Altameda are a JUNO nominated folk-rock duo consisting of singer/songwriter Troy Snaterse, and Métis visual artist and multi-instrumentalist Erik M. Grice. Hailing from Edmonton and now based in Toronto, the band has toured extensively across North America and Europe, supporting such acts as The Zombies, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, Delta Spirit, Kacy & Clayton, The Sheepdogs, Susto, and others. They have received critical praise from such notable publications including NPR, Rolling Stone, CBC, BBC, Shindig!, Flood, and Exclaim!. Glide Magazine included the band in their 2019 list of “30 must- see acts of SXSW.” Their third album, “Born Losers,” debuted at #1 on the Canadian folk music charts, and has received considerable radio play from CBC, BBC, Sirius XM, and mainstream AAA radio. The album received a nomination for Adult Alternative Album of The Year at the 2023 JUNO awards.
“Bought a dead man’s suit in Denver / Then I wore it onstage,” sings Altameda’s Troy Snaterse, his voice drifting out over a bed of slowly shifting piano and synth chords. “Got me thinking about impermanence / How everything dies with age.”
Like much of Altameda’s stunning new album, Born Losers, the line is at once simple and profound, a visceral snapshot of a moment in time that speaks to something far deeper about the human condition. Recorded with acclaimed producer Thomas D’Arcy (Neko Case, The Sheepdogs) and mixed by studio wiz Tucker Martine (My Morning Jacket, Whitney, REM), Born Losers is a meditation on change, loss, and growth, but more than that, it’s a reckoning with mortality, a call to live while we’re still alive. The band recorded the album after moving from Edmonton to Toronto, and Snaterse wrote much of the lyrics during a tumultuous stretch in which he nearly lost his father to a stroke, only to lose his 18-year-old stepbrother just weeks later in a tragic accident. The resulting emotional upheaval permeates the music in ways both painful and transcendent, with raw, candid performances often arriving wrapped inside gorgeous, gently atmospheric arrangements. Where past Altameda records showcased the sound of a rock and roll band cutting loose live in the studio, Born Losers is an exercise in craftsmanship and restraint, one that relies on subtlety over brute force as it learns to let go and fully embrace the present.
“My grandmother used to say, ‘Don’t go wishing your life away,’” Snaterse recalls. “I think what she meant is don’t spend so much time thinking about the future that you miss out on appreciating everything that’s happening in front of you right now. That’s what we tried to do with this album.”
Founded initially as a solo project for Snaterse, Altameda quickly found their stride as a hard-touring four-piece and garnered early acclaim with the release of their 2016 full-length debut, Dirty Rain. Dates with the likes of Sam Roberts Band, The Trews, Dan Mangan, and SUSTO followed, as did an even more ambitious 2019 sophomore effort, Time Hasn’t Changed You, which was met with continued praise on both sides of the Atlantic. Exclaim! hailed the group’s music as “the perfect summer soundtrack,” while Rolling Stone Germany swooned for their mix of “country bliss” and “pub-rock enthusiasm,” and the CBC’s Grant Lawrence proclaimed them “the best Canadian band I have heard in a while.” As the group’s profile grew, so too did the pull of Toronto, and by the end of 2019, Snaterse and drummer Erik Grice were ready to take a leap of faith and move east. The pair’s bandmates, however, had grown weary of life on the road after years of nonstop touring, and it soon became clear that an amicable parting of ways was inevitable.