Meet Me @ the Altar have announced their debut album, ‘Past // Present // Future’.
The full-length is set to be released on 10th March, with the news accompanying the band performing latest single ‘Say It (To My Face)’ on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night (Thursday 19th January).
The band explains of the record: “The things we hold from our past inform who we are now and where we might go. This album pays homage to the music we loved growing up while reflecting our modern-day lives, sounds, and experiences – we can’t wait to share Past // Present // Future with the world.”
As part of our big 2023 albums preview in the new issue of Upset, out now, we tapped up MM@TA’s Téa Campbell to find out more about the new record. You can read more below.
Hi Tea! How’s it going? Are you looking forward to a brand new year?
Yoooo, it’s going fantastic! 2022 was our biggest year yet, and we’re just getting started, so I’m super duper excited to see what 2023 has in store for us.
We hear your debut album is nearly here – how’s it coming along? Is there much left to do?
It’s about time!! We just wrapped up the album officially (we kept writing songs we wanted to add to the album, so we delayed it ourselves, oops). This debut album is a collection of the best material we’ve ever written, honestly.
How did you approach curating the tracklisting? Was it tough to decide what to include?
It was super tough for us to decide the final tracklist because we ended up writing way more songs we loved than could fit on the album. We kind of made songs of similar vibes battle it out for a spot on the list, and the ones currently there are the strongest contenders out of the bunch. We just wanted to make sure we created the most cohesive album we possibly could.
Can you let us in on any of the track names? Do you have a favourite on there?
Our collective favourite is a track called ‘Kool’ (spelt with a ‘K’ ALWAYS!!!). It’s the love child of everything we’re into musically: rock’n’roll guitars with crazy catchy pop-inspired vocals on top. That one’s a head bopper for sure!
“We WILL win Grammys, we WILL play stadium tours!”
Téa Campbell
Do you think the record will surprise people?
I think fans of our old music might be a bit surprised that our sound has transitioned from breakdowns to groovier catchier melodies and progressions, but there’s something for everyone on this record. We didn’t stick ourselves in a box for this record and fused elements from all our favourite genres with rock.
Where do you hope the album will take you?
MM@TA will not stop until we reach world domination, and we hope this album will open the doors we’ve been dreaming of opening. We WILL win Grammys, we WILL play stadium tours!
What do you think are the key components of a really great debut album?
Cohesiveness is probably the most important component of a great album in general. We’re let down so often by albums that have two or three really good tracks, and the rest are so far off from the standard of the singles. Every song should be solid enough to stand on its own. For a debut specifically, we think it’s important to play around with pushing musical boundaries to prevent trapping yourself in a certain sound.
Is there anything else you can tell us?
We’ll be playing the majority of our debut album on our North American headliner this spring with Young Culture and Daisy Grenade!! It’s gonna be quite the party!!
What albums by other artists are you excited about for 2023?
We’re all super stoked for Paramore’s new album. Fingers crossed that we get to open for them one day.
Meet Me @ The Altar’s debut album ‘Past // Present // Future’ will be released on 10th March.
