Indietracks interview #20: Urbantramper

For today's interview, we're joined by Urbantramper, a five piece ‘future folk’ band from New Zealand. They'll be playing Indietracks on the Saturday afternoon, and you can expect beautiful boy/girl harmonies, well-structured pop songs, psychedelic jams, soulful ballads and driving beats!

Currently based in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, Urbantramper have been performing and recording for eight years. They are: Lake (vocals, acoustic guitar, melodica, harmonica), Eli (vocals, tambourine, glockenspiel), Tristan (bass, backing vocals), Ben (drums/percussion) and Maz (trombone, backing vocals, percussion).

The band have released four albums, and the release of their fourth album, ‘Rise & Ride Toward’ was celebrated with a sold out tour of New Zealand last November. The band have also recently released a new EP, ‘The Workers Album’, which is available on a ‘pay what you want’ basis. Their appearance at the Indietracks festival is part of their summer 2010 tour of Europe.

Hi, tell us a little bit about yourselves

We're a 'future folk' band from New Zealand. We play, write, perform and record music... We try and capture emotions/experiences, that are felt or perceived, and present them in a digestible, aesthetically pleasing format. Our goal is to stimulate feeling in our listeners; be it that of concurrence with the emotion we attempt to convey, or of reaching a place hitherto not explored. To play, write, perform and record with ardour and respect for our subject, ourselves, our listeners and the artform itself; we acknowledge our responsibility to all...

What music are you enjoying at the moment?

The Mountain Goats, Phoenix Foundation (NZ), Seth Frightening (NZ), The Creaky Drawers (NZ), Jeffrey Lewis.

Do you have any exciting plans for the rest of the year?

We're touring Europe, then going to live in France.

What attracted you to play the Indietracks festival?

A fellow Wellington musician 'Disasteradio' recently played at Indietracks.

Thanks guys. We’ll leave you with the band’s most recent video, Ode To The Public Servant.