Two-piece indie pop-rock band This Way North are heading somewhere exciting, and the music they create makes you want to join these two van-lifers on the road.
It’s been three years since Jungalwalla and Leahy traded their bricks-and-mortar homes for life on the road, and that spirit of adventure and unbridled joy has taken up permanent residence in their music.
Since their last release in 2018, This Way North, named Music Victoria’s Best Regional/Outer Suburban Act in the same year, has continued full-time touring across Australia, New Zealand and Canada, supporting a huge number of well known artists, including Ash Grunwald and Kate Ceberano. They’ve enjoyed killer sets at Australia’s favourite local festivals, including Queenscliff, Mullumbimby, Woodford, Port Fairy, and are now also making a name for themselves in the Canadian festival circuit.
The duo released standalone single Night Terrors late last year, which was picked up for play by community and ABC radio around the country.
In October 2020, This Way North will release their new EP. Vol 3, the ultimate instalment in a trilogy of EPs (joining 2016’s EP Vol. 1 and 2018’s EP Vol. 2). Recorded in Nashville in January 2020 (prior to showcasing at the Folk Alliance International Conference in New Orleans), EP Vol. 3 was produced by Brad Jones (Skipping Girl Vinegar, Justin Townes Earle, Bob Evans), and is, at its heart, a celebration, reminding us that things were once ok, and will be once again.
Full of rapturous nostalgia, This Way North’s music takes you from moody, tremolo-tinged heart-tuggers to pounding driving alt-psych rock through a sonic landscape of reverb-soaked guitars and rolling rhythms. With odes to 90’s rock sitting on air-tight grooves and full, cinematic spaciousness, This Way North’s music is a portal to summer festivals, their love affair with the road, and an open invitation to turn up the volume and let loose.