Upbeat, irreverent Indie folk pop fronted by Hannah Werdmuller (of Chonk, Conscious Route), and featuring Brian Grupé (of Chonk, Baby Teeth, Sapphire Lung) on drums, and Ariel Wang (of Ariel Wang, Sapphire Lung, Yee Olde Dragon Master) on violin.

Formed out of the primordial creative ooze of the San Francisco Bay Area, Oakland's Once & Future Band is Joel Robinow (keyboards, guitar, lead vocals), Raj Ojha (drums, recording / mixing engineer) and Eli Eckert (bass, guitar, vocals).  For over a decade, Joel, Raj and Eli had worked together (in various combinations) with several bands and projects, including Drunk Horse and Howlin' Rain. Throughout those years, they often spoke of forming an outlet into which they could combine their love of 60s and 70s psychedelic pop, jazz-rock, fusion and progressive rock, in addition to their myriad other musical fascinations.

In 2012 word finally became deed and Once & Future Band was born, taking inspiration for their name from T.H. White's Arthurian classic.  In 2014 they released the "Brain" EP on Mouth Records, drawing comparisons to ELO, Queen, Steely Dan, Yes and The Beach Boys.

In 2017, the band released their self-titled LP on John Dwyer's Castle Face records, garnering rave reviews from MOJO, Uncut, Modern Drummer and Shindig among other publications and landing a spot on The Wire and The Guardian's Best of 2017 list. Their songs have been featured on Henry Rollin's KCRW radio program as well as the BBC Radio shows of Gideon Coe, Jon Hillcock and Marc Riley (whose show they have performed live on multiple times). They've made their way across the US and Canada as main support for Tool and Chris Robinson's "As The Crow Flies", toured the UK and have shared the stage with such diverse acts as Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Chris Robinson Brotherhood, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, White Denim, Mild High Club, King Tuff, Dungen, !!!, Battles, Foxygen, Red Fang and Metronomy. They were also personally selected by Flying Lotus and Wire to play their curated festivals.  In 2019 The Black Crowes announced live on Howard Stern’s show that Joel Robinow and Raj Kumar Ojha will be part of their new band, backing them for a 2020 US / UK reunion arena tour.

With 2020 comes the release of their 2nd full length LP, “Deleted Scenes” which has been years in the making.  The self-produced record comes out on April 10th, 2020 via Castle Face Records, featuring another iconic cover by longtime collaborator Christopher Appelgren.

The voice: between the head, the heart, and the microphone.

MORE EPISODES ON MIXCLOUD!!! Tune in to the Pet Door Show on Shady Pines Radio every Thursday 2-4pm (Pacific) for a unique, cross-genre playlist of new music by independent, under-the-radar artists from all over the world. Hosted by Hannah Werdmuller.

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