www.facebook.com/altamadum
From: Thunder Bay, Canada
Sounds like: Rock
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound? Who thought of the name “Altamadum” and is there any meaning behind it?
Cam Thomas, Brendan Byers & James Cole met in high-school through similar interest in artists. We started out doing covers and instrumental originals, then began playing music live. Shortly following graduation, Sam Mucha was brought into the band as lead singer and we moved into ThunderSound Studio. In the studio, our music really found a new level of development. We were able to take home and evaluate our songs individually and expand on them. This has become a prominent factor in our writing process, especially for our latest album 'Levels'. As for our band name it was our drummer Brendan that first suggested 'ultimatum' to us as a band name. We all agreed it sounded great, but felt that it had likely been taken by another band. We decided to change up the spelling and the 'Alt-' was chosen to represent us as an alternative option to what was going on in our local music scene.
2. What do you want listeners to take away from your music?
Whether it be through the music itself or our lyrics, what we most want listeners to take away is an emotional component. We write our music to hit-home and connect with anyone that can feel what it is we're saying when we pick up our instruments.
3. What can people expect from your live show?
An Altamadum show is raw-energy. Our set-lists always flow so there is rarely ever a lull in what is going on on-stage. People don't come to hear us talk and make jokes between songs, so we keep the interaction with the audience primarily to the music. We put on a show that we would want to see.
4. How has the response been to the "Levels" album? What's your favorite track to play live?
From what we've heard, the response to 'Levels' has been unreal and overwhelming, and has been noted for it's diversity. We tried out a few new things on this last album, such as bringing in a piano and experimenting with various sounds and styles. Each of us vary in our favorite tracks to play live, but as a band we all have a shared energy when playing 'Fallen Angels' together. We are able to feed off of each other, and the song has become a staple as an opener at our shows.
5. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
That's definitely not an easy question to narrow down to, but if we had to pick three that we could all agree on to tour with we'd have to go with Avenged Sevenfold, Billy Talent, and Three Days Grace.
6. Any crazy show stories?
The craziest show story we can recall took place in Oshawa, Ontario during our tour last summer. We were getting set to play to what had been a fairly tough crowd, giving all of the other acts a hard time. Shortly into our set, a group of young women had come into the bar, celebrating a birthday, and not expecting to find a 'rock' band on stage inside. The presumable 'birthday-girl' had her eyes set on our bass player and decided it would be fun to get up on stage next to him and grind up next to him. Following this, she picked up his water bottle and began whipping it around, spraying water all over the 'tough crowd'. After that bar loosened up and the rest of the night was a blast. Safe to say that it was an epic night all thanks to those lovely ladies!
7. What’s your take on the current state of rock?
There's a lot of depth to the genre of rock currently. You've got a lot of amazing new bands that are all coming in, making a name for themselves, but then you still have classic rock acts filling out 50-60,000 seat arenas. Rock is constantly going through an evolution, all the while keeping everything it represents at it's core, making it appealing to a huge demographic.
8. What’s the current music scene like there in Canada both locally and country wide?
Canada has an amazing music scene coast-to-coast. Vancouver and Montreal have become hotbeds in not only Canada but North America as well. Here in Thunder Bay, the music scene is trying to make a comeback after several years of disinterest from the community. This has been a result of our city being so isolated, making it hard for touring bands to make an impact on our listeners. Today there are a lot of great local bands playing a number of different genres which makes it appealing to a lot of people, and the venues have done a great job at finding a happy medium for their customers expectations.
9. What’s your take on legal/illegal music downloading?
Downloading music has become a way of life in todays world. Legally, it's an endless door for artists to get their music out to the masses. If a band is willing to release a song to help promote an albums worth of work, that piece should be free to circulate the globe and atract as many people as possible. Ideally, this should lead to more people going out and buying the album (or legally downloading it), but when entire albums begin to get downloaded illegally, it's only hurting the artists.
10. What’s next for Altamadum?
Our next step right away is beginning our third album. The last year has been non-stop for us after we put out 'Levels' and we're so excited to begin work on new music. We've been working on a lot of new ideas and sounds and really want to take our time in the recording process to make this our best album yet. We also love making music videos, so we're hoping to get some new one's out there soon for our fans. Being able to work with this label has got us all really pumped for the future, both with our goals and the unknown. it's definitely something we're excited about.
11. Any shoutouts?
A huge shoutout to each and every person that has continually supported us throughout our careers: The Byers', The Cole's, The Forneri's, The Elder's, The Thomas', Onur Altinbilek, Carly Hughes, Taylor Perrault, Enzo Riccio & everyone at Music World Academy, Jimmy Wiggins, Aviary Kings, and Don't You(,) Mean People.
