The band has been around since 2005.
"I started the band a few years ago with Rehyan [drums, tabla] and Felix [violin]. Over the course of a year and a-half, Reuben [guitar], Ed [long-necked Persian lute/sitar] and Rob [percussion and electronics] all ended up joining us through weird and wonderful ways. We have been making music ever since," Handley says.
He describes the band as "striving for musical experimentation and liberation, using organic instrumentation and sounds of the East meeting psychedelia".
On this tour the band is promoting its new EP, which features a song that people keen on fashion may well have heard.
"The four-track EP features two of [our] student radio favourite tunes, Qing Song, which also featured as Karen Walker's opening track at New York Fashion Week this year, and A Thousand Stars At Night, both of which were recorded at Clockwork Studios in Auckland with Nick Taylor."
The EP also includes new song Mr Finn and the new single A Question, recorded at Roundhead Studios with Liam Finn and Jol Mulholland.
Handley is tight-lipped on where the band's name came from, describing it as "a secret".
An Emerald City follows the yellow brick road all the way around the world to Germany next year.
"We are moving to Berlin in May. We want to be based in Europe to play our music and release our album," Handley says.
When asked what people can expect from An Emerald City's show he simply replies: "Don't have expectations, just come".
