[podcast]http://media.libsyn.com/media/thebaybridged/Harbours_Show.mp3[/podcast] The Harbours, this week’s featured band, began as a solo project for Miguel Zelaya following the dissolution of his previous band after an aborted national tour. Regrouping in San Jose and then moving to San Francisco where he now resides, Zelaya composed these songs on his own and then found himself recruiting friends and former bandmates to perform as a band at the 2005 Mission Creek Music Festival and help him commit the songs to record.

We received a copy of the resulting album, titled Second Story Maker, shortly after it came out late last year, and were immediately drawn to it, including a track in our January Monthly Mix. The album is full of warm melodies and memorable choruses, but sets itself apart most in Zelaya’s willingness to let many of the songs expand past the four-minute mark, taking twists and turns as they build to even greater payoffs.

We spoke with Miguel a few weeks ago at The Bay Bridged Headquarters, discussing The Harbours’ debut album, the process of bringing his songs to a full band for live performances, and the new recordings he’s been working on lately. Speaking of his latest recordings, Miguel was kind enough to bring us a few new demos he’s been working on, including a song from his new project The 383’s, a collaboration with Matt Tritto.

The next show on The Harbours’ calendar isn’t for a few weeks, but it’s a hell of a bill:

Thursday, May 10th
Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival Presents:
The Harbours
w/ Rykarda Parasol, Hiss Golden Messenger, Michael Zapruder
The Rickshaw Stop
8pm, Price tba

To purchase Second Story Maker, released on Stab City Records, head to The Harbours’ web site or you can pick it up on iTunes. To hear some more tunes and keep abreast of their latest shows, head to their Myspace page.

Stay tuned for the latest local news over the rest of the week and we’ll be back with another new episode of the podcast next Tuesday.