AURORA and The Chemical Brothers’ Tom Rowlands have formed a new band, TOMORA, and their first single is out now – check it out here.
TOMORA have been listed on a few festival line-ups for next year, including Coachella, leading fans to speculate on who it might be. And, with the release of their debut single ‘Ring The Alarm’, their identity has been revealed.
Discussing the new song, the duo – who merged their first names together to create the band name – said: “We wanted TOMORA to be a band, not two individuals. It’s our musical feeling come to life.
The track begins with a digital alarm that keeps ringing until the arrival of a bass drum and then AURORA’s vocals. Longtime Chemical Brothers collaborator Adam Smith, who has also worked with AURORA previously, directed the track’s trippy video. It’s almost exclusively in black and hot pink and sees AURORA take centre stage as she repeats the titular refrain.
The Norwegian singer-songwriter has collaborated with The Chemical Brothers on a number of occasions in recent years.
The electronic duo first worked with AURORA when she provided guest vocals to their 2019 album ‘No Geography’, and she named them as one of her favourite artists ahead of its release, adding of the record: “I got to listen to the album … It was really wonderful. I listened to the tracks and knew right away so wrote the melody and lyrics at the airport where I was stuck for three hours. Then Tom just took care of his favourite parts and that’s how it happened.”
Later that year, she told NME how the initial collaboration came about. “I’ve always loved Chemical Brothers, ever since I was a sperm,” she explained. “I love dancing to it. It has a gumption in it. I just got an email one beautiful day in 2017 and it said, ‘Hello this is Tom and I like your music, your words and I would love for you to write something with us for our next album.’
“I don’t really care much about who people are, but it was the only time I’ve had a *gasp* moment in my life, because I don’t really get starstruck either. I was really excited, and I had to wait like a week because I had to pick the right words for my answer to explain how happy I was so they’d know how much I wanted to be part of their music.”
She added, “He’s so lovely and they’re very passionate. We were improvising and it was a very nice experience. I’m going to ask them to do something with me as well, if they want one day.”
Rowland did go on to produce some of her 2024 album ‘What Happened To The Heart’, and she told NME that she asked him to “puke vomit” all over it via text. “We have a lot of fun,” she explained. “We feel like two little aliens walking around, and we have the same hunger for something exceptional. I’m really grateful. I texted him one evening just saying, ‘Tom – puke vomit all over my song please’. And he did, for like four hours.”
Among the festivals TOMORA have been announced to play are Coachella, Down The Rabbit Hole, and Øya in AURORA’s native Norway. More news is set to follow from the band in due course.
In other news, AURORA has recently joined the likes of Fontaines D.C., Paloma Faith and Brian Eno in launching a new alliance, Together Against The Far Right, with a major national demonstration in London on Saturday 28 March 2026.
Speaking to NME earlier this year, she said: “I believe politics have a place in music, movies and art. At some point, we must realise that politics is interfering people’s lives and rights as human beings directly.
“Whether that’s dealing with the rights of trans people, gay people, women, children, nations, cultures – something so emotional as human rights is on the border of not even being political anymore. It’s strictly emotional. It’s blasphemy to even have a conversation about whether or not we should respect human rights, and we’re doing that in the biggest countries in the world.”
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nme.com ’
