Edmonton based indie rock/ alt country band Altameda had a fun year last year. They played a lot of festivals, toured with the Sheepdogs and are embarking on a tour with the Trews in advance of their new second CD “Time Hasn’t Changed You,” which was due out in March, but has been moved up to Jan. 25 to coincide with the Trews’ “Civilianaires’ tour which stops by Average Joes, Feb. 5.
“We’ve been sitting on it for about a year, so we’re pretty excited to get it out in the world. The label thought it would be better to release it before this tour,” said Altameda frontman Troy Snaterse. He is joined by bandmates Todd Andrews, Matt Kraus and Erik Grice.
They were last in Lethbridge, May 2 with Arizona’s Jared and The Mill.
“I think that was the first time we were in Lethbridge, but we’re talking to our agent about coming back to Lethbridge after this tour and to some of the other smaller cities we’re going to with the Trews,” he enthused.
“We get 45 minutes, so we’ll start with a couple of the rockers, then pare it down for some more acoustic numbers, then end with a couple more rockers,” he said, adding they would be up for an encore jam with the Trews as the Trews have been wont to do with other opening acts like the Glorious Sons.
“I wasn’t aware they did that, but we‘d love to do that,” he said.
Altameda has released two of the rockers on the new CD, “Rolling Back To Me” and “Losing Sleep,” both have which have been played on Edmonton Oilers broadcasts.
“They played ‘Losing Sleep’ during a montage of Oilers plays last week, which is pretty cool. Our agent has a pretty good relationship with SportsCentre,” he said.
They recorded the new Cd twice.
“We recorded it last October in our keyboardist’s (Matt Kraus) family’s cabin. But we thought it needed more polishing and the songs needed more road testing. So when we were in Toronto, we started shopping it around. We sent one to Aaron Goldstein, who plays with Daniel Romano and City and Colour and he sent us a long e-mail back to us outlining all of the influences he heard and they were the same as our influences, so we recorded it with him,” he related, adding that ended up being a great idea as Goldstein not only added extra instrumentation like steel guitar, but also welcomed the talents of a few high profile guests like saxophonist Joseph Shabason who has worked with the War on Drugs and fiddle player Kendal Carson, who plays with John Prine and Barney Bentall.
“She (Kendal Carson)was in town with barney Bentall and needed to borrow a cable or something, so Aaron asked her to stop by the studio and while she was here, got her to play on a song “Fire” and she just killed it,” he said.
The finished product got picked up by Pheromone Records and Cadence Records.
“They’re a subsidiary of Universal, and they have been really helpful to us,” he said.
In addition to the new CD coming out in March, they are also re-releasing their Double album “Dirty Rain” on vinyl, Feb. 1.
They have a busy year planned including tours in Europe and possibly playing South By SouthWest in Austin Texas in March.
Altameda and the Trews play Average Joes, Tuesday Feb. 5 at 8 p.m. sharp. Tickets are $35 in advance, $40 day of the show.
