Tora released their debut album Take A Rest today! Jo Loewenthal from the band shared what inspired the title of the album, their travels around the globe and what they have in store when they finish up their tour.
Your debut album Take a Rest is coming out soon. Is it exciting to finally get it out?
Damn right it’s exciting, we’ve been working towards this for a very long time, we can pretty much taste it now.
What inspired the title of the album?
After touring for 7 months straight in 2015, we decided to come home and 'Take A Rest' while we finished the album. But the title is an invitation to the listener to sit down, put in their headphones and Take A Rest from their daily problems.
You've spent the last few years travelling a bit, how did your travels inspire the album?
Every experience we’ve had over the last 2-3 years has contributed to this album. A bunch of the songs on the album were started while we were touring but a lot of the writing happened when we got back home and had time to reflect on our travels. We’ve done so many stupidly long drives, to get to places we never even knew existed, to play our music to all kinds of people. We’ve had times where we’ve been too broke on tour to even book a place to sleep, so ended up sleeping under the stars freezing cold. But we made so many friends along the way and learned so many valuable lessons from it all and basically packed all that inspiration into ‘Take A Rest’.
Is there any city in particular that inspires you the most?
There are so many I can’t choose one haha, but I really really love Berlin, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Oslo.
You've got tour dates coming up after the album. Is there a song from the project that you can't wait to debut live?
Personally I am really looking forward to performing ‘Too Much’ because it’s a song that I think is quite easy to sing along to, so hopefully, I’ll have some help from the crowd with that one.
After wrapping up the tour, are you heading back overseas?
Yes, we are heading back over to Europe in September for a bunch of shows and will likely be travelling to other places in the not too distant future.
You can catch Tora at the below shows:
23rd June - Howler - Melbourne
24th June - Oxford Art Factory - Sydney
30th June - Brightside - Brisbane
1st July - The Northern - Byron Bay
7th July - Jive Bar - Adelaide
8th July - Amplifier Bar - Perth
9th July - Mojo's - Fremantle
