TRADITIONAL TOURIST (1993 - 2009)
Band was formed in 1993 by musicians of different origens (Canada, Catalunya, UK, France). Traditional Tourist became a cult band in Barcelona and had a resident gig every week at the Harlem Jazz Club where they build a stong fan base.
They recorded the main song of “Atolladero” with Iggy Pop and were opening act of Tina Turner and Kiko Veneno, and also the closing act at the emblematic Doctor Music Festival.
In the year 2000 the band broke up and every member followed his own musical carreer. They reunited in 2008 to celebrate their 15th anniversary and went on to play for another 2 years and landed another resident gig in a well known club in Barcelona Luz de Gas. During these time they released “This Time This Life” a double compilation CD with some inedited songs recorded on 8 track. A wonderful sonic document.
TRADITIONAL TOURIST - demo tape (1993)
In June of 1993 Santi had just joined the band and producer Alessandro Cecconi and engineer Al Theurer came to Barcelona to help us record our first record. We did basic tracks in Jan Cadela and the rest of the tracking and mixing was done in NY.
After the first 4 tracks were completed we went back to Jon Cadela and decided to record live in the same room in order to capture the raw energy of the band. We finally publish our first work on cassette which combined tracks from both recording sessions.
LIVE AT THE HARLEM JAZZ CLUB (1994)
Jaco Abel left for Amsterdam in January of 1994 but we decided to keep working as a trio. Daniel and Sonia offered us a steady gig every Saturday at the Harlem Jazz Club. We immediately got a good response from the crowd and decided to record a live CD. It was done with an 8 track the 14th and 15th of April 1994.
The bonus track “Fire Fish” was recorded by Rudi Gnutti at Quadrophenia Studios and Manolo Gil helped out on nylon string guitar.
TRADITIONAL TOURIST - EP (1995)
We had done a few demos and got the opportunity to record with Didier Richard in Pac Studios. We recorded 3 songs but still had a lot of guitars and vocals to finish. I felt too much pressure and needed some help so Didier proposed that we’d call Jean Paul so he came to the studio one afternoon and we instantly connected, he tracked some beautiful guitars and vocals and was very helpful in production.
JP joined the band in December.
TRADITIONAL TOURIST - blue (1997)
After 3 years of numerous club dates and concerts we went on to record the Blue album.
We wanted to keep a real intuitive feeling to the record so we booked a couple of weeks in Aurha Studios and went in without rehearsing ready to improvise. Most of the arranging and producing was done on the spot and a lot of the lyrics were actually finished during the recording sessions.
I think we truly captured the spirit of the songs.
THIS TIME... THIS LIFE (2008)
After the 8 year breakup Traditional Tourist reunites to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the band and go on playing a series of concerts around Catalunya and Barcelona. They land a residency gig in the famous club Luz de Gas and decide to release a double cd.
This Time this life is a complete compilation of Traditional Tourist discography and some inedited 8 track demos. A wonderful sonic gem.