Aloha, the multi-faceted indie quartet which calls multiple cities across the East Coast home, embarks on a tour this spring in support of their latest album, "Light Works." And, truth be told, it turns out they're every bit as anxious for a taste of warm weather as their name suggests.
The band's name is "more than just a greeting," vocalist and guitarist Tony Cavallario said in an interview with The Eagle. In Hawaii, he said, saying "aloha" is also a sign of friendliness.
Right now, though, Cavallario is looking forward to saying goodbye to cold, upstate New York weather, "getting in a van with the guys and getting down to Texas for [the] "South by Southwest" music festival, he said. It's "kind of like indie rock spring break."
Since the band members live in different cities and meet in various locations to write, record and play, Aloha has multiple hometown shows along their tour.
"All over the country," Cavallario said, "almost every town we play in is so familiar to us, and we have friends there."
Their stop in the District, the last on their tour and one of the many hometown stops for the band, is set for April 6 at the Rock and Roll Hotel, where they'll be playing with Anathallo, a Chicago-based band that is joining them on several tour stops.
Having toured with bands like The Appleseed Cast and Ted Leo in the past, Cavallario said he couldn't think of an example when touring with another band had been bad.
"It's kind of a magical experience to have a couple weeks where the same 20 people are sharing the same space," he said.
For those unfamiliar with Aloha, the band has been slapped with a number of labels, ranging from prog-rock to post-punk to experimental. Cavallario admits the prog-rock label has been with them since their formation more than 10 years ago, but when pressed, he offers a much different designation.
"Alternative rock," he said, laughing. "At this point, I would prefer the broadest possible explanation of our band so that we can continue to be free to just do whatever we want."
What they want has shifted over time, as a listen to "Light Works" will reveal. The album, sometimes criticized as being too pop-oriented or mainstream, Cavallario said, is "probably the most song-based thing we've ever done."
But don't fret, Aloha fans.
"A lot of our music is layers upon layers of melody and counter-melody and rhythm," Cavallario said. "And I think 'Light Works' is just a very subtle version of everything that we've done before. I don't see it as that pop-y because I don't think anything that's that subtle and mellow can be considered pop-y."
Cavallario said he's proud of the way the record came together as they had conceptualized it.
"We wanted to make this acoustic-based EP," he said, "and from the first track to the last, we wanted to have it be a very specific sound and very specific environment."
All in all, they wanted it to be a transformative experience, which is what he likes about some of his favorite records, he said.
"When you put it on, you're in this world, and you're there the whole time," he said. "I think we accomplished that."
Cavallario cites R.E.M.'s "Automatic for the People" as one of the band's greatest influences in recording "Light Works." That kind of music is "very contemplative," he said.
"It's not just love songs - that's not what our band is about," he said. "Our band is about exploring ideas through music and giving them different meanings by the textures that are around them."
The R.E.M. record "is a good example of the music matching the theme - reflective, but in a humanist kind of way, not in an emo, lovestruck sort of way," he said.
And "Light Works" is certainly not about puppy love. Cavallario calls the album a "God-seeking experience."
While "every song has its own theme, it's definitely a pretty grown-up reflection upon one's place [in the world]," he said.
Cavallario said he'd love to play at is one of the big, outdoor summer music festivals like Coachella, Sasquatch or Bonnaroo - something Aloha has yet to do.
"It's been so long since I've been in a place where there's just thousands of people of the same generation," he said. "And I feel like I'm really missing out on that feeling"
