Rural Alberta Advantage Stick to Their Bass-Less Guns on 'Departing'

These days, Toronto's Rural Alberta Advantage are content with their configuration, but there was a time when they worried they were undercutting their sound by forgoing a bass player.

"When we first started recording it was hard for people to understand: 'Nope, there's just three of us. Nope, there's no bass,'" singer-keyboardist Amy Cole tells Spinner. "The difference between then and now is that now we know what we want to be doing, whether it's the right thing or not."

Given the explosive response to their 2008 debut, 'Hometowns,' and the subsequent fanfare surrounding their forthcoming release, 'Departing,' anyone taking shots at the band because of their cozy lineup doesn't have the most compelling case.

"The last couple years of playing so many shows in front of different people and seeing their response has helped with confidence," says frontman Nils Edenloff, who's happy to be heading back out on the road in March touring across North America in support of the new record. "It's like, 'Oh, we weren't doing something weird. It might have been a little different, but we were on the right track.'"

Watch Rural Alberta Advantage's Video for 'Drain the Blood
"It's hard to stick to your stuff when people are asking, 'Why aren't there X, Y, or Z?'" adds Cole. "But it's exciting that we stuck to our guns and now we have a new record."

And it's a record that fans have been clamouring for ever since lead single 'Stamp' was unveiled in December. Bouncing between sentimental tunes like 'North Star' and 'Coldest Days' -- both mirror the pretty, introspective lullabies heard on 'Hometowns' -- and lively barn-burners such as 'Muscle Relaxants' and 'Tornado '87,' the LP, which stands as a companion to their debut, proves once and for all that Rural Alberta Advantage have no need to add to their ranks.