photo by Ben Umstead
Local tourist
Finding inspiration in tender psychedelia, existential poetry & literature, and the woollier, more expansive realm of the punk rock canon, Local Tourist have fashioned a sound out of defiant vulnerability.
In 2018, US born songwriter - and group leader - Erin Umstead found herself in Christchurch, New Zealand. Curious about the music scene, she started frequenting local venue Darkroom where she met bassist/guitarist Joe Sampson (Salad Boys, T54) and drummer Rory Dalley (Ben Woods Group). They would regularly bump into each other at gigs and quickly became friends. Erin knew just who could help bring her songs to life, so by April 2019 Local Tourist had arrived.
The three fell quickly into step, fleshing out Umstead’s sparse, intimate songs before taking to the road with Sampson’s Salad Boys. However, visa complications halted any chance of extensive touring and Erin was forced to leave her adopted home with little warning, but not before the group put their work to tape. Tracking an entire album's worth of material was done over Erin’s last few days in New Zealand.
That album is Other Ways of Living, released by Lovers Weekend Records and the New Zealand label Melted Ice Cream in April, 2022.
Co-produced by Umstead & Sampson, Other Ways of Living feels both hushed and pronounced, earthy and otherworldly. The songs themselves open gradually with a wary strength, like battered coastal flowers in the morning sunlight. Sampson and Dalley underpin Umstead’s steady slow burners with understated, unfurling interplay. At once Umstead’s voice is the centerpiece – holding low and sagacious while ember-glow guitars smolder with an almost devotional quality. The effect is warming. A peaceful pull inward.
But it’s the attention to detail here which most enchants: the candescent, ever-so-warbled guitar tones, Umstead’s sedate phrasing, the perfectly luminous production throughout. Perhaps the album’s greatest feat is the way it leans into dark spaces without ever falling on oppressive terrain. Rather, each song maintains a steady flame, buoyant like proud little boats atop uneasy seas.
With Other Ways of Living Local Tourist have offered up a gentle burner for all seasons.
