Day Labor puts final touches on debut album

Ska-punk band Day Labor strides forward in a new direction as it anticipate the release of is first studio album early next year.

Hailing from Pittsburg, Calif., the originally two-man band started with high school friends Christian Munoz and Ernie Perez in 2006. They saw it as nothing more than a way to have fun with friends playing music together.

It became serious in 2011, when new songs were being written and new members were being recruited. What started as a two-man jam session turned into a nine-piece band and they haven’t looked back since.

Currently, the band is getting ready for the release of its first album, with 10 songs that were written over the past eight years since the band’s formation.  This release is very special to them because it was recorded in an actual studio as opposed to earlier demos that were not recorded with top-quality equipment. Their first full-length recorded album will be released in early 2015.

The band’s line-up now consists of Terrance Williams on vocals, Fernando Lozano on drums, Tony Fontana on bass, Christian Munoz on guitar, Diego Marquez on guitar, Isaac Fematt on tenor sax, Javier Munoz on the trumpet, Aaron Craig on the trombone and Marcus Bettencourt on the baritone sax.

Normally practicing as a group once a week they are not taking any chances when it comes to perfecting their set for their upcoming show.

“Right now we are actually getting ready to play a Halloween show,” said Williams, “where we will be covering our favorite band Streetlight Manifesto and are going to be playing a bunch of their songs, but for this show we didn’t have as much time to learn the songs and prepare as we liked, so we’re meeting multiple times a week to practice.”

Their writing process starts off with a single riff or collection of chords. After the basic structure is done, other components start to get added such as drums, bass, horns and lyrics. Once other components are laid, the decision of whether they move forward with the song is based on if they feel what they have so far is enjoyable to play or listen to. If it is not, it won’t be turned into a full song.

Horn players Munoz and Craig are classically trained guitar players. Munoz and Marquez are influenced by punk and ska music, drummer Lozano is into Latin, jazz and gospel music, and bassist Fontana is into a mix of everything. With such diverse musical influences, Day Labor said they’ve tried to make its musical style it has own.

“Many people have told us we have a unique sound and don’t quite know how to describe us but really enjoy it,” said Marquez.

As for future plans, Day Labor hopes to one day play its music all around the West and East Coast, but for now the group is staying local in the Bay Area to hone their skills as a band.