Charlie Higgins & Sunset Station
For a young husband, father and musician, Charlie Higgins has been around. Born in New York City, moving to Connecticut as a toddler, attending college outside his home state, doing a semester abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, (which turned into nine years)…and now residing right here in Bucerias with his wife and young son.
Charlie is the lead guitar and vocalist with his band, Sunset Station.
He says, “Music was always a really important part of my upbringing, my childhood. My parents love music, so on road trips we’d listen to entire albums by the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, and Fleetwood Mac. I went to a private school that had a lot of music, all the time. There were always these assemblies where 500 kids would be singing the same song, mostly old-time folk songs written for children, so that definitely left an impression.
I started on piano, but it was a bit too formal for me. I didn’t really like it that much…I did it ’cause I had to. My mom has a baby grand so I play on that now, sometimes. Nothing fancy, just chords, and I’ll sing along to some Beatles songs.
I started playing guitar when I was about thirteen – I wanted to be like my brother, he’s five years older. I didn’t like it at first and almost stopped, until I found music that I really loved ; Nirvana, Pearl Jam, music from the early ’90s. I later joined the high school jazz band and got right into jazz.”
“I went to college for music. I studied guitar at Oberlin. It’s a small conservatory basically in the middle of nowhere, like, in the corn fields of Ohio.”
Oberlin College boasts many successful alumni, including acclaimed artists such as folksinger Josh Ritter, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Alex Scally of the band Beach House, and Marc Cohn, who’s song “Walking in Memphis” was nominated for a Grammy. Impressive. I asked Charlie if, when he decided to study music and make it his career, did it feel like a big step? A little unknown? He laughed, and replied, “Yeah, I was constantly wrought with doubt! I did a double major with Jazz Performance and English with a minor in Spanish. That was my Plan B, which really became a Plan A. With my musical and writing background, languages really clicked with me and now I’m totally fluent in Spanish. I have been working as a professional translator for over ten years.”
“Focusing more and more on music.”
Since late 2020, “Charlie Higgins & Sunset Station” have travelled around the bay area, performing a variety of original songs as well as some good old favourites, much to the delight of audience members. Not only is Charlie the lead guitarist and lead singer, he also writes all the material for their original works.
What was it like putting your band together?
That was interesting, the way the band formed. I was playing with Xavier, our drummer, in a rock cover band and I was the bass player and sang backup. We had our gigs 3-4 times a week. The lead singer had to leave town for a few weeks and we were asked to hold down the gigs while he was away. I’m more of a guitar player than a bassist, so Xavier found a good Argentine bass player to join us. So we started out as a substitute band and did mostly acoustic folk, country and blues, so when the guy came back I said, ‘Listen, I can still play bass for you…but I’ve kinda got this thing going on.’ We shared the same bass player and drummer for about a year.
Sunset Station Sundays at “Frente al Punto Beach Club” Sayulita
Every Sunday, Frente al Punto Beach Club in Sayulita hosts the band. Charlie describes, “It started out real small and we didn’t have great equipment or anything, but the owner liked what we were doing and gave us a chance. Now it’s packed every Sunday. They started calling it Sunset Station Sundays. Mostly families who live there come, bring kids, dogs, their guests, or people just stumble upon the place, hearing us play as they walk the beach. It’s really grown into an event! It’s also led to a lot of cool opportunities.
I feel you are hugely successful. Do you feel that way?
Well, more than I would have thought, if you’d asked me ten years ago. I know the sky is the limit, but I’m pretty happy with what we’ve been able to achieve in the last three years, for sure. It’s all uphill, when you come into a new town, unless you’re someone like Miles Davis, you have to climb your way up. You’ve got to work well with others, build a reputation, find those who “speak your same language,” who understand what you do. There’s a lot of talent among the music scene here but it’s mostly covers, not new original music. And you’ve got to strike that balance between playing what you think people want to hear and also what you want to play, always trying to put your own spin on it. We are first and foremost a live band, but I want to focus more on releasing original music. I’ve kind of got the hang of mixing and mastering, and I feel the music I’m putting out is more than acceptable, from a technical standpoint. And I have lots of songs that I want to share. I’m hoping I’ll get to the point of releasing a new song once every two months or so. People come back to our shows knowing they can’t get what we’re giving them anywhere else. We incorporate a lot of our original music at every show, but I have no problem performing covers because people like it, and it helps inform my own songwriting.
The Band
Charlie Higgins – Lead Guitar, Vocals, Harmonica
Xavier Olazabal – Drums
Manu Arreola – Bass Guitar
Stephanie Ward a.k.a. Stevie Kixx – Vocals
Their own unique songs vary in content and storytelling, but all will make you feel a range of emotions, and there’s lots of tongue-in-cheek dark humour. As for the covers, you’ll join in clapping and singing along to old favourites from Neil Young, Grateful Dead, Van Morrison, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, and much more.
Charlie Higgins & Sunset Station play this Friday, February 10, at the Banderas Bay Music Festival, Los Arroyos Verdes
Summer 2022, you travelled with your Gringo Tour in Mexico. Are you working on a tour for this summer?
We have plans to go to Mexico City for at least 1-2 months, maybe August, September. The city has a very vibrant music scene for original music; it’s not just cover bands playing for the tourists. There are a lot of independent bands and a lot of networking opportunities, festivals we could maybe get into.
February 8 – available on all streaming platforms
Just Stay a Little Longer
The band released their EP, “Gringo,” in 2022. As a follow up, “Just Stay a Little Longer” is their latest album, which will be released in late spring/early summer. Charlie described the overall mood of the album. “A lot of the songs go back as far as 2010, just songs I’ve had on the back burner. Others were written within the last year. There’s a common thread when you listen to the lyrics – a longing for company in hard times. Whatever that means to you; your friends, your wife, maybe an ex. So this desire to at least have somebody by your side when the apocalypse is coming is a theme throughout the album. Kind of bitter sweet, I guess.’
What’s your favourite part? The writing? networking? playing?
It’s being on stage, absolutely. Being on stage when you know people are really engaged. When you see people spontaneously get into a congo line, or jumping up and down waving their arms, singing along, it’s a teeny sliver of what it must feel like for someone like Elton John playing in a big stadium, but in an even more authentic, intimate and tangible way, I think. That connection over a song people know, or one of your own songs…just knowing that the notes you’re playing, the way you’re singing, the rhythm all coming together magically, because it is magical, this effect on people to jump out of their routine. I believe it’s an essential part of being a human being, something universal that we’re tapping into as performing musicians, like cavemen dancing around the fire, you know?
Check out their fabulous video below – “Tale of a Lost Gringo”
Charlie recalls the inspiration for his song, “Tale of a Lost Gringo,” a fan favourite. “Sayulita has a real ‘Rest and Relaxation’ kind of vibe. A lot more gringos started coming from the United States during the pandemic and they’d arrive to Sayulita thinking, ‘I’m going to yoga, get in touch with my chakras, while I work remotely…’ I would see them arrive to our shows all fresh and looking healthy and relaxed. About a month later you see the same people at the same bar, every night, looking like they’ve had far too many late nights partying. So I wrote this song as somewhat of a parody and a cautionary tale for these folks.
What do you want people to know?
We are open, friendly people so come and say ‘Hi”. We usually play twice a week, in Sayulita and Murphy’s Irish Pub (Puerto Vallarta). Every show is different. We change the set list for every single gig, and rarely do we play the same song twice in one week. It’s a mix of originals and covers. Lots of fun things happen. We’re not just going through the motions, and there’s spontaneous eruption of dancing. We are also available for special events, weddings, and are open to collaboration
charliehigginsandsunsetstation.com
and find them on Facebook
All still photos credit: Carlos Winik http://instagram.com/carloswinik8/
