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Artist
Damon Castillo Band
12+ albums
bluesrockacousticindiesinger-songwriter
about
To the Damon Castillo Band, Laurel Lane is more than a studio on a street near some old train tracks in the hills of San Luis Obispo, California. It is home. Strewn with vintage amps, tattered couches, and recording equipment bought piece-meal over the last five years, it is the hearth that has beckoned, soothed, and housed the band through life’s many ups and downs. Like the place that has been described as everything from a boxing ring, to a church, to a hideout, the highly anticipated new album, Laurel Lane, is an emotional autobiography that contains a band’s long history within its walls. It was clear from the beginning that their path is not an ordinary one. Combining the talent of Kristian Ducharme (keys), Jennings Jacobsen (drums), and Larry Kim (saxophone) with Damon’s prolific songwriting, vocals, and guitar chops, the band creates a sound that is a statement among this day of manufactured music. Each member is a master-musician with a diverse past playing jazz, funk, rock, and soul. Their prowess comes through on every note, dynamically punctuating Damon’s soulful lyrics, at times mournful, and often larger than life. Damon describes the process of taking their unique sound and “distilling” it down, “Duke Ellington had it right when he said, ‘If it sounds good, it IS good.’ The guys and I don’t care about genres or style lines…It’s nothing that I consciously maneuver; I just try to make it feel right.” More than anything, the record is a throw-back to the old da
