[Cover photo credit to Jarrett Edmund]

Following the singles “I Found a River” and “Rabbits” the band Starpainter have released their new album Cayenne Flowerbed. This follows their 2023 album Rattlesnake Dream.

Produced in Calgary by Chris Dadge, who also plays drums with Alvvays and Chad VanGaalen, Cayenne Flowerbed began as a project that Starpainter’s principle singer/songwriter Joel Stretch says grew to become their most collaborative to date.

He says:

I’m always seeking greater artistic freedom. I love albums that feel like they’re searching and taking risks artistically.

Creating this album was a process of trying things out and it turned out different than I could have predicted going into it. There was a real sense of exploration as we recorded this one that I haven’t always allowed myself on previous projects. All six of our personalities come across pretty strongly and really shaped this album, and Chris really jumped in as a significant collaborator and artistic contributor as well.

The band come from Lethbridge, a city in southern Alberta that serves as the hub of the local rural community, and Starpainter likes to think of itself similarly as “a little bit town, and a little bit country.” That’s true of the new album, sonically, too.

In combining these elements, Starpainter shows they are a band “determined not to be pigeonholed”, but instead evolve with each album.

As Joel Stretch says:

I guess the through-line with the artists that inspire me the most is longevity and a willingness to try out bold ideas and create something that reflects wherever they’re at.

Starpainter takes Cayenne Flowerbed on the road in Canada beginning Sept. 18.