Dark Satellite: 'Shade of Shadows'

The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music.

Charlie Hanlon remembers coming across the words “Dark Satellite” in an old encyclopedia he describes as “a trippy book.”

He’s always loved collage art, and had a habit of looking through old books and magazines for inspiration. But when he got to that particular book chapter, the words stood out.

“For some reason it really rang a bell with me,” Hanlon said. “I just decided … if I’m gonna make a cool little art thing, I should just call it dark satellite art.”

Dark Satellite is now the name of Hanlon’s three-person rock band, where he plays guitar, Trevor Gabriel sings vocals and plays bass, and Travis Drumm plays drums.

The band mixes jazz chords with heavy distortion and blues solos, a blending of styles that Hanlon can trace back to his teenage years.

“When I first got my driver’s license, I loved listening to the jazz station and just aimlessly driving around,” Hanlon said. “At the same time I was a big fan of the [band] Bad Brains. So, I would kind of learn these jazz chords and just go home and play ’em as loud as I could on distortion.”

Dark Satellite has also been influenced by the immense range and diversity of sounds in the Bay Area, which Hanlon calls a “melting pot of styles and influences.”

“I’ve seen metal shows where a guitar player will just do some cool sixties psychedelic riff and it’ll blow me away,” he said. “It kind of makes me feel like, if you’re in an area like this, with all these different types of musicians, you’re going to see something cool no matter what.”

Dark Satellite will be performing at Oakland Secret on August 18, and at Inner Desires in Oakland on September 1.