After releasing their second album, the student–led band is breaking up
Stephanie vanKampen – The Aquinian
Members of The Station Agents sit around a table in the James Dunn Hall Cafeteria to plan their last performance. They joke about how fragmented their band is, and how it’s grown over the last four years.
“I don’t think there is one picture of the entire band together,” bassist Tyler Lombard said.
The Agents have a high turn-over rate. The line-up of the band has changed in almost every year of its existence.
Now the band has six members. Billy Fong is lead vocals and guitar, Tyler Lombard plays bass and back-up vocals, Colin Davis plays mandolin, Emily Cochrane plays baritone sax, Susan Ehrdhart is on keys and back-up vocals, and Mike Marshall is on drums.
Fong is the band’s creator and song-writer. He’d gotten the group together for a quick meeting on campus to iron out the details of their final show. A few members were missing, but they’re counting on everyone for their last big gig.
“It makes me sad,” Cochrane said. “It’s like we were a band, and then suddenly, it’s just done.”
“Yeah, it feels like things were actually just getting started,” said Marshall.
The Agents were just hitting their stride this year, finishing a record that’s been years in the making and headlining several fundraising shows.
“Things have really turned around in the last two months with the CD finally being done after five years in three different places, and just having the songs done and the CDs produced and then all the shows that we’ve been playing in the last few months,” said Fong. “And now it’s ending.”
Like so many things that come to a close upon graduation, The Station Agents will say their goodbyes at their farewell show on April 17 at Boom! The show is appropriately dubbed “The Last Stand.” The band is hoping to promote they’re newly-released self-titled album.
“This CD has been four years in the making. Because some tracks were recorded in Halifax, with Tyler and Jeremy, and the rest of them were recorded here. Four or five tracks were recorded at St Thomas.”
Fong says he had a lot of help getting the record produced from Jeffrey Carleton at STU.
The band will be selling their album at the April 17 show at Boom! The show starts at 8 p. m. and cover is $2.
