Down West

Every song, a single. Catchy but subversive. Pain + pleasure.

DOWN WEST is an alt rock trio. Featuring songwriter Steve Stanard on guitar, Theo Waddell on drums, and Ron Feliciano on bass, it's the kind of indie music that could only be grown in Southern California.

With their new single, “Are You Mad?,” Down West has debuted a new sound, highlighting the free yet straightforward styles of all three players. A new full EP will follow up.

Down West has released one album, "The Land of California," and two EPs, "Horror Vacui Part 1" and "Horror Vacui Part 2" in the last couple of years. The band is now playing live again with shows around Southern California.

Down West was #9 on the ReverbNation Los Angeles Alternative Music chart in January of 2019. Four Down West songs were featured in the recent PBS film, “A CONCRETE RIVER: Reviving the Waters of Los Angeles.”

"Down West has captured Folk-Rock at its essence, from tone all the way to it's short, focused lyrical delivery, still full of impact from loaded poetic references like "a swine-resistant pearl," "smoking engines laughing," and a "sea of human purpose." Elements like the inclusion of harmonica pay homage to the band's musical ancestors, while the driving bass line presents something current, living, and fresh, unexpected yet certainly not out of place. The band's compositional choices do a great job of varying more stark, poignant passages with the track's warmer, more inclusive refrain, and continues to build with the addition of harmonica and supplementary vocal layers in a sonic representation of the wave of environmental activism they describe. The outro is a warm continuance of the through thread of bass, and gives a sense of continuation and life to the track that lives on, even after it has ended."

–Review of "A Billion Strong" by Mary Wildsmith at RadioAirplay