Tora's Jo Loewenthal On Gaining 'Resident Evil' Star Milla Jovovich's Attention

Byron Bay electronic groovesters Tora have made an album out of globetrotting. Can't Buy The Mood has songs calling for empathy and civility in the digital age, an age of international volatility and political discord. 

Tora – frontman Jo Loewenthal, guitarist Jai Piccone, bassist Shaun Johnston and drummer Thorne Davis – are following 2017's acclaimed debut, Take A Rest. But, as they prepare to tour behind Can't Buy The Mood, a relaxed Loewenthal is, ironically, laying down roots in Europe. "Basically, we've had a promo trip the last couple of months. Then, at the end of that, we decided to take a quick break before we go back to Australia for the album tour. So, right now, I'm just in Amsterdam myself, in my new home here, actually. I've been painting all week. Jai is in Italy, Shaun is in Switzerland, and Thorne is in Bali, so we're all spread around for a week or two and then we'll meet back in Australia next week." 

For Loewenthal, the pull to the Netherlands isn't random – his girlfriend is Dutch. "I've been back and forth for the last three years, but now we've got a proper base. So I think next year I'll be moving here a bit more permanently, or at least basing myself out of here." 

He enjoys strolling around his continental surrounds. "In Amsterdam there's just so many beautiful canals and streets and parks – it's almost like a theme park or something."

In fact, Loewenthal was born in London but settled in Byron Bay with his family as a child. Attending an alternative education Steiner school, he started the indie-rock outfit Alice Blu with mates. Later, during a brief stint in Melbourne, the multi-instrumentalist embraced electronica. Back in Byron, Alice Blu morphed into Tora in 2013. The group benefited from the exposure of streaming platforms, gigging globally, and performing at Glastonbury as early as 2015. Between commitments, Loewenthal has dabbled with solo projects (the latest, as JPL) and produced GRAACE.

Tora's maturity as a band is apparent on Can't Buy The Mood. The quartet do wear their influences on their sleeves, with Mother Forgot and the title track echoing a hymnic James Blake. But, compared to Take A Rest, Can't Buy The Mood is less chillwavey than gorgeous, textural electro-jazz. It broaches math-rock, but without the pretentiousness. "We probably focused a bit more on the songwriting for this one but, from a production point of view, we did things quite similarly," Loewenthal reflects. "What we learnt from the first album was that the songs that had the strongest message and the strongest hooks, without any production, were the ones that seemed to stand the test of time."

Tora initially developed material together, vibing in "a nice lounge room" in Byron. However, Loewenthal also embarked on "writing trips" to Europe and the US. The cred British producer Roy Kerr – in demand since his work on London Grammar's breakthrough If You Wait – is credited on Deviate, the album's soulfully mellow lead single (and opener) about the vulnerabilities of social media. Curiously, only Loewenthal and Piccone were present for the session with the "humble" Kerr at London's RAK Studios (Piccone, who models as a side hustle, was booked for London Fashion Week). "What I found really fascinating about Roy was a lot of the genius is in his ability to hear what is powerful and what sounds like something people will resonate with. So a lot of it was just Jai and I playing things and then Roy kind of saying, 'No, no, no, keep going; keep trying stuff.' That was a really interesting experience to have: somebody giving you this feedback that you can trust."

Loewenthal is personally attached to the acoustic ballad Similar. "It touches on the long-distance relationship that I've had over the last three years. The overwhelming message in the end is that, when you have a connection with somebody, distance shouldn't be a boundary or a barrier, because it's worth it when you find something special. It's really worth sticking it out." 

He composed the cut while lonely. "I was sitting there one night in Australia – I think it was about midnight, in the middle of August. It was a cold night. I was missing my girlfriend and the song literally just came out in the course of five hours. By the time I went to bed – I remember looking at the clock, as I turned the computer off – it was 5am and the song was written."

Being independent, Tora have assumed most of the "tasks" that a label traditionally facilitates, including mixing, mastering, art direction, branding and digital marketing. Loewenthal values the industry knowledge he acquired at music college. Still, funding Tora has been challenging. "We have had to raise money. Sometimes we've had to get loans from the bank, like we use [a] credit card. Or sometimes one of us will come across some money from a different outlet, like another career path or whatever. But we've invested a lot of our own money into the band." 

That, he admits, has amounted to "hundreds of thousands of dollars". "If it doesn't go right, you're not gonna get that [money] back. But that is just the nature of the beast. I think that keeps us with enough skin in the game to really give our energy to the project, and that's what drives us to do everything to the highest standard possible that, I guess, our talents extend to." 

Fortunately, Tora is now financially "self-perpetuating".

Tora were rapt last year when the Hollywood star Milla Jovovich, herself a musician, praised them online – a PR fantasy. "There was just a couple of times where she was commenting on our Instagram and [there was] a bit of back-and-forth banter, which was interesting. Then a couple of months later she did the video clip with [fellow Byron band] Parcels [Withorwithout]. I think maybe she has some sort of attraction to Byron Bay because she seems to be aware of the music that's coming out of there."