Introducing TOMORA: “Permission To Be Unhinged”

Aurora

The lineup for Coachella’s 2026 edition, featuring TOMORA, was announced on September 15, 2025. ‘Who dat?’ was the internet’s reaction, and a baffled Reddit thread ensued: Are TOMORA the first act to be announced on Coachella’s lineup before they’ve even released any music? 

It wasn’t until 4 December – when the mysterious electronic outfit dropped their debut single, Ring The Alarm, together with an official video clip produced and directed by Adam Smith and S T A R T ! (long-time Chemical Brothers collaborators) – that TOMORA’s identities were revealed: Tom Rowlands (one half of Chemical Brothers) and Norwegian glacial-pop artist/producer AURORA – hence their portmanteau moniker.

Although AURORA and Rowlands appear in different video tiles on Zoom, we find them both in the UK: she is somewhere in London, whereas he is “at home in the studio” (Rowlands Audio Research, Sussex) – where a lot of the TOMORA and Chemical Brothers magic happens.

They’re just a few days away from making TOMORA’s festival debut at Coachella. “It's going to be a very jet-lagged performance,” AURORA observes, “but sometimes they are the best; when you're the most delirious and tired…” 

“Discombobulated,” Rowlands offers, waving his arms around.

“...and then this energy just comes out of nowhere. So I think that's going to be a good thing. But we're not flying over there until…” 

“Friday?” Rowlands hesitates.

“Friday,” AURORA confirms, pouring the contents of a glass bottle into a white teacup.  

The first thing that struck me about TOMORA’s debut album, Come Closer, is the broad spectrum of moods encapsulated within, from airy, vocal-led musings (see: the title track) to bangers fit to accompany 5 am second-winds in basement clubs (see: the closing In A Minute). 

Sometimes, stark contrasts even coexist within a single song, but it’s somehow never jarring. During the standout Somewhere Else, AURORA’s angelic, stripped-back vocal part precedes the heaviest of drops before Rowlands’ trademark oscillating beats take it away. We're transported to a mystical woodland, nek minnit we're raving in a dingy warehouse. 

AURORA: “Exactly.” 

ROWLANDS: “TOMORA recognises that these are both valid experiences, they’re both as meaningful as each other.”

AURORA: “Both are good for the soul.” 

One thing’s for sure, Come Closer lands like a sonic journey, from go to “WHOA!” 

“As we were making it, we kind of realised that the songs had really strong identities,” Rowlands reflects. “We’d listen back and go, ‘Wow, this is the real distillation of this one idea,’ and the character in the song that AURORA brings to life was so evocative.”

When the pair started “weaving it all together”, Rowlands says they “put a lot of time and effort into making it all flow”. Putting on a corny voice, he offers, “‘It's an experience, man’ – is what we were going for,” before smiling broadly.

Given the record’s effortless flow, we wonder whether their setlist stays pretty true to the tracklisting. “I dunno what happened,” AURORA contemplates. “We really scrambled it all up, didn't we, Tom? But I think it works.” 

“We did, yeah,” he agrees. “The gigs we've played so far have been before the album came out [release date: 17 April]. So we just found a different way, didn't we?”

“Yeah, but we both had an agreement of, like, ‘Oh, this is how the album has to begin’,” AURORA recalls. “And then we were aware that, ‘Okay, now we maybe have to do some gigs.’ We kind of also knew without speaking, like, ‘This should be the first song, because that would be amazing.’ So, it's where this clarity is. And I dunno why, it's just written in the wind or whatever they say,” she trails off laughing.

Working on the live show for a brand new project has gotta be super-exciting, right? Where to begin?

“Where do you begin?” AURORA ponders. “The music, obviously. Thinking how it's going to feel, musically – it’s amazing to be in the crowd and on the stage. So isn't that kinda what we – what have we been thinking?” She leans towards the camera, knitting her brows and playfully handballing the question to Rowlands, who chuckles.  

“What have I been thinking? It's like a puzzle. We’ve both played a lot of concerts in our lives, and I think both of us are bringing our experience – and our different ways of making things – together. I love going to see AURORA's show; she has a very different structure to what she's trying to achieve when I've seen her play live. And she has this nice feeling at the end.

“Chemical Brothers’ end of the show is like some terrible – not terrible, but like everything's blowing up, and it's the end, and you're leaving a rubble behind you. Whereas AURORA has this nice concept that when you end the gig, you should be…” 

“Peaceful again,” AURORA interjects. 

“Peaceful, which I really like,” he commends. “When you did that Wembley show, I really, really loved how that finished.”

“Yeah, with all the worms falling on me,” AURORA recalls, laughing, before elaborating. “A pigeon died over the stage, and I had all these maggots. Anyways, that was Wembley. That's the past.” 

During her concert at OVO Arena Wembley on 3 May, 2025, maggots did indeed rain down from the stage’s ceiling. Post-show, AURORA posted the following on her Insta grid: “WEMBLEYYYY – even though actual maggots were falling on me, from the ceiling – during the whole show. Probably ‘cause of something dead hiding up there being eaten. It’s the nature of life.

BUT ANYWAYS I had the most wonderful time…”

“We both love the chance to make an experience,” Rowlands continues. “To make a feeling in a room is very dear to us both, and so we're both bringing in our experiences. And this set is like a mix of these two worlds, you know. I really respect when AURORA says, ‘No, at this point, we need to meditate. We need to just flow.’ Whereas my instinct is ‘gotta keep the [grunts while punching the air a couple of times] going’.” 

Gotta keep the punters pogoing, like at a Chemical Brothers show? “Yeah!” he enthuses. 

“But that's so nice with the two of us, ‘cause it's very new for me, too,” AURORA chimes in. “‘Cause I'm always like, in the beginning, easing the show in – ‘cause I like when things are like water – and then ease myself out; they won't even know that I'm off the stage. But then with this project, we have the perfect thing between, like, BAM! Which is so fun. I can't wait until we can know what we're doing – play the gig a bit more – and can really just [she exaggerates exhaling] – that's gonna be so nice.” 

Origin story: While watching Glastonbury from the comfort of his couch in 2016, Rowlands was completely captivated by AURORA’s performance. So much so that he emailed her to see whether she would be interested in appearing on Chemical Brothers’ then-in-the-works Grammy-winning album, No Geography.

She took a couple of weeks to respond, waiting until her serotonin and dopamine levels returned to normal, then wound up providing vocals on three tracks: Eve Of Destruction, Bango and The Universe Sent Me. Later, Rowlands contributed to production on AURORA's fourth record, What Happened to the Heart? (2024). Wishing to explore new creative horizons, the creatively simpatico pair then formed TOMORA.

Songwriting sessions for Come Closer took place between Norway and Rowlands Audio Research.

ROWLANDS: “We wrote some [songs] at – AURORA has this amazing studio at her parents’ house [in Norway], which looks out upon this fjord. And it's a very inspirational place to make music. It's beautiful to open up the window and the sound just...” 

AURORA: “And we made The Thing there, which kind of makes sense, ‘cause we were kinda like, ‘Woooo!’ when it was foggy outside – and mystical. But then Ring The Alarm, for example, were written in Tom's [studio].” 

ROWLANDS: “Hahahaha.”

AURORA: “But also Come Closer [the title track].” 

ROWLANDS: “Yes, very true.”

AURORA: “So a bit in Tom's studio, a bit in my studio. And we only made all the music together when we were both physically there in the room. So it's very human and made with human contact, which is really important, I think, to preserve these days.”

ROWLANDS: “For sure.” 

While listening to TOMORA’s debut record, we got a sense that boundless creativity was encouraged and all ideas were welcome. Is that how it felt during the creative process? 

AURORA: “Very.”

ROWLANDS: “But it's not like everything is welcome; it's a very specific thing between us is welcome, isn't it? It's not like anything goes. It's usually when AURORA makes a choice on a sound, or we're talking about a structure or an arrangement, it's very clear things she's doing that I respond to. It's not like, ‘Yeah, yeah, everything's cool.’ It's like, ‘Everything is not cool. But this thing, this specific thing you're doing – that's very cool.’ Hahahaha.

AURORA: “Yeah, it is very specific, but also very free. But I guess it's good to note that we don't kill the excitement of anything before it's allowed to be said or come out.”

ROWLANDS: “Yes.”

AURORA: “So it's freedom in exploring your ideas – just pouring them out – and then we become specific after. But I think it's nice: the permission to be unhinged, but specific. That's a very big thing in TOMORA land.”

Throughout the course of our chat, it’s clear that this duo’s friendship extends way beyond a creative kinship. When asked to share a couple of things they admire about each other's artistry, they respond effusively. 

ROWLANDS: “You go...”

AURORA: “Okay. Well, Tom is absolutely mental in the studio…” 

ROWLANDS: “Hahahaha.”

AURORA: “…and it’s really fun. He's a crazy man that enjoys making music so much and gets so excited over sounds and things. And as a producer myself, it's so fun to work with a producer that is so unhinged, you know? It is extremely inspiring and very fun. And we both just love each other to have so much space. 

“He's unhinged, but also so brilliant and so particular. It's just really, really wonderful. And I have been a fan of Tom for a long time. The soundtrack he [Chemical Brothers] did for Hanna is one of my favourite albums, actually – ever – in the world. And also, he is really gentle. 

“I was quite young when I met Tom for the first time, ten years ago, and we worked in the studio. And he is one of the people that you would say, ‘It's good! Always meet your heroes,’ would be the saying – if all your heroes were like Tom. Boom, take that!”

ROWLANDS: “Oh, boy, too much!” 

AURORA: “Hahaha, he can’t handle it.” 

Rowlands buckles and disappears from view for a couple of seconds before taking his turn. 

ROWLANDS: “I think what AURORA said about the unhingedness. To be in the studio with someone – we have a back and forth on that unhingedness, you know? Like, AURORA has that combination of freedom and flow – and a joy and an excitement in doing something in the studio – but she is also an incredible lyricist. And her singing just blows my mind; her voice is absolutely incredible. 

“And the way that – again, like me, I suppose – with sound, she's very particular about how she sings and what she does. But you wouldn't know that in the moment, because it's just flow. She's beyond technical brilliance; she's to another level of, like, ‘I have this thing that I can sing amazingly, and write incredible lyrics, but beyond that, I'm so free with this that I'm not precious,’ kind of thing.

“We both – in the studio here or in her house – give each other permission to be as wild as we wanna be. And just the way we relate to each other through music, you know? I love that AURORA – she finds things in a sound [where] it's almost like she's articulating some idea that I think is in this sound… Like in Come Closer, she sings what that sound was saying to me. She's putting it into a human place or something, do you know what I mean?” 

AURORA: “Translator of sounds, haha.”

ROWLANDS: “Yeah, she can translate what it means. It's like, ‘Oh, my God, that's why this sound made me feel like this. She has just communicated it with her voice.’ And I think we both get excited about the same thing, don't we? When we hear, like – we both respond to frequencies quite similar…”

AURORA: “Very.” 

ROWLANDS: “...like little resonant bits we get so excited about…”

AURORA: “Resonance.” 

ROWLANDS: “Yeah. I always remember the first time she came to my studio, and you've got these big, imposing synthesisers that look like you need a lot of prior knowledge to get by. They’re imposing, big sort of ‘70s... [pans his camera to reveal an orgy of vintage oscillators].” 

AURORA: “You need to be an octopus to play it!” 

ROWLANDS: “And I remember being in the studio, sitting here, and AURORA was at the back of the room, and she was playing this huge Moog modular from 1972 or something. But she was absolutely rippin’ it and the sound that was coming out of it! I was just like, ‘Whooooooaa, that's so cool,’ you know? She just walked in and was not intimidated, or not, ‘Well, is it okay if I press this knob?’”

AURORA: “Like, which one is the one you wrote Escape [Velocity] on?” 

ROWLANDS: “It needs to be cranked up in this crazy sort of sub bass, and AURORA’s just thought, ‘Mmmm, right’. It was like, ‘Wow, this is so cool,’ you know?”

TOMORA’s sound has been described as “whimsical techno”. Do they rate that label?

AURORA: “I don't think Tom does that much.” 

ROWLANDS: “Hahaha.”

AURORA: “To me, it makes sense. It's definitely, like, earthly techno, ancient techno?” 

ROWLANDS: “Yeah, I have a very specific idea of what techno music is… I mean, it's like a boring record-collector person who's like, ‘[puts on a geeky voice] Techno is only made by these three people from this suburb of Detroit,’ you know? And I'm in that sort of thing,” he dissolves into laughter. 

AURORA: “Only Ring The Alarm and In A Minute – that's the only two songs that I think fit into that [whimsical techno descriptor]." 

ROWLANDS: “Yeah, ‘cause techno, to me, is a very strict kind of genre. But now it just means electronic music to a lot of people, doesn't it? So, I dunno. It’s just words, man.”

AURORA: “But we really have to figure it out, because every time we get asked about it, it takes us, like, an hour to answer.” 

ROWLANDS: “Yeah, I know. Hahaha.” 

AURORA: “So we need to have a meeting soon to figure out how to give people a good answer to this question.” 

ROWLANDS: “That's what's interesting about this thing that we've made is: all our experiences of making music and things we've been involved in, sensations we've had, have been poured into this thing. And it is a very specific thing, and there is that playful joyousness that is sort of missing in a lot of electronic music. So it does get across that element, which I like about it, because, yeah! It's mischievous, a lot of it.

“Ring The Alarm is a heavy kind of bass track, but it sort of has an unhinged joy in it. It has this sort of mischievous playfulness that you don't hear in most kinda heads-down electronic music, and I like the fact that it's there. It's different. When you play it, it feels very different to other dance records that you might play at the same time, ‘cause it has this wildness – well, no, the crucial thing: it has this sort of humanity about it…” 

AURORA: “It is very human. But also, I think when we play live, that is almost a bit more techno, because to us – we have discussed this a lot, weirdly – techno is a genre that really makes people beat the same way [taps her chest a few times]. And it really is quite ritualistic and spiritual, in a way. I can be as tired as a – I don't have any metaphor, I'll come up with something…”

ROWLANDS: “I wonder what it’s gonna be? As tired as a…” 

AURORA: “...a cow who just laid eggs.”

ROWLANDS: “Hahahaha.”

AURORA: “And I can still always have the energy in me to go out dancing to this kind of music, because it is something extremely unifying and, like, wild about it. And people just – I dunno, there's something spiritual about it. 

The soundtrack to spiritual enlightenment, perhaps? 

AURORA: “Yeah, it kind of is, though, you know? Without anyone telling you in lyrics what to do, it's just a new heartbeat that is a bit faster than ours are, naturally. But then once we're in it, it kind of – I dunno, it's really cool to me.”

ROWLANDS: “Yeah, we've had some moments where we've been playing live, and it goes pretty heads down, you know? It's just wild. It's so cool. And AURORA is kind of – we're all just improvising together, making the music. Yeah, it's a good feeling.” 

AURORA: “It is.”

Rowlands estimates he first started clubbing when he was “probably about 16”. Prepare to get extremely jealous: “I remember going to The Haçienda in the first wave of acid house in England, hearing DJs like Mike Pickering and Graeme Park, and it felt like it was music beamed in from Neptune or something; you had no point of reference for what this was. And a load of people were going absolutely nuts on a Wednesday night.” 

When asked whether she can single out an artist or song that initially turned her onto dance music, AURORA replies immediately: “Well, obviously the Chemical Brothers is a big part of that, but not dance – that is not a genre I would squeeze them into. But that was a big part of me going out, ‘cause I took quite a long time before I realised you could go out and dance with people inside of rooms.

“Because that, to me, was quite intimidating as not a particular fond person of groups of people. But then, eventually – maybe it was after I became an artist and kind of learnt to be around people more, that's when I became good at going out and dancing and stuff. So it's interesting. I waited quite a long time with it, ‘cause I didn't know you could do it. I was just home in my room in the forest [laughs]. 

“But yeah, for me, Underworld was a huge part of what I heard, especially in Norway, and a lot of heavy metal music, which is not electronic or dance music, but that was a big thing that could pull me out into the void of the world from the safety of my home.”

Given the precarious state of the world right now, opportunities to come together and dance alongside a community of strangers feel more essential than ever. Do they agree? “Of course,” AURORA replies immediately. “That's why [the album is] named Come Closer, ‘cause we want people to connect.

“Tom sometimes says this thing about that it's only about connection, and human connection. And even though it can sound so simple, it's very profound. And it is like a forever-lasting thing that will always be important to connect and to come closer, to see each other more as human beings instead of just numbers. 

“It's weird, what's happening. And I even remember ten years ago, with my first album [2016’s All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend], we were also talking about, ‘With the state of the world right now…’ –  I remember. And then I was like, ‘Yeah, it's very important, with the world going on how it is now.. And then now, again – ten years later – we're still going on with the state of the world.”

Just when you think things couldn't get any worse... “I know!” Rowlands exclaims, exasperated. AURORA agrees, “Yeah, you wouldn't believe it would. This year and 2016 does have some people in common.” 

Please tell us TOMORA have locked in some Australian dates? 

ROWLANDS: “Nothing locked in...” 

AURORA: “Not locked in, but we are already seduced.” 

ROWLANDS: “Hahaha.”

UPDATE: We streamed TOMORA’s triumphant festival debut at Coachella over the weekend and danced our arses off in the loungeroom. For the set’s duration, AURORA and Rowlands were joined onstage by a companion: Norwegian artist, songwriter and producer Amalie Holt Kleive.

While Rowlands busied himself beat-making behind the centrestage console, AURORA and Amalie – sporting matching white A-line minidresses and furry raver boots – wielded megaphones, sang in unison (or sometimes sublime harmonies) and played percussion and keys throughout.

AURORA also spread some TOMORA wisdom: “Love and kindness is the strongest resistance and you could be part of this vital army.” Sign us up!

TOMORA’s ‘Come Closer’ is out on Friday, 17 April via Fontana. Pre-order/pre-save the album here.