A musician with Mapleton roots is set to release a new album with his band and will perform at a major music festival here later this month.
Marcus Retterath grew up on his parents’ small horse farm in the Conestogo Lake area. His first forays into the music world involved playing guitar in bands with his friends at Drayton Senior Public School and later while attending Norwell District Secondary School. With the latter, “we played a few gigs at events my friends would put on at the Legion and stuff like that.”
In 2008, he moved to Waterloo to study audio engineering and continued playing with a group of friends from the Palmerston area called Random Family.
“We did some gigs in the Toronto area,” he recalls.
Retterath’s current band, BamBoo, involves a collection of musicians he’s met since leaving home for university, including singer Steve Benjamins, bassist Mike Schmidt and drummer Nick Collett. The group has been performing together since December of 2013, playing a brand of music Retterath describes as “smart pop.
“It’s a pretty accessible kind of sound,” he states. “Not so pop-y that it turns people off, but it’s got enough melody that people are going to definitely going to enjoy the show.”
BamBoo’s first album, Mountains, released in 2014, was a self-recorded effort designed mainly to have something to send to venues and promoters “so that they could see you’re a legitimate act,” said Retterath.
“It’s done well for us just in terms of having something to give to people to show them what we’re all about,” he added.
The group is currently working on its second album Chances, set to be released on Sept. 10.
The release is set to coincide with the kickoff of a planned tour that will begin in Monteral and see the group playing eight shows in 10 days in venues on the way back home.
“We’re taking the new album a lot more seriously. We’ve got a producer we’re working with,” said Retterath.
Part of the new album will be created in Mapleton, he notes.
After the drums are recorded in Toronto, Retterath said, “We’ll be coming back to the farm to do a lot of the overdubs over a weekend.” Once the base, guitars and keyboard tracks are laid down, he explained, the group will return to Toronto to record the vocals.
In the meantime, the group is busy performing several gigs a month in Toronto and is set to appear at the North by Northeast Festival (NXNE), which will be held at various venues around the city, involving hundreds of artists, from June 17 to 21.
BamBoo will perform a set at The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern, taking the stage at 2am on Jan. 20.
While the early morning set time might sound “a little off-putting,” Retterath notes, “It’s actually one of better times to play because the Horseshoe has extended last call. So everybody just flocks to the Horseshoe for 2am.”
Tickets can be obtained through the festival website: nxne.com. Retterath says admission can also be purchased at the venue.
