Establishing a new band is challenging at the best of times but for new trio Tyde 2020 has dropped a few extra hurdles in their path.
Consisting of singer/guitarist Ella Belfanti, her sister Zoey Belfanti on bass and drummer Josh Garnett Tyde is a brand new independent group which ebbs and flows between alt-rock, folk, and funk. Initially coming together after a chance meeting between Josh and Ella at a music festival (they both have successful music careers separately outside of Tyde) the group quickly felt like a natural fit and progressed to a more formal structure. At first Zoey wasn’t part of the group but after teaching herself guitar Ella realised that Zoey could easily learn bass and brought her into the fold.
As Josh explained to City Hub after first hearing Ella perform as a solo artist on the festival when they first met he simply had to work with her.
“After hearing Ella’s music I immediately fell in love and was ready to do whatever it took to work with her. Even if that meant she wanted me to just be a session musician to record songs with.”
After forming at the beginning of the year Tyde managed to squeeze in a brief debut tour before the brunt of the COVID-19 restrictions came into play. During our conversation Josh recalled one moment in particular that highlighted just how swiftly the changes came in.
“I played a gig in Melbourne at Open Studio with Fat Picnic [Josh’s other project] then exactly a month later I was back there with Tyde and it was completely different. There were no cars driving past. There was nobody walking around on the street.”
Following tat show in Melbourne the group were scheduled to spend a week in Sydney, visiting Ella and Zoey’s family and playing shows, but that was also cut short due to the imminent closure of the border between New South Wales and Queensland.
Upon returning to Queensland the trio spent their quarantine period together in the one house working on music and helping each other get through it emotionally and mentally.
“It was a little disheartening. We had all of these big ideas and wanted to jam but it was hard to get motivated or feel like we had something to work towards because we simply didn’t know when things were going to open back up,” explained Ella.
As another added challenge Tyde’s debut single, Skin On Skin, proved to be an interesting experience to work on together because it has such a personal and initiate story behind it. As Ella explained the song is about her experience with a one-night stand, and as such the recording process was “slightly strange” when working on the song with both her younger sister and bandmate/boyfriend.
All three members of the group got past the uneasiness of that process though and all love the song.
As restrictions now begin to ease Tyde are excited to return to Sydney as soon as possible.
“One of the best gigs that we’ve played so far was in Sydney at Lazybones Lounge. So we really want to come back to Sydney and play some more shows there. We absolutely love it,” said Ella.
Follow Tyde on Instagram at instagram.com/tyde_band
