“Let me get this straight – do you not like your old songs?”

This is the question asked of Chad Stokes (guitar) by his manager that fans of Dispatch might have asked themselves upon hearing America, Location 12. But the band, who has worked nearly two decades on-and-off with some 11+ albums and EPs to show for it, isn’t phased by their own evolution. Like almost everything about them, it feels like a natural progression, in line with what seems like the way they live life: on a path of least resistance, going where it feels good and seems to make sense.

“I think (it’s) the artist’s journey. You’re trying to be aware of the people who are giving you your dream, but you also can’t write for them. You have to write from where you are as an individual…and hope that people come along. I think art is constantly evolving and changing, and unless it does, it’s not that interesting,” frontman Brad Corrigan during an interview with KFOG.

Dispatch is a band that makes you feel like everything they do is natural, and somehow connected to both hominess and the outdoors. That’s exactly the vibe, at least, they let infuse their latest album. Recorded at Panoramic House, a house turned studio in Stinson Beach, with redwoods to their backs and the ocean ahead on the horizon within walking distance, they say the weeks spent were in nature as well as au naturel: “(there was) a lot of not having our clothes on.”

It feels like almost every song on America, Location 12 could be a single. They each have a message and traverse the sounds that Dispatch has always been able to weave into their music so authentically: folk, reggae, roots, jam, indie rock, it’s all there. See for yourself at their stunning acoustic KFOG Private Concert.