Originally meeting at Pappy and Harriet’s in 2015, musicians Rachel Dean and Tim Paul Gray turned their respective solo acts into a full band three years ago, resulting in a soulful and beautifully focused operation that sounds like they could have thrived in both the Seventies and Eighties. Together in harmony, Starlight Cleaning Co. recall the great male-female duos such as Buckingham Nicks, Sonny & Cher, Gram & Emmylou and John Doe & Exene.
Dean and Gray’s voices tower over these tunes with an uncanny chemistry – she sings in a soaring, perfect pitch, belted straight from the heart and performed with a natural fervor that could single handedly bring back the power ballad. Gray is an authentic pop crooner whose timbre balances zeal and verve, trimmed with a touch of twang.
Recorded at Dean and Gray’s home studio, Starlight Sound, where Vetiver recorded their 2019 record Up On High, Starlight Cleaning Co. was produced by LA/SF blue-eyed-soul and soft rock troubadour Bart Davenport (The Bedazzled, The Loved Ones, The Kinetics) and engineered by LA’s “indie king” Joel Jerome (Dios, Cherry Glazerr, La Sera). Additionally, mentor and recently departed friend, the influential roots musician and singer-songwriter Neal Casal, contributed his stellar guitar work to the album, resulting in a powerful, sincere and ageless record that swirls cosmic Americana of the High Desert with shimmering and forward-thinking indie songcraft.
Starlight Cleaning Co.’s songs are laced with barbed melodic hooks that dig deeper into your heartstrings with repeated listens. From the dreamy twang of “Train Wreck” to introspective songs such as “The Race” (feat. lead and melodic rhythm guitar by Casal) and “Sooner Than You Learn,” which take a look at love, partnerships, self-medication, self-destruction and the need to simply slow down, the album is a hopeful examination of the human experience during life-altering times.
“This record is a reflection of our life together as well as the individual paths that led us here: the struggles, uncertainty, the hopefulness and love,” Dean says of the forthcoming album. “We hope that it resonates with others in their lives and brings us together as we all seem to deal with these common themes. We dedicate this album, in loving memory, to our dear friend Neal Casal.”
