For the past 17 years, St. Range has been tweaking a traditional desert rock recipe – and the spelling of their name for reasons you’ll soon find out – refining their sound into a delicious, potent elixir that tastes like it was brewed with high-altitude Rocky Mountain spring water. Each member of the infectiously idiosyncratic quartet contributes to the group’s vocal composition – even drummer Braden Anderson – but bassist Andy Diekmann, lead singer/guitarist Justin Lindsey and guitarist William Lowery also serenade their listeners with sandy-sounding riffs and grooves. Most of the members in St. Range are multi-instrumentalists (well versed in mediums such as saxophone and keyboard), but they generally stick to the classic four-piece format for live shows. As expected from a band that’s hit the scene as hard as these guys have, they’ve had to jump some pretty big hurdles over the past few years, resulting in lineup changes and slight substitutions to the band’s ingredient list. But the 2025 St. Range tonic is just as powerful as their original formula was. Andersen says this new batch might actually be the strongest they’ve ever cooked up.
Will you describe your sound for us?
We tell people we are “desert rock,” but we have a different definition of that term than the genre associated with eastern California “stoner rock” bands like Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age. While we do lean heavily on our rock influences, they tend to be based more in classic and folk rock than heavier progressive sounds. A good way to describe it is: “We honor our roots in mid-century rock music, while shamelessly mixing elements of our cultural influences having grown up in the deserts and mountains of New Mexico to create a new flavor of authentic indie-rock.” At a St. Range show, fans can expect ’60s/’70s-style classic rock vibes with some country, folk and even Latin influences. We like to say it’s like surf rock, if the ocean was tequila.
We don’t really like to fit into a box with our sound. Nothing is off the table when you’re talking about creating music. We have been pegged as “rock outlaws” and “indie rock” by music reviewers, but we really like to describe ourselves as “rock ’n’ roll,” because when you come to a show, that’s the vibe you’ll get, even when we mix elements of other genres into it.
What are your favorite venues to play and why?
We really value the relationships we have built with numerous venues throughout the region and U.S., so it would be tough to pick just one or two by name. But our favorite venues to play are the ones where the crowd knows they can go there to see well-curated live music and have friendly staff. Easy load-in and parking is always a plus too! Playing places like The Whiskey A-Go-Go in Hollywood, the Lensic Theatre in Santa Fe, or Isotopes Stadium in Albuquerque are truly rewarding because of the prestige, but we love playing smaller, more intimate venues as well. The Mineshaft in Madrid was one of the first venues to ever give us a chance, and we’re still grateful to be playing shows there nearly 17 years later.
What are your lyrics about?
Our lyrics really run the gamut, from love lost and love found to observations of daily life, or even statements on the current state of society. The majority of our lyrics come from personal experiences, but we don’t really feel a need to limit ourselves to that. For example, we have one song that’s basically written from the perspective of early settlers to the New Mexico region (which we obviously have no personal experience with, but makes for a great story and a hauntingly beautiful songscape). Lead vocalist Justin Lindsey really pours his heart into his lyrics, and I think that’s one of the reasons they resonate with fans so well. We don’t tend to talk about things we don’t know about in our lyrics, but it’s not always so serious either. We have quite a few songs that are just fun (“Car Over the Lake,” “Sweet Margarita,” “Strange Girl” and “Dead Gun” to name a few).
What bands or genres inspire your music?
This would be a different answer for everyone in the band, which I think is what gives us our unique sound. We each bring different influences to the table and put them together to create our own style. That said, I think we all tend to like very similar music, and the band is greatly influenced by mid-century rock and folk (Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan). Most of our members grew up in the ’90s, so we are heavily influenced by what we heard on the radio in that era. (You can catch a cover of Smashing Pumpkins or Marcy Playground at our shows sometimes).
In case people are looking for our older music online, we used to be called “The Strange” (very fitting for us and pretty cool backstory to the name), but we received a cease and desist notice from a clothing company. I won’t name names, but it’s probably not tough to figure out. … So we rearranged the name to “St. Range,” still keeping our roots and adding a bit of a “Western” visual to the name.
What is the best show you have ever played and why?
Wow, that’s a tough one. We’ve played tiny rooms with a packed crowd who really love the music, and that’s an amazing feeling. But we’ve also played to huge crowds at festivals or stadiums, and that’s a great feeling in itself. We’ve played in some really interesting venues, too, which is hard to ignore just because of the novelty. For instance, playing on a flatbed car of a moving train, or in front of an amazing sunset overlooking a lake, or in an old-timey saloon of a Western movie set. We’ve played with some amazing acts, like Dr Dog, Deer Tick, The Melodians, Meat Puppets, The Wallflowers, Rodrigo y Gabreilla, Ozomatli and Los Lonely Boys just to name a few. If we had to nail down just one answer to this, though, it would have to be opening for Adler’s Appetite (member of Guns ‘N Roses) at the iconic Whiskey A-Go-Go in Hollywood. Getting to share the stage with icons like that, in such an iconic venue was amazing.
The band has held strong and kept playing for nearly 17 years, which is quite a testament to the solidarity of the band – and the music that ties us together – and we have no intention of stopping. We’d like to shout out to some people we’ve been blessed to have on journey over the years here: Tommy Larson, Mitchell Lacasagne, Daniel Murphy, Lindsey Ayalla and Andrew Davey. We wouldn’t be what we are today without them.
Our next show in the [Albuquerque metro] area is at The Block in Rio Rancho on Friday, September 12. We will also be doing a show in Texas soon with one of our biggest local influences and a band that really helped us get onto the scene in the first place when we were starting out: The Hundred Year Flood. These guys are like family to us, and we can’t wait to nail down the details on that.
Follow St. Range on Facebook and Instagram, or stay in the loop at strangerocknroll.com. You can also check out music videos and other featured media at spareroomsounds.com/strange.
Watch the video for “Take Me to the Moon” (back when the band still went by The Strange) here.
Check out St. Range doing “I’m Still Here” live at The Bridge at Santa Fe Brewing during the Santa Fe Live Streamcast Concert Series here. And watch the music video for the same song here.
St. Range’s three full length studio albums can be found just about anywhere online (Youtube, Spotify, Amazon, iTunes etc.) and keep an eye out for a few new songs in the pocket coming soon.