Words by Nathan Quevedo
Photo by Joshua Rivera

Some members of Deriva have musical roots that stretch back the better part of two decades in Merced. To say they’re like family is an understatement.

Meeting at the house where bassist Craig Cofresi lives on Thanksgiving Eve couldn’t have made it feel more like family, as Cofresi helped put on the movie “Air Bud” for singer/guitarist Carlos Pena’s youngest son to watch during our interview.

“Even if we weren’t in this band, we’d be hanging out,” says Cofresi. “We’re like family.”
After a six-month hiatus, Deriva is playing a Dec. 19 show at The Partisan. And the band is preparing to go into the studio to record its next album, “The Long Goodbye.”

Part of the reason for all the time off is as realistic as it gets: grown-up life.

“Practice is incredibly difficult to coordinate,” says drummer Rick Stokes, who recently married. All the members are married or have children.
As Merced musicians, Cofresi and Pena have been in bands together since 1992 in Mr. Aught as the earliest and Join’r as one of the most notable. They even made a brief change of scenery to Chicago in the mid-’90s while the two were in April’s Grave.

Cofresi says of the trip: “We were supposed to continue April’s Grave in Chicago. We couldn’t really get established out there. We were really young and naive, and we ended up coming back home.”

What they did come home with was a better understanding of an up-and-coming sound.

“That sound in the mid-west defined a lot of what we do now,” says Cofresi.

That sound was early emo — and it may not be the kind of music you’re thinking of (see: Braid, Promise Ring, CaP’n Jazz if you were born after 1985).
“Join’r took a lot of the (early emo) sound and used it in its sound.” Says Cofresi.

These music veterans have seen a lot change since those days — mainly thanks to the Internet.

“With the networking tools we have nowadays, it’s hard to really project yourself with a label, unless they’re gonna make money. No longer are the major labels gonna say ‘Here’s what you listen to,’” says Cofresi, who had a lot to say about the subject.

“It takes the power away from the corporations. There’s no longer a need for a symbiotic relationship between bands and labels,” he adds. “The Internet killed the record industry as we knew it.”

Pointing out the negative aspect of this relationship: “With digital files, you lose the physical artistic feel — it doesn’t give the fans anything to hold onto,” says Cofresi.

Originally thought of as an all-acoustic project, Deriva soon found that idea limiting.

“When the lineup solidified, we didn’t want to limit ourselves to just acoustic,” says Pena, the main songwriter and Deriva founder.
Though the band is capable of playing its set acoustic, most of the members are used to playing electric, and Cofresi sums it up best: “We prefer to just rock the shit.”

Pena says of founding the band: “I always get the best group of friends together — well, not the best … ” At this point everyone starts laughing and the family atmosphere is even more prominent.

The band demoed its soon-to-be-recorded album “The Long Goodbye” earlier this year. “It was more of an experiment of how the record would come out and how the songs will feel,” says Pena.

“It’s a lot less dreamy than the first record,” says Stokes.

“It’s less reliant on effects and more straight-forward,” says Cofresi.

The record will be recorded in Emeryville by the same engineer who recorded their previous album, “A Conversation For All Seasons.”

Full-time jobs, raising children, bills and generally hectic lives won’t stop this family of musicians from continuing to practice, play and record.

“I think the reason this group’s together is we love it so much,” says Stokes.

“I do this ’cause I don’t know how to not do it,” says Cofresi.

See Deriva at The Partisan on Dec. 19 for $5.

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