Avalanche City

Avalanche City

Avalanche City is a New Zealand indie folk group from Auckland. The project begins with Dave Baxter and develops around a solo recording approach before expanding into a group format. The current members are Johnny Brock, Strahan Cole, Ben Duncan, Romelli Rodriguez and Ben Tolich.

Formation and early recordings

The project starts in a house, where Baxter spends months teaching himself to sing through repeated practice, recording and self-critique. After around six months of that process, he plays the first solo show under the name Avalanche City. Another six months later, he begins recording the first tracks for the debut album Our New Life Above The Ground.

Recording the debut album

For the album, Baxter moves to Kourawhero Hall, a small community hall just north of Auckland, and records there alone for a week. He plays all the parts himself, with only cows and milk trucks for company. The album is first made available as a free download for four months, and after it reaches 11,000 downloads it is later issued with the EP Snow as a deluxe two-disc package.