The Tourorists were birthed in Lisbon, Portugal circa 2017 by then-recent emigrants Ted (from Cork, Ireland, by bike), aka Fodasse O’Neil, and Ilya (from the Bronx, USA, and the former Soviet Union, by planes), aka Communistopher Gomez.

United by friendship, alcohol, and a love for good music, the duo (guitar, bass, vocals) started writing and playing songs in their respective living rooms with the sole purpose of fucking around. They combined punk-, rock-, hip-hop-, and other- inspired melodies with lyrics about death, love, immigration, sudden loss of employment, homeless etiquette, animals, and other stuff too. Soon enough, these songs would make their way onto a few very small stages of various venues and open mics around town, still in very raw form, and usually received with mixed feelings or not at all.

In 2018, at one of these open mics – that at Camones CineBar on Tuesday nights – host, friend, Lisbon native, and local musical legend of sorts Joaquim, aka Shaka Khannot, started sitting in with the band on cajon, bongos, harmonica, melodica, stylophone, and other. After a series of increasingly well-received performances there, The Tourorists felt they finally had all three pieces of their proverbial puzzle in place.