The ethereal washed sounds of psychedelic rock band Sun Dog have been permeating Albuquerque’s music scene for almost half a decade. Now with both an EP and album under their belt, the group has been touring out of state to share their music across the nation.
Sun Dog is comprised of vocalist/guitarist Colin Roxford, guitarist/organist Jon Deyhle, drummer Maxwell Graves and bassist Luz Allison. It originated four years ago as dddiamonddd, a rock band.
The trio, without a permanent bassist, would congregate at Deyhle and Graves’ house to practice. Allison, who was a guitarist at the time, switched to bass and helped the newly formed band play shows.
Thereafter the group became Sun Dog, a name coined by Roxford after he mistook several light beams from a New Mexican sunset as the solar phenomenon of the same name.
In 2014 the band released “Before Spain,” their first EP. It was tracked at Push-Drive Studios, a local recording venue frequented by the band. However, its production and availability have since been discontinued.
Sun Dog’s 2015 debut album “Just a Dream” was recorded thereafter at the same studio, in only two days.
“I think [Just a Dream] came out to be a good representation of us at that time.” Roxford said. “In terms of what we were doing and what effects we were using live.”
Audio engineer Lee Sillery of Push-Drive Studios mixed and produced both releases, and acknowledged the growth of the band in between recording sessions.
“They put out [Before Spain] during those sessions and it helped to garner a bunch of shows,” Sillery said. “When they came back their confidence was through the roof. They had their mind set on producing an album and so [Just a Dream] came out stellar. It was a lot of fun to make it, and we did some experimental things that turned out sounding sonically amazing.”
Both releases were written by the band through an individual process, with each musician somehow contributing to the final product in both instances.
“We write all our songs differently,” Allison said. “Generally we’ll start a jam session and we’ll work our way into something. Songs like “Jonny Bifter” were spontaneous though. Like a musical sneeze.”
The band’s latest release is a 12” vinyl split with local rock band You, exemplifying both local artist’s styles and sounds.
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Most recently, Sun Dog embarked on an ambitious west coast tour, hitting destinations from Flagstaff, Arizona to Portland, Oregon. The three week, 4,500 mile journey was deemed a success by the band as they met a plethora of fans and artists alike.
“We were booking shows on the road.” Roxford said. “You would think that when you set out, it’s like, work’s done. Nope. And then we had to find places to stay. In some places, you can’t.”
Among their novel encounters was analog liquid light show collective Mad Alchemy, a group of artists who use projectors and oils to drape musicians in vivid psychedelic displays. Sun Dog was fittingly able to use their visuals for a live act.
With the tour done, the band has focused their efforts on promoting Albuquerque’s role as a music destination for traveling bands and fans.
“We’ve been trying to get more involved with Albuquerque’s scene, like more involved in booking shows that aren’t even ours,” Roxford said. “Just promoting Albuquerque in any way we can, because if somebody does good then we all do good.”
Check out more of Sun Dog at https://sundogtheband.bandcamp.com/ as well as Mad Alchemy at https://www.facebook.com/mad.alchemy.5.
Audrin Baghaie is a culture reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
