A new Charlottetown band featuring some familiar players have released their first single. Calm Baretta put out ‘Chilly Bones’ just this afternoon, or maybe sometime in the early 80s, it’s hard to tell, but we’re not complaining.
Laura Oakie (Liam Corcoran Band) and Josh Carter (Coyote) have been musical partners for the better part of four years now and bringing Calm Baretta together was the next logical step explains Carter, adding roommate and bass player Nigel Haan (Dylan Menzie) was all it took.
“It just felt right to start up a fun passion project together,” says Carter. “My roommate Nigel Haan put together a small studio downstairs and we had been jamming a lot on our free time, so it just made sense to put these pieces together and start a band.”
Recorded in Halifax over a weekend with producer/engineer John Mullane, the resulting product sounds like a-Ha but with bigger shoulder pads.
“The opening acoustic guitar part I had been playing for a while, it only really came together when the three of us started writing. Both Nigel’s bass line and Laura’s keys parts are very specific, but it’s kind of a glorified 80’s love ballad with a little more modern spunk so to speak. Love those 80’s jams.”
Amidst the all the synths there’s a song in there about letting go of romantic aloofness and succumbing to the feels. The band explains that it’s about just letting it all happen, letting go of expectations, and accepting that some of the best encounters are the ones you don’t see coming, but in an entirely consensual way.
Carter says the band plan on following up the single with a full album, and will be headed back into the studio with Mullane in the fall. In the meantime they’ll be having their debut hometown show in Charlottetown on Sept 9th.