'A fun almost 80s throwback pop': Meet Calm Baretta, P.E.I.'s latest music trio

P.E.I.'s newest music group, Calm Baretta, just released their first single Chilly Bones earlier this week.

Though the group is new, the musicians have been around the province for quite some time.

Islanders may know Josh Carter as the singer for Coyote, Nigel Haan as the bassist for Dylan Menzieand Laura Oakie as the keyboard player for the Liam Corcoran band.

For Carter, the forming of a group just made perfect sense. At one point, he said, it became "so obvious and so clear."

The origin story

The band began as a friendship.

Carter and Oakie started hanging out together roughly five years ago,Cartersaid, wherethere always seemed to be aguitar or keyboard in whateverroom they were in.

You have to do something with this- Nigel Haan

They twojammed together and played a few shows around Charlottetown.

After sometimeCarter said they asked themselves, "Why don't we add a couple members to this thing and really make these songs bigger and better."

Calm Baretta

Haan saw Carter and Oakie open for Dylan Menzieand approached them right after their set.

"You have to do something with this," he remembers telling the two.

Back then he wasn't thinking about joining himself, he recalls,only that Oakie and Carter had something special. Haansaid he later set aside time from his schedule with Dylan Menzie to play with what would later become Calm Baretta.

Calm Baretta's sound is something Oakie describes as "a fun almost 80s throwback pop" with lots of "harmonies and weirdYamahakey sounds."

It's a sound that started more likefolk music and later developed as the music "took on its own entity," Oakie said.

Where to check them out

Oakie said they plan on releasing another single this fall and hope to release a full album sometime next year.

But Islanders won't have to wait until then.

You can listen to them streaming online now and check them out at the Sportsman's Club on Sept. 9.

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