Dillon Sturtevant of Tomten had pretty much had it with the way the band was going – there was no inspiration and he says “I had reached a point with songwriting where I was just sick of guitar pop. Over a long winter my home demos grew more and more abstract, without much melody or structure.” Fortunately this was turn-around-able, all it took was an injection of classic British folk from quite different directions. As he says “I was listening to a lot of British folk stuff like the Watersons and Incredible String Band, and so was feeling drawn to that sort of dark fairy tale imagery. ‘Caterpillar Hill’ is a real place, but I just used it as a memory trick to get myself closer to that feeling.”
And that’s great – but to be honest if you can hear The Watersons in this song then you’re doing well (or badly, depending on how you look at it). Jangly guitar rock is certainly there though, and that’s pretty nice.
Seattle based Tomten have had a fluid line-up over the last 13 years, and their musical direction has changed more than once. Latest album ‘Artichoke ‘(out April 28) is a collaborative foray into psych folk, power-pop, and glam country and therefore sits well within Americana. Whether they’ll stay here or drift away to Synth Pop (again) who knows – but for now let’s just enjoy this.
Tomten are Brian Noyes: Vocals, Keys, Guitars, Bass, Dillon Sturtevant: Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Jake Brady: Guitars, Bass, Drums, Bryan Appleby: Drums, Vocals. And that’s a lot of drums and bass.
