Bay Station | East Bay Categorical

Alameda rockers have fun the American expertise 

Deborah Crooks and Kwame Copeland, the duo behind the Alameda primarily based band, Bay Station, write songs that flip the on a regular basis occasions that form lives into poetry. Their just lately launched EP, Past the Protected and Sound, takes on the COVID pandemic and different looming ecological disasters. 

“These songs have been written in the midst of the lockdown,” Crooks stated. “We weren’t solely confronted with the specter of COVID, however that of the final administration, the wildfires and different local weather change threats. In the course of the first six months, earlier than we knew how lengthy it was going to final, there was a weekly entrance porch live performance collection that we took half in. 

“Native residents, Jeewon Kim Serrato and Irene Nexica, put out a name in a Fb neighborhood group for native musicians to play on their porches at 6pm on Friday of the primary week of lockdown,” Crooks continued. “There was such a terrific response, they put out a Google Map every week, exhibiting taking part artists. Individuals would stroll and experience their bikes to numerous addresses and see a number of acts in a night. We have been comparatively secure in Alameda, but it surely was arduous to not really feel that would change anytime.”

The band, which additionally contains Steve Waters on lead guitar and backing vocals, was planning to document and produce the set on the studio of their drummer, Mike Stevens, in Connecticut. Stevens has produced different initiatives for the band, however when the pandemic put a cease to journey, they determined to document at their respective house studios as a substitute. 

“We had an thought of what we wished, so the method constructed on our years of working collectively. Steve’s electrical guitar elements have been recorded on our entrance porch, with Kwame engineering the session utilizing an Apollo Twin X DUO interface, together with a MacBook Professional and a wide range of microphones,” Crooks recalled. “[Kwame and I] despatched Ben (Bernstein, our bass participant) and Mike fundamental concepts with scratch vocals, acoustic guitars and a click on observe. After we had all of the elements recorded, and the tracks picked, we despatched it off to Mike to combine, and we guided the method collectively.”

Though it was put collectively remotely, Past the Protected and Sound appears like a stay set. Copeland and Crooks commerce lead vocals on “What to Do When the Lights Go Out,” a mid-tempo rocker. Stevens lays down an irregular beat that ups the strain, because the singers half sing and half speak to explain the pressures the lockdown imposed on them. “We have been nice, however the angst got here out within the lyrics,” Crooks stated. “Between the forest fires, and the ocean stage rise, and the truth that Alameda is an island, quite a lot of us have been having that dialog.” 

The band’s earlier launch, 2018’s Different Desert Cities, had a extra private strategy. Lots of these songs have been written throughout songwriting retreats Copeland and Crooks attended in and round Joshua Tree. The songs are about time and reminiscence, journey and desert imagery. It was recorded at Gatos Path Studio in Yucca Valley, with the band. “Since we wrote all of the songs within the desert, we thought it could be enjoyable to convey down the remainder of the band to document on the songs’ supply. We recorded most of it stay, in at some point,” Crooks defined.

The songs on Different Desert Cities showcase the band’s intensive musical chops. “Bay Station Wiggle” is a ’50s rocker, with a Chuck Berry affect, “Baja Blue” is an interesting nation waltz, whereas “Sands Of Time” has a bossa nova beat. “That [arrangement] owes a bit to Mike’s rhythms,” Crooks stated. “That’s the particular collaborative factor that occurs in a studio with different individuals. You’re open to altering the texture of a tune, should you’re working with individuals you belief.”

Bay Station got here collectively about 20 years in the past, when Crooks met Copeland. “I used to be born in Watsonville and went to UC Santa Cruz. I used to be a artistic child and was all the time writing and singing,” stated Crooks. “When the household busted up, that put the kibosh on my creativity for some time. 

“After school, I moved to Boulder, CO to bike race. Ultimately, I began taking lessons at Naropa [University, a Buddhist-inspired school], by its Jack Kerouac Faculty of Disembodied Poetics,” Crooks recalled. ”My artistic life began to flower, and I made a decision I wished to pursue the humanities. I moved again to California and began writing and singing.” 

Crooks pursued a solo profession for some time, releasing a number of albums beneath her personal identify. She usually debuted new songs at a weekly open mic at San Francisco’s Bazaar Cafe. “It was like a ending college for Bay Space songwriters. Kwame and I acquired to know one another by the Bazaar open mics and wound up in a songwriting critique group collectively. A couple of years later, we turned a pair,” she stated. They have been each pursuing solo careers and began writing collectively as an experiment in 2012. “We fashioned Bay Station out of that experiment. After we met Steve by one other native open mic, we invited him to hitch.”

For the reason that band’s formation, they’ve self–launched 4 collections, together with Past the Protected and Sound. “The music is on the same old digital platforms. You will get the music on the market pretty simply, however discovery is an ever-evolving algorithm that’s arduous to navigate,” stated Crooks. “All of us have day jobs of varied varieties, however I’m simply grateful we get to maintain on being artists.” 

The albums by Bay Station can be found on Spotify and thru the band’s web site:  baystationband.com.