The New York City-based group Free Time mix C-86-style indie pop and jangling '90s indie rock with a sweetly ramshackle energy. They formed in mid-2012 when Australian singer/songwriter/guitarist Dion Nania, who had moved to New York in 2011 and subsequently played guitar with fellow expats Scott and Charlene's Wedding and then bass on a U.S. tour by another Australian group, the Twerps, decided to start his own project. He started writing songs and piecing together a group of like-minded musicians. Settling on drummer Michael Mimoun, guitarist Jonah Maurer, and bass player Adrienne Humblet, the quartet recorded a batch of songs, which Nania took back to Melbourne to mix before returning with more songs, which the band finished up in December of 2012. Underwater Peoples released the eponymously titled Free Time album in May of 2013. The band toured, then released the "Esoteric Tizz" single in 2014 before starting work on a new album with Woods member and producer Jarvis Taveniere in Brooklyn. With the record partially finished, Nania returned to Melbourne and put together a local band that featured Twerps member Marty Frawley, Zachary Schneider of Totally Mild, and Joe Alexander of Terrible Truths. This lineup finished the band's second album, In Search of Free Time, which was issued by Underwater Peoples and Bedroom Suck in April of 2016. ~ Tim Sendra