By Gary Wien
originally published: 05/14/2021
Hoboken based singer-songwriter Brett Altman released "Waiting" on Friday, May 14th. This is the latest single from his upcoming album, Not Quite Love. "Waiting" is about overcoming the fear of rejection in order to tell someone how you truly feel.
"We often search for the 'right time' to have this conversation, yet the 'right time' is a figment of our imagination," explained Altman. "While it’s human nature to picture every possible scenario, it’s extremely rare that life plays out as we envisioned. In fact, the longer we bite our tongue, the more agonizing it can be become. If this sounds familiar, make that phone call. Write that letter. Send that text. What are you waiting for?"
After spending the latter half of 2020 and early 2021 in the studio, Altman says he is excited to start releasing music off of his first album, Not Quite Love. Each month going forward, he will be sharing a new single off the project until the full album is released in late 2021.
"Some songs come flying off the page, but ‘Waiting’ was definitely a slow burn," said Altman. "Chris Pattwell and I spent almost 6 months writing the music and lyrics for this song. Originally, we had a very traditional 'four on the floor' guitar groove in the verses, but Chris encouraged me to try playing something different before cementing that choice. Spur of the moment, I ended up taking those same verse chords and playing them with much more energy and a free flowing rhythm (and thought we might use this in the bridge). Instead, we opted to kick off the song with it and that is the intro you hear today. We felt this change would more accurately capture the song’s true nature and sense of urgency in the message."
To get an early sneak peek of other songs on the album, you can sign up for his e-mail newsletter community here.
Since moving to Hoboken, New Jersey in 2015, Altman has established himself in the Tri-State area music scene through gigs at Rockwood Music Hall, The Bitter End NYC, The Bowery Electric, and other local venues. His music is a fusion of pop and folk, with songwriting that illuminates moments of everyday life. His biggest musical influences are John Mayer, Jason Mraz, and Dave Matthews.
You can follow Brett Altman on Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, and Twitter.
About the author:
Gary Wien has been covering the arts since 2001 and has had work published with Jersey Arts, Upstage Magazine, Elmore Magazine, Princeton Magazine, Backstreets and other publications. He is a three-time winner of the Asbury Music Award for Top Music Journalist and the author of
Beyond the Palace (the first book on the history of rock and roll in Asbury Park) and
Are You Listening? The Top 100 Albums of 2001-2010 by New Jersey Artists. In addition, he runs New Jersey Stage and the online radio station
The Penguin Rocks. His personal website is at
lightyscorner.com. He can be contacted at
[email protected].
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