Fredericton psychedelic rockers Chillteens have been busy working on new music over the past several months. This week they will take a break from the studio to get back on stage for their first live show of the year.
Matt Carter
Chillteens have been noticeably absent from local stages so far this year. This weekend the band will return to its familiar stomping grounds to headline a four band lineup at The Cap on Thursday night.
Since releasing the album Green Tea in 2021, the group have, up until last fall, remained fairly consistently with live performances. Throughout the past winter, Chillteens has been working in the studio with engineer Dylan Ward to record their next full length, expected to arrive in earbuds sometime later this year.
“I wasn’t working much during the pandemic which meant I had a lot of time to work on music,” said Chillteens’ founder Oscar Tecu. “I actually felt like music was my full time job since I was dedicating so much to time writing, recording, mixing, and all that fun stuff.”
Since the start of the pandemic, Tecu recorded and produced two full length albums: Toddler Country, his solo debut as Lil Omar, and Chillteens debut, Green Tea. For the band’s next album, the group decided to move away from self-producing and have since entrusted their new music to engineer Dylan Ward at Shiftwork Studios.
“We went into the Shiftwork with ideas and sort of half written songs,” said Tecu. “We’ve never quite done it like this before, but we’re writing the songs as we track them. The process has been quite different from Green Tea since those songs were finished and had been incorporated into our sets already.”
Ward had previously worked with the group tracking drums for their last album.
“Last year, we were trying to figure out who we wanted to work with and we all agreed Dylan was the right person since he knows our music and we’ve had the best time working with him in the past. We’re super excited to have Dylan on board to help us record and produce this record.”
Tecu said the band have been inviting guest musicians to join them in the studio over their recent sessions, something he believes will help distinguish the band’s new material from anything they have done previously.
“This album will sound a little different than our last one. Of course, we love to get trippy and wild with our songs but this time we will feature some special guests, and you can expect some more synths and weirdo sounds like that!”