This will be the duo's second time at the Whanganui Musicians Club. Photo / Supplied
Hamilton folk duo Looking For Alaska are making their way to Whanganui next week, and they're bringing a full band with them.
Their second album, Light and Shadow, was released in November.
Singer and guitarist Aaron Gott said it was great to get the record out, but playing live had been put on hold while New Zealand dealt with the outbreak of Covid-19.
He and singer Amy Maynard made amends for that in 2021, however.
"We hit the road all through summer, doing a few full band shows and then a whole bunch around the South Island with just the two of us," Gott said.
"Sometimes, for economic reasons, it's not as viable to take the band along with us, but all our albums and recordings have a band on them so we try to have them with us when we can."
Light and Shadow is the follow up to the duo's 2016 self-titled debut album, which spent five weeks in the new Zealand album charts.
It pairs Gott and Maynard's immaculate harmonies with folk, country, and blues, and was recorded in Lyttelton with producer Ben Edwards.
"That was a really cool experience," Gott said.
"Ben works with a lot of folky people. He's done Marlon Williams records, Nadia Reid, some of Aldous Harding's earlier work, and Tami Nielson as well.
"We went in there with the songs written by me and Amy, but there was a lot of reworking in the studio and a lot of input from Ben and the other musicians.
One song (Where Have You Gone) ended up on the album twice.
"We went in there with it sounding one way and Ben said 'great song, but I hate how it sounds. Let's do it this way'.
"There's a groovy band version that has a 'Come Together' (The Beatles) feel to it, and there's also a stripped back version on there as well.
"We love both of them. They sound like totally different songs, and neither of them are the way we wrote it."
Recent touring has taken the band across the country, but Gott said they hadn't played much in New Zealand's main centres.
"Funnily enough, we've never done a gig in Wellington. I think the closest we got was Paekakariki.
"There haven't been that many Auckland shows either, we've just hit the smaller places like Whanganui and Hastings.
"We always get good crowds there and it just seems to be more fun."
As well as keeping Looking For Alaska ticking along, Gott said he and Maynard had other projects in the works as well.
"Amy has been super busy, and we're actually working on some music for her to put on her own - more pop oriented stuff.
"She's also put out a drum and bass song (Delirium) with a group called Flowidus which managed to get into the New Zealand charts in the past week or so."
Despite these other musical endeavours, Gott said Looking For Alaska wouldn't be straying into drum and bass territory any time soon.
"Amy grew up on country music and I come from more of a folk background. We meet in the middle there and we've stuck with it.
'We want to keep it going down a similar path."
• Looking For Alaska will be playing at the Whanganui Musicians Club on Friday, June 9, with support from Albi (Albi and the Wolves). The show begins at 8pm.