altopalo have shared their celestial, yearning new single “starfish in low tide” via Nettwerk. The song was written in peak isolation, when everyone in the band was feeling that deep loneliness in a very heavy way. It comes from a place of feeling like running away when you’re near and also feeling like running back when you’re far. Listen to it now below.
The track reflects a moment in time the band had to work through together in 2020 while writing the new album. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder in the summer of 2020, drummer Dillon Treacy decided that he needed to take a step back from the band as the only Black member of a group otherwise made up of white people, at least until they could all take some time to reflect. This lasted a couple of weeks and wasn’t something that they publicly talked about on social media, but Dillon’s leave of absence led altopalo to realize how they needed to be with each other in order to make music and relate to each other.
About “starfish in low tide,” bassist Jesse explains, “The starfish became a stand in character emphasizing the concept of needing space & needing to unwrap one’s self from each other’s hive vines & carve an individual path- a need for individual ambition & hard lines between identities. Not necessarily leaving for good or leaving out of spite, but leaving because sometimes it’s hard to tell who is who when we are all trying to be one all the time.”