg of their tour, from July to September, was filmed by Carlos Walters for his Vimeo documentary, Tora European Tour Diary 2015. As summarised by Loewenthal on the band's return home "193 days, almost 80 shows and over 50,000km of driving."

Musical style

With their sounds having been compared to the likes of SOHN, Toro Y Moi and James Blake. Tora's music is a blend of ambient harmonies, layered rhythms and pulsing soundscapes. A beautiful homage to the new genre of Chillwave.

Labels, Agencies & Management

Extended plays

Singles