Bay Station

ONLYROCKRADIO.COM

1.    What's your name? Bay Station

2.    Where are you from? Alameda, CA

3.     Tell us how your journey has been from your beginnings until now.

For their third studio recording Other Desert Cities (April 27, 2018), Bay Station sought inspiration amid the stark, natural beauty of the Mojave Desert. While their first two releases, Your Own Reaction (2014 under their former name, KCDC) and Go Out and Make Some (2016) reflected the coastal landscape of their home in Alameda, California, the 10 songs on Other Desert Cities were written by Bay Station co-founders Deborah Crooks and Kwame Copeland during several week-long writing retreats in Joshua Tree. Their experiences and impressions of the desert town adjacent to its namesake National Park inform the recording, which details the strange, poetic, and distinctly American stories of desert denizens, both animal and human.

As they did on their previous two releases, Deborah Crooks (vocals, principal lyricist) and Kwame Copeland (guitar, dobro, vocals, harmonica) co-produced Other Desert Cities with Mike Stevens. Stevens (Sun Kil Moon, The Uptones) also played drums, mixed the record, and recorded three of the tracks at his Lost Monkey studio in Hayward, CA. Along with Ben Bernstein (bass) and Steve Waters (guitar, backing vocals), they recorded most of the album at Gatos Trail studio in the Mojave, among the Joshua trees and creosote, with engineer Dan Joeright. Ben Bernstein also recorded and engineered “Fire Song” and “Trickster Moon” at Petting Zoo Studio in Oakland, CA. Upon joining the band in late 2017, bass player Chris Veenstra contributed to several songs on the record, as did guest musicians Michael McNevin(electric and slide guitar), and Joan Reuter (fiddle). The album was mastered by Ken Lee (JJ Grey & Mofro, Bill Frisell) in Oakland.

4.    Tell us about your musical style, influences: Americana, Tom Petty, Lucinda Williams, Rosane Cash, Johnny Cash, The Band, JJ Cale, Wilco, Bob Dylan, Calexico, 

5.    What has been your last project?  Other Desert Cities releases April 2018 (we released Go Out and Make Some in 2016)

6.    And the next thing you have planned? Tour the record

7.    Upcoming concerts, events  March 10, Niles House Concert; March 11, Alameda Garden Concert, April 29 CD Release in Berkeley, CA, at The Starry Plough

8.    Links of interest: twitter.com/baystationband; instagram.com/baystationband; facebook.com/baystationband

9.    What's else? Thank you!