BAYSTAR is a Bay Area Psych Rock, Post-Punk & Indie Pop band founded by producer & songwriter Jónatan, with solo artists Rob Lindley and Laya G, as well as guitarist Jason Romero, and brothers Juan Carlos & Tommy Briseño.
Modesto born and Turlock & East Bay Area raised Jonatan Garibay, mononymously known as Jónatan, is a creative producer, video editor, & musician, who has been releasing and performing a range of dream pop, R&B, ambient, and hip-hop in English & Spanish since 2018. BAYSTAR’s first album MOMENTO was written, produced, & recorded entirely by Jónatan. Once they became a complete 6-piece, instrumentation, ideas, and contributions were later added by their members to complete and release the album in August 2024.
Rob Lindley is a singer-songwriter from East Side, San Jose, CA. Like many musicians over quarantine, he decided to start recording and releasing music he’d been writing over the years with the recording and mixing help of Jónatan and their friend cøzyboy in LA. Lindley’s last two projects were both released this year: It Takes Time to Make Time, an acoustic EP, and orbital, an ambient album filled with instrumental tracks perfect for meditation and contemplation. He plays bass for BAYSTAR as well as sings vocals.
Laya is an R&B and pop singer-songwriter born and raised in Fremont, CA releasing solo projects under the artist name “Laya G”. Her recent EP Modern Adulting marks her first release as a solo artist, debuting her first live show in October 2024 in Oakland. She plays keys / synths for BAYSTAR, and you’ll also hear her singing at their live shows.
Jason Romero is the lead guitarist for BAYSTAR as well as for Bay Area musicians Mare, Natalia Stardust, as well as his own instrumental prog-metal band Amoretta. Growing up he moved around a lot– from Fresno, CA to Louisiana until he finally found his home in San Francisco. Music was always a part of his life but it never culminated into anything until he picked up a guitar at 18 and started jamming with people here in the Bay.
Juan Carlos is a singer, songwriter, and percussionist, born and raised in the bay area. Juan has always had a passion for the performing arts. Jónatan and Juan have known eachother since high school, so when Jonatan was looking for a drummer for the band he reached out to him. He has since shifted his role to singer and songwriter, but still plays the drum kit as well as percussion like tambourine & cowbell on a few of his favorite songs.
Tommy Briseno is the primary drummer for the band. Born and raised in Union City, Tom has always found great enjoyment in all things related to music. He believes that music is a powerful tool to build community, tell stories, and destress. In recent years, Tom has rekindled his love of music by hosting backyard/garage jam sessions with friends and family seeking a musical outlet, which lead to connecting with BAYSTAR.
HC: Which musicians were prominent for you guys when you were getting into music?
BAYSTAR: In terms of popular musicians, we definitely have a lot of overlapping yet different tastes in music. We naturally gravitate to what we like which makes our music journey and songwriting process really fun.
We love Indie, Rock, Pop, and R&B most popular in the 2000’s and early to mid 2010’s. Essentially the majority of us grew up on a combination of music featured on Guitar Hero as well as Tame Impala, The Strokes, Radiohead, Muse, Chvrches, MGMT, Paramore, Beach House, Animal Collective, Alicia Keys, Brandy, Postal Service, Lorde, Charli xcx, Frank Ocean, and Kendrick Lamar.
Some of our classic favorites include Pink Floyd, System of a Down, The Cure, Daft Punk, Nirvana, Queen, Megadeth, and Joy Division. Newer favorites include Thundercat, Post Animal, black midi, and Wednesday. Jason hates The Beatles but not the rest of the band.
HC: Where do you draw inspiration from?
BAYSTAR: Sonically, from artists in genres like post-punk, psychedelic rock, and Pop. Lyrically, from stories and events experienced by members of the band. We randomly come up with motifs during rehearsals and flesh out ideas over voice memos. We might pull inspiration from vital texts sent from a friend, sending us into panic mode. It could also be from the awful things we see on our commute to work. Or even the movie franchise that we binged the night before where the main character said a couple of funny lines. It might end up being the way the bassline sounds in a Pokémon Battle or Random Encounter. We sometimes straight up interpolate rap songs. But sometimes it’s not that deep. We thought: what that musician did in that song we love was cool so I think we should do it, too.”
HC: How would you describe the music scene in the Bay Area
BAYSTAR: It is sprawling and filled with all kinds of diverse bands and artists, but also quite connected. The genres of bands represented here are eclectic, they are supportive of each other, and they are almost always willing to play shows. It’s smaller compared to the scenes in say LA or New York. Playing and attending underground shows really conveys how connected the music scene in the Bay Area actually is. When conversing with artists we meet at these shows and exchanging info and socials we find that, a lot of the time, we have at least some mutuals between us. It’s always like ‘Oh, you know this person/band? We played with them a month ago.’ or ‘I went to high school/college/worked with this person in your circle.’ It is honestly quite refreshing to see that so many of the artists and bands across the Bay are so connected, supportive, and collaborative.
HC: What can people expect from your upcoming performance at O’Reilly SF?
BAYSTAR: Laya will unfortunately not be able to join us for our show on November 16th at O’Reilly’s because she’s on vacation mode. In her place on keys will be Jess Konye, lead singer and founder of San Francisco-based Indie Rock & Electronic outfit Mare. Jess and Jason are roommates and perform together for Mare. Many of us at BAYSTAR have also become good friends with Jess and consider her, as well as frontman and guitarist Brenden Phung of Indie-Rock, Bay Area band Indigo Elephant, to be honorary members of BAYSTAR. We’re excited to perform alongside her as well as explore what we will create together with her on keys beyond our show at O’Reilly’s!
HC: What excites you about creating music?
BAYSTAR: Building something from nothing. Putting words into poetry and action into meaning. We like the idea of writing something down and knowing that it can potentially be out there forever– immortalizing us in a sense.
HC: What’s coming up for y’all in terms of new releases, performances or any exciting news?
BAYSTAR: Inspired by Charli xcx’s BRAT, we will be re-releasing our debut album. We’re going from 8 songs to 16 songs with the original tracklist reorganized, 3 new songs, 3 remixes, 1 song sped-up (dubbed ‘Silver’), and one song slowed down (dubbed ‘Gold’). The 3 remixes are respectively produced by Bay Area experimental rap duo closegood, Mare, and Jónatan himself.
We’re also working on some new material for our next project! We’re most excited to record and release songs we’ve been performing live all year. That includes the Post-Punk & Paramore inspired ‘Phones Go Both Ways’ written and led by Laya G and Juan Carlos, the Psych Rock and angsty ‘Time Will Tell’ written and led by Juan, the darkwave inspired ‘New Comeback’ written by Jónatan and led by him & Juan, and our most hopeful song yet, ‘Lifetime’-- the first BAYSTAR song ever written, by Jónatan and Rob Lindley. These songs as well as other ideas we’ve created together or individually have already prepared us for our 2nd batch of releases for 2025.
HC: What’s one thing you want people to think of when they think of BAYSTAR?
BAYSTAR: Catharsis. We unpack a lot of our trauma through our music. We hope people can see the light and silver lining between the lyrics and heavier sounds of our songs. We will almost always come back to making sure even our most intense breakdowns arrive at ‘pretty’ moments. We want to inspire hope in our listeners.
