The band's three former Wanaka musicians are preparing themselves for a nationwide tour, from their new home base of Wellington.
They can't wait to hit the road for their first tour, which includes three Otago gigs and includes a return to their hometown of Wanaka.
Band guitarist and singer Fabian Shaw spoke to Play, this week, on the eve of the Slur-Tone's first gig at Wellington musical hotspot Bodega.
"It's going to be awesome. We've got our first EP out and can't wait."
The Slur-Tones is a three-piece outfit, which, like many of New Zealand's prominent music-makers first came to attention and tasted success at the high school talent-finder SmokefreeRockquest.
Originally from Wanaka's Mount Aspiring College, the three young men moved to the capital earlier this year.
Shaw and Slur-Tones drummer Alister Mawhinney share many of the same classes at the New Zealand School of Music.
Both men are studying towards a music degree in jazz - a course which counts as former graduates members of such well-known New Zealand bands as the Phoenix Foundation, Black Seeds and Fat Freddy's Drop.
Meanwhile, Slur-Tones bass player Yannick Weastell is working on his "phat" beats and sampling skills by studying towards a music degree in DJing at Porirua's Whitirea Polytechnic.
The trio share a flat in the capital's alternative quarter of Cuba St and have played bar gigs in some of the street's better-known venues, such as Mighty Mighty and The San Francisco Bath House - where many of Wellington's musical fraternity have also polished their chops.
Shaw said the band was growing an increasingly loyal following.
"It's happening slowly, but we'll get there," he said.
The Slur-Tones tour was the next step in following up on their Rockquest success, he said.
The band placed second in the country and won the best song award at the national finals, last year.
Prior to 2008, Weastell and Shaw had won the Southern Lakes regional finals for three years running.
The band members list influences ranging from Led Zeppelin to the Mint Chicks, but Shaw says studying jazz full-time has improved their musicianship.
"It's tightened our sound. Technically, we just feel so much more advanced."
Speaking from Wellington, where he had just finished a lecture and was heading to a final band practice before last Thursday's tour opener, Shaw was struggling to shake the effects of a cold.
He was worried it might affect his partying stamina before the Slur-Tones take to the road.
The trio, accompanied by their sound man, will head south from Wellington to Wanaka, before resuming the tour after a week-long roadie back to Auckland and then Napier.
"Yep. We're looking forward to a rowdy time. Some excessive partying is certainly on the cards," he said.
The Slur-Tones self-titled debut EP includes four songs, some of which the band's Wanaka fans are bound to remember.
• On tour
Queenstown: Revolver, with Pikachunes, Wednesday, July 1.
Dunedin: Sammy's, with Biff Merchants, Thursday, July 2.
Wanaka: Mint Bar, with Mercury Brigade, Friday, July 3.
