Próxima Parada

"Best Live Performance goes to the evening’s closing act, Próxima Parada, whose blue-eyed soul sounds are sonic gold...."

"The final act of the evening, Próxima Parada, which won both first and second place in the Blues/R&B Category with “See These Eyes” and “Climb to Love,” brings on their blue-eyed soul. The four young, handsome, just-out-of-college dreamboats waste no time winning over the crowd and the judges, who deliberate for just a few minutes after the closing set, to award Próxima Parada Best Live Performance!" - New Times San Luis Obispo

Andy Olson raises his drumsticks in the air and looks to his left. “One, two, three, four.” Nick Larson leans in and presses his fingers into the keys of his red instrument, kicking off the song with a bluesy, gospel of a melody. To his right, guitarist Bryson Bailey joins in, bending his knees in time and edging toward the microphone. Then, a deep bass fills the underbelly of the tune as its owner, Kevin Middlekauff, looks through his long, curly blonde hair back to Olson, until the rhythm of the snare pins the sounds together. “Oh, last call,” Larson sings. The last note of Larson’s bright voice fills the small room as he croons, leaning back and closing his eyes. “Mmm, your request better come in soon.” All four smile. This is Próxima Parada, playing “Believin’ is Hard” — one of five songs on the San Luis Obispo band’s first-ever EP, “Makes You Wanna,” released Saturday at Boo Boo Records during Record Store Day. In Harmony The EP, from conception to final product, was put together in just a few weeks. The group recorded in a converted creamery in Harmony, Calif., and in one day of studio time and less than three takes for each track, an album was made. “The whole thing was just a great vibe,” Middlekauff said. “It contributed to the energy, and you feel like we’re having fun when you’re listening to the album.” Próxima Parada’s sound on the EP is a collaboration of the members’ personalities and different backgrounds in music. “There’s a lot of contributing factors,” Bailey said. “We have a lot of influences — blues, jazz, soul, rhythm and blues, groovy aspects … We kind of analyzed our style of music and thought about what kind of sound we want to be coming out on the actual CD.” The songs were recorded on a 2-inch analog tape from the 1960s “to add a natural compression,” Bailey said. “The guy had this machine from the ’60s,” Bailey said, “and he hadn’t used this machine in like 15 years … we had to bake the tape for a couple hours on really low heat to get the moisture out because the adhesives they used to put the compounds together get really gummy over time, so we baked it to make sure it worked.” Próxima Parada chose the analog tape, and recorded the tracks live, in order to preserve the raw authenticity of the band’s music. “It doesn’t sound like 2013,” Olson said. “More than anything else, it just captures how we sound live. We didn’t add anything. It’s just a good picture, hopefully, of exactly what we sound like live. We just got to jam together and feed off of each other’s energy.” While the diverse album tends to favor jazzy tempos, the soulful sound is abandoned mid-EP for the twangy, lively, dance diddy “Porch Stompin’.” “The second half of Porch Stompin’ is this snippet where we say, ‘Show me the next stop’ — Get it? Next stop? — in a four-part harmony,” Larson said. “We did that in the first take, staggered all around the microphone. It worked out perfectly the first time. I was so stoked on that; we didn’t know what the hell we were going to do and it just worked out.” While everyone in the band agreed that no song took precedence over any other, the last track on the EP, titled “Makes You Wanna,” is one Bailey holds close to heart — he wrote it as a tribute to his mom, who is currently battling stage four breast cancer. “She’s just always looking out for everyone to have fun,” Bailey said. Bailey, who writes most of the songs alongside Larson, also had the idea for the album cover, which was photographed at Montaña de Oro. “We wanted the album picture to not look rehearsed, like we were posing for it, but be a super sincere picture,” Bailey said. “So we thought, like, what’s the best way to take a sincere picture? Let’s dress up in Goodwill suits, jump in the ocean at 5:30 in the morning, get freezing cold, roll in the sand and see what happens.” It started with a couch The spark started when Larson and Bailey joined as a folk duo, but it was a couch-surfing experience that brought the whole group together. Around that time, Larson’s roommate, Kevin, decided to let a couchsurfer — named Myles — stay a night on his sofa. Myles, the original trumpet player for Próxima Parada, had decided to save money (for the trip to South America he is currently on) and rented out his room while hopping around San Luis Obispo from couch to couch. “So, we hosted him, and he brought his trumpet, and we jammed,” Larson said. “Myles immediately said, ‘Let’s start a band.’ We said OK, but we thought it was a joke.” Myles also thought of the name Próxima Parada from riding the local buses. The group immediately loved it. “He said to us, ‘You know, I’ve been saving this. It’s called “Próxima Parada,’ and we all just said, ‘Yes,’” Larson said. Próxima Parada, now made up of all Cal Poly graduates, played its first public show shortly after the naming in January 2012 at SLO Donut Company. A few months later, Middlekauff jumped into the mix, and by July, when Olson joined, the five-man band was in full swing — and hasn’t slowed down since. The group has performed at more than 15 different venues and events, from venues such as Creekside Brewing Company to events such as Art After Dark, and more recently, Santa Barbara’s Lucidity Music Festival. “Playing at Lucidity felt really official because we had a whole sound crew and our audience members were all unknown to us, which is not the case when we play in SLO,” Larson said. “I guess right now, we’re trying to broaden our scope and go to the next level, taking all the necessary steps to get out of SLO, play a couple of music festivals and see where that goes.” But Larson said the band loves the intimate feel of performing in San Luis Obispo and called the constantly growing fanbase here a “huge blessing.” “When we play at Creekside, we feel so fortunate that friends, and friends of friends, come out to support us to the extent that the place fills to capacity and people have to wait outside,” Larson said. “That is something that we never expected to happen to us.” Fire, water, earth, wind The band members sit at Linnaea’s Café — their coffee shop of choice — as they discuss their upcoming performances: a music festival, a winery, a record store. The band’s success comes not just from talent, but also from an uncanny bond as a group. The group, now down to four members, spends most of its time together — whether or not they’re playing music. “I think the people I hang out with the most on a day-to-day basis are these three here,” Bailey said, motioning to his bandmates. Bailey’s legs are outstretched, his brown hair falling out from beneath his baseball cap. To his left sit Larson and Middlekauff — one with crossed legs and curly, dark hair swept into a ponytail and a big grin, the other in a green T-shirt, foot on the bench, hugging his knee. To Bailey’s right, Olson sits quietly, head leaning intently to one side. “I think that’s the reason why it works really well,” Bailey says. “We have different personalities, that complement each other. It creates a better balance. Where Nick (Larson) and I may be more intense sometimes, and they (Middlekauff and Olson) are a lot more laid-back.” “Yeah,” Middlekauff chimes in. “Andy and I are the yangs.” Larson: “Fire and water.” Middlekauff: “Earth and wind.” Bailey: “Heart and soul.” Middlekauff: “And together, we make Próxima Parada.” Back at Boo Boo Records, Record Store Day celebrators pause from album-perusing as the “heart and soul” sounds of Próxima Parada captures their ears. The crowd draws closer to the stage as the next song begins. Olson taps the cymbals, his shoulders rolling to the groove. “We’re selling our new EP,” Bailey shouts, “if you like what you hear.” Bailey’s brown shoes tap along to his guitar. Middlekauff’s bass fills the melody. Larson’s head bobs as jazz pours out of his keyboard. The music pauses for a second and four feet tap in time, then all at once, the song kicks back into full swing as Bailey’s warm, husky voice travels through his mic, the keyboard riffs a jazzy line and Olson’s cymbals splash over the melody. The band is surrounded by thousands of albums, records of dozens of music genres and styles, but one thing is for sure — the next stop for many of these music-lovers is Próxima Parada. - Mustang News

Local folk/soul band Próxima Parada is taking the next step in its musical journey by launching an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign on Feb. 7 to raise money for its next album.
For one month, people will be able to donate through Indiegogo to help support the band. The band’s initial goal is to raise $15,000 and the stretch goal is ultimately around $18,000.
“We kind of worked out all the funding and all of the financial side with just recording the album and getting out there with CDs, but as far as launching it, it takes a ton of marketing that adds up,” percussionist Andy Olson said.
The extra money for the stretch goal is to put the album on vinyl and to give the band a bit more to launch it, he said.
The band is also demonstrating its appreciation by giving back to those who extend their generosity.
“Depending on what you give us, we’ll give it back,” Nick Larson (vocals, rhythm guitar, banjo) said. “We’re going to be giving some awesome shit out.”
As self-managers, the members of Próxima Parada focus on the business component of being a band, as well as the musical component.
“We’re finding the balance between the creative side of the band and making that so it’s never compromised, but we’re also staying on top of the business side,” Bryson Bailey (vocals, rhythm and lead guitar) said.
You can’t just be a party animal and be in a band anymore; it’s too competitive, Olson said. They have to show they can play the music and be dedicated, on top of handling the business side, he said.
As the campaign runs for a month, so will the recording of Próxima Parada’s full-length album. It will feature approximately 12 songs.
The quartet looks forward to the outcome of the full-length album, after their EP was released in April 2013.
“We recorded our EP in one day and then mixed and mastered it in another,” Kevin Middlekauff (bass, mandolin, banjo) said. “It’s taking us a whole month to record this album, so the quality is going to be better because we have more time to focus on the songs.”
The recording will primarily take place in a studio rented in San Luis Obispo with audio engineer and producer Vincent Cimo.
It’s not a very conventional recording space, and the band has been talking to Vince a lot about cool, experimental techniques, Olson said. He said the quartet feels this environment will facilitate a lot of creativity.
The recording process is an art form just like writing or playing a song, Olson said.
“Our vision of the album is pretty live-sounding,” he said. “We’ve written all of our songs in a live setting, we’ve played all of our songs in a live setting — we feel like that’s what these songs have developed to be.”
Every facet of the band’s music — blues, jazz, folk, soul — will be represented, and it will be diverse, Larson said.
The album is expected to be released in July or August at the earliest.
The next stop for Próxima Parada: onward. - Mustang News

I’m listening to Próxima Parada, a new quartet of Cal Poly grads, two of whom (full disclosure!) were my students (How you doing, Nick Larson and Kevin Middlekauff? Long time no see!). They’ve got a soulful groove going, but not overly polished, and I’m digging the horn on “Who You Callin’?” Their track “Blues in Dijón” features crisp guitar work and that same soulful, dirty saxophone rolling through another bluesy groove. - New Times

It all began in January of 2012 when a close group of friends began jamming together with the idea of melding their individual styles to create sincere and meaningful music that keeps a good groove. The streets of San Luis Obispo were their first stage—and over the past year, Próxima Parada has grown musically and stylistically while performing at many of the Central Coast’s premier venues and music festivals. Próxima Parada released Makes You Wanna, their first extended play album on April 12th, 2013. Listeners describe their music as a dynamic blend of blues, soul, jazz, and folk, depending on the song, but the most important elements to their music are interesting rhythms, dynamic variability, and a strong sense of musical integrity. Depending on the venue, they perform sets that range anywhere from unadorned acoustic music that captures the atmosphere of a summer morning clear up to floor-stomping, dance numbers with enough passion to attract any open ears. The members of Próxima Parada live and perform as close friends, so their concerts are always energetic, loving, and intimate. - Music Inform

Nick Larson, Bryson Biley, Andy Olson and Kevin Middlekauff are PROXIMA PARADA, amazing local musicians taking the world my storm right now! - Q 104.5 - The Greatest Hits

“Próxima Parada means “next stop” in Spanish, but once you hop on the Próxima Parada bandwagon, you’re not going to want to get off. The artsy quartet blends rock, jazz, bluegrass, and Americana into an infectious sound. They’ve got a truly original sound.” - New Times SLO

Próxima Parada means “next stop” in Spanish, but once you hop on the Próxima Parada bandwagon, you’re not going to want to get off. The artsy quartet blends rock, jazz, bluegrass, and Americana into an infectious sound. They’ve got a truly original sound. - New Times