Free Time

The New York City-based group Free Time blends C-86-style indie pop and jangling '90s indie rock through a sweetly ramshackle energy. Australian singer/songwriter/guitarist Dion Nania, who relocated to New York in 2011, formed the band in mid-2012 after contributing guitar to fellow expats Scott and Charlene's Wedding and handling bass duties on a U.S. tour by the Twerps. Nania began composing material and assembling a circle of compatible players, ultimately choosing drummer Michael Mimoun, guitarist Jonah Maurer, and bass player Adrienne Humblet. The quartet captured an initial set of tracks that Nania carried to Melbourne for mixing; he came back with additional songs that the group completed in December of 2012. Underwater Peoples issued the self-titled Free Time album in May of 2013.

Following a period of touring, the band put out the "Esoteric Tizz" single in 2014 and then commenced work on its next record in Brooklyn alongside Woods member and producer Jarvis Taveniere. Once the project was partially complete, Nania headed back to Melbourne and assembled a local lineup that included Twerps member Marty Frawley, Zachary Schneider of Totally Mild, and Joe Alexander of Terrible Truths. This configuration wrapped the band's second album, In Search of Free Time, which Underwater Peoples and Bedroom Suck released in April of 2016.