CLOUDS OF THE WEST is Curtis Andreen and Quentin Ertel.

CLOUDS OF THE WEST rose from the 20 year hiatus of The Tremens, a bombastic garage-surf trio that took very few prisoners in the late 1990s and early 2000s, recording two albums for Shaky Records, one of which producer Steve Wold called “the best record to ever come out of my studio.” Steve’s studio was Moon Music in Olympia, WA. And there were some very, very important records that came out of his studio.

Over nearly five years, through fits and pauses, songs were sent back and forth, sculpted, polished, smashed, considered, cast aside, electrified. In March of 2020, when the world slowed down, we sped up. Curtis built a studio in the basement of his dog-filled home in Madison, WI. Eventually, Quentin showed up with a guitar and plugged into a borrowed 1965 Gibson Falcon amplifier. Curtis fired up his Juno.

The sky moved above Curtis’s house. The ancient became new.

CLOUDS OF THE WEST was born.