Attention! This might just be one of the most wholesome things to ever happen in drum & bass…
Prominent singer / songwriter flowanastasia and her partner, prolific producer Tyr Kohout, are getting married in October. And their honeymoon?
It’s a debut tour of the UK and Europe!
Quite possibly a first in dance music, and almost certainly a first in drum & bass, honeymoons are usually a time when artists take a well-deserved break from the stress of the road. For these Toronto lovebirds, however, this tour is a dream come true. It’s not just a celebration of their love for each other, it’s also a celebration of the music they met through and share a deep passion for.
Commencing October 21, it’s a full DIY mission organised and planned by them both independently and will see them visiting the UK, Austria, France and Germany. Loaded with various link-ups and studio sessions with scene friends and collaborators between the shows, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime trip for the couple in so many ways. What’s more, it kicks off with 1 More Thing!
On Saturday October 21 – from 4-8pm – we will be taking over The Hurlingham boat in central London and cruising The Thames with a truly beautiful line-up that crosses all genre boundaries.
The full line-up for our party will be announced next week. In the meantime, our focus is on the happy couple and their own tour announcement. We caught up with them to wish them congratulations and find out more about this beautiful trip.
Want to join us on October 21? Earlybird tickets are going from £20. Get involved.
This is such a beautiful and totally unique situation. Firstly congratulations! How do you both feel with the big day ahead?
Tyr Kohout: Thank you so much Dave! We’re really looking forward to the wedding and the tour ahead. Both events have involved many months of planning, and we also started new full-time jobs back in December, so there’s been a lot to learn. But we’ve done our best to keep our heads up and focus on the positives. A lot of excitement, that’s for sure. Someone recently asked us if we’re nervous about the wedding and the answer was ‘no’. There’s still more work to do, but we’re ready for the next chapter. It feels right.
flowanastasia: Yes!!! We’re thrilled and grateful for all of it. Touring with music has been a huge lifelong dream and doing that one week after getting married feels surreal. We’ve built a strong relationship together over the last six years, and work hard to support each other’s personal growth, mental and physical health, creative goals and families. It feels very special and we don’t take that lightly. We express our gratitude for it every day.
Love that! And also loving the fact you’re launching this tour with 1 More Thing! That’s amazing!
flowanastasia: A MASSIVE big-up! Dave, we’ve been huge fans of your content and contributions to the scene for a long time, ever since we got into the drum & bass in the early 2010s. You’ve had a major impact on our understanding and appreciation of the culture, especially being over here in Canada where the scene is much smaller than the UK / Europe. So to have your support is just wild, especially since D&B brought Tyr and I together in the first place. And now you’re even announcing our upcoming marriage, which we haven’t talked about publicly before… it feels full circle. Magical.
Tyr Kohout: Absolutely. Thank you so much Dave for believing in us. We’re also excited just to meet you in person for the first time after all these years! What’s more, having London as the very first stop on our tour – and with a boat party on the Thames no less – what a way to kick off a D&B adventure.
And what an adventure. Your debut overseas tour! I’ve NEVER known an act to tour during their honeymoon. This is how much you love your craft and the culture, right?
flowanastasia: Oh yes haha. Tyr and I originally met on SoundCloud because of D&B, so this is all very fitting. I heard his tune in a mix and followed him, then he messaged me asking if I wanted to collab (classic D&B story haha). Since we were both in Toronto, we could work together at his studio, with Tyr producing music and recording my vocals. Since Tyr trained in audio engineering, his skills made my vocals sound way better than what I was previously doing alone in my bedroom, so I hired him to start recording my vocals for any D&B project I was working on. We started dating after six months. A couple years later, we started performing together live.
Fast forward and we weren’t really thinking of doing a proper honeymoon in an effort to save money. Around the same time, I was trying to research a way to do a small North American tour – looking up promoters, reaching out, and didn’t get much interest. It’s very expensive to fly from Toronto to anywhere in North America, because things are so far apart, and it’s usually big headliners that end up getting booked.
Tyr Kohout: Then a few of our friends in the scene suggested that we may actually have an easier time booking some shows in the UK or Europe, if only we were willing to pay our way to fly out. We knew that’s where most of our listeners are, because the scene really is so much bigger there. So we thought we’d give it a shot. We recognize that we’re not big enough artists to have promoters afford to cover our flights, so we’re definitely not making money on this tour. But gaining experience and exposure makes it all worthwhile. We see it as an investment. It’s also a nice way to have a honeymoon where we can sightsee new places we’ve never been to before, meet D&B collaborators in person for the first time, have some production sessions, and make new friends.
Lush. What else can you tell us about the tour?
Tyr Kohout: After our kick-off show with you in London on October 21, we’re playing in Bristol on October 27 at Lakota, October 31 in Vienna for The Hive, November 3 in Berlin at Void Club, and then November 4 in Paris for Get In Step. Details are still to be announced, and there’s a chance we might be adding 1-2 more shows, so stay tuned!
This is all completely DIY isn’t it? Totally self motivated and organised and while you’re juggling demanding regular day jobs. This is a HUGE undertaking!
flowanastasia: We don’t have a booking agent or a manager, so we had to do everything ourselves. I spent months researching D&B club nights and promoters overseas, then reaching out to them and having conversations. I knew I’d have to reach out to a whole bunch and expect only a handful to get back to me. And some promoters didn’t have dates that worked with our timing. I went to business school and had a lot of sales-related jobs over the years, so I think that came in handy at least – staying organized and persistent, dealing with rejection haha.
We’re just so grateful to the promoters that are giving us an opportunity. Music is our biggest dream, and even though it’s not our full-time job (yet, fingers still crossed), we are just thankful that it’s a fulfilling passion. It drives us forward every day and gives us meaning. The DIY approach applies to our whole being as independent artists – we do our own video production, graphic design, audio engineering, etc. While the grind is challenging, every time we are filled with doubt and consider stopping, we just can’t. It’s a part of us. There’s nothing else we would rather be doing.
Amen! I’m so excited that 1 More Thing is part of this! What can we expect from a flowanastasia & Tyr Kohout set?
Tyr Kohout: Our sets are a journey through different styles of drum & bass, we don’t stick to one sound, but we love minimal rollers, super techy stuff, neurofunk, jungle, halftime and soulful liquid. You can expect flowanastasia to sing live over many instrumentals of her collab tracks, mixed with some hosting and improvising, plus plenty of dubs and other favourites.
flowanastasia: You can also expect goofy dancing and hype energy. And some wholesome messages of positivity, gratitude and love (I can’t help it). Especially at the 1 More Thing boat party on October 21. We can’t thank you enough Dave – you are giving us a most special gift by kicking off our honeymoon and debut overseas tour.
Join flowanastasia, Tyr Kohout and 1 More Thing for this unique occasion
Follow flowanastasia: Instagram > Tik Tok > Facebook > YouTube
Follow Tyr Kohout: Instagram > Tik Tok > Facebook > YouTube
