BERLIN-based NZ band, An Emerald City, have moved from recording in a decrepit Berlin communist building in the snow to a paddock with cicadas chirping in the background.
Their 25-date NZ tour kicked off on February 17 in Raglan, with a gig at Wellington’s San Francisco Bath House on March 4, and a stint at the Newtown Festival. It’s a big contrast for the six-piece, who release their second album The Fourth on this tour, with dates planned in Lyttleton and Christchurch.  
“It’s just terrible what’s happened there,” says guitarist and vocalist Reuben Bonner.
“We’ve written to the venues and said: ‘Hey, are you ok?’ We would love to be able to play in Christchurch, to hopefully make people feel better,” he says.
Recorded in a former communist radio station on the banks of the river Spree in East Berlin (also rumoured to be the location of one of the Stasi secret police’s headquarters) The Fourth combines traditional Eastern instruments with psychedelic experimentation. It is a departure from Circa Scaria, their first album, which was recorded in the Whatipu cave near Auckland and featured stronger Eastern sounding influences.
“We have an affinity with Eastern music but knew we couldn’t really do the same thing as our first album – we wanted to explore different avenues. We wanted to create space rather than a wall of sound,” he says.
Following their move to Berlin in 2009, last year was tough. Three members returned to New Zealand for good, or temporarily, leaving new members, Israeli drummer Dan Katz and Kansas bassist Jessica Roth, to help them out of a squeeze.
“We collectively write songs and they come together organically. Three of the core members of the band are in Berlin in our apartment and all the guys add parts,” Bonner says.
The band, which formed in 2005, survive by using their van as a moving truck.
“We move fridges and washing machines around – sometimes up four or five flights of stairs. All the houses in Berlin seem to be upstairs,” he says laughing.
“We wanted to take our music further afield. We have a very niche style of music and Germany is a bigger market - they’re into experimental type music. It’s a hive of creativity. There seems to be loads of people who don’t seem to work and just juggle round the city. I don’t know how they cope.”
An Emerald City with Beastwars and The Pyramid Scheme, San Francisco Bath House, March 4: