The side of the Wombats most fond of Tame Impala and MGMT

What you need to know:

Sunship Balloon is the musical project of Dan and Tord of The Wombats, where they explore a more futuristic and psychedelic sound in the style of bands such as MGMT, Tame Impala, M83 and others.

The Wombats are one of the bands that have stood out in the British “indie rock” scene for two decades, since 2006, with albums such as… “A Guide to Love, Loss and Despair” and “This Modern Glitch” They gained ground in an area shared with bands such as Two Door Cinema Club, Black Kids and Passion Pit, among others.

The group is known for songs like “Moving to New York”, “Our Perfect Disease” and “Let’s Dance to Joy Division”and for his studies at Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. However, few people know about the alternative project of two of its members.

The Wombats announce new album and share the song "If you ever leave, I'll come with you"!
Tord, Matthew and Dan from The Wombats. Photo: The Wombats

Sunship Balloon is the side project of Dan and Tord from The Wombats

Without the singer Matthew Murphy (who also has a solo project called Love Fame Tragedy), Daniel Haggis and Tord Øverland-Knudsen united Powers to create a sunship balloona duo in which both musicians play with lo-fi, trance and electronic sounds.

Sunship Balloon started 2019 with the release of the EP Intergalactic Teacup Travel Center where Daniel and Tord showed the world the new musical facet a little further away from the Liverpool trio and with a futuristic and experimental touch.

Sunship Balloon: The side of the Wombats most associated with Tame Impala and MGMT
Sunship Balloon is the side project of Dan and Tord from The Wombats. Photo: Sunship Balloon (Facebook)

They have been active since 2019 and have two albums that are quite interesting

In 2020, Sunship Balloon released their first debut album Always, with whom Daniel Haggis and Tord Øverland-Knudsen had already planned a promotional tour. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic canceled all of their plans at that point.

Not everything was bad for the band. Producer John Congleton was involved in this first albumwho has worked with artists of the format St. Vincent, Explosions in the Sky, Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen and Blondieand who was responsible for mixing this album material.

Sunship Balloon: The side of the Wombats most associated with Tame Impala and MGMT
John Congleton. Photo via: soundonsound.com

Sunship Balloon shows a more experimental and futuristic side than the Liverpool trio

With songs like “A4 Life” and “Interstellar Ride”, Sunship Balloon made two things clear: that their debut album wasn’t just an amateur project of two musicians making songs in a room, and how well Dan and Tord can dabble in other genres of music.

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We have as an example “Hashtag World,” a song where Sunship Balloon went full-on garage rockeither “Riding with elephants”in which the European duo uses trip-hop and more electronic rhythms than is usual in the Wombats’ songs.

This year they released their second studio album “Real Humans”.

Those Sunship Balloons from 2024 have returned, now with their second studio album “Real Humans”. This album consists of 10 songs that show us the musical influences that Daniel Haggis and Tord Øverland-Knudsen had on this production.

As an example we have “Everywhere”, the fifth song on the album with hints of dream pop and synth pop we have already heard about this Dayglow and MGMT. In the case of “All the Time in the World” and “Feelin’ Lazy” this reminds us of the first works of Tame Impala.

With musical influences from bands like Tame Impala, MGMT, Gorillaz and more

The guitars in songs like “Real people” They are very much in the style of bands like Alvvaysalthough – and as the duo says on their TikTok account – we also find some musical references to bands like Phoenix, Passion Pit, The Flaming Lips, Gorillaz and more

Whatever gets attention beyond his music is what it is the visual style that the band creates with this second studio album, where most singles have videos created with the popular and hated artificial intelligence.

As you can see, With almost two decades of experience with The Wombats, it might be difficult for Dan and Tord to completely break away from the Liverpool band’s sound. However, that doesn’t seem to be their intention either.

Due to their knowledge and experience, both musicians can and do experiment with all kinds of genres. Something that will ultimately allow them to create things like the ones they do Sunship Balloon, which will soon fly to the top at this speed.

Cover of “Real Humans”, the new album from Sunship Balloon.

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