Starlight Cleaning Co. Starlight Cleaning Co.

Starlight Cleaning Co. is a Mojave Desert band fronted by Rachel Dean and Tim Paul Gray. Dean had previously played under her own name, having released an album titled Indian Summer, produced by Rob Campanella (Brian Jonestown Massacre) and the late, great Neal Casal (Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Ryan Adams, Circles Around The Sun). She also fronted two bands prior-War Children and The Hot Fudge Sunday (Pappy and Harriet's Sunday house band). Gray fronted Orange County-based bands The Delusions and Charles Mansion. As a duo, Dean and Gray have toured with Tommy Stinson (The Replacements, Bash And Pop, Guns 'n' Roses) and on their own throughout the country. Their paths were interwoven for nearly a decade before formally meeting in May 2015 when they played a show together at Pappy and Harriet's in Pioneertown, CA. Three years ago, the duo did something they had wanted to do for a while: they turned their solo acts into a full band. Featuring Gray's timeless songwriting and Dean's versatile vocals, Starlight Cleaning Co. is a soulful and beautifully focused operation that somehow sounds like they could have thrived in both the Seventies and Eighties as well as recent decades, drawing inspiration from Elvis Costello, Chrissie Hynde, Alex Chilton, Dwight Twilley, Sixties girl groups, and even early punk and power-pop. Recently, the band brought a crew out to the High Desert to hole up for a week and record an album. The songs were tracked at Dean and Gray's home studio, Starlight Sound, where Vetiver recorded their 2019 record Up On High. Their recording crew comprised the LA/SF blue-eyed-soul and soft rock troubadour Bart Davenport (The Bedazzled, The Loved Ones, The Kinetics) and LA's indie king Joel Jerome (Dios, Cherry Glazerr, La Sera). Davenport, acting as producer and Jerome as engineer, worked with the band to create a powerful and sincere record.