Have you heard of Surfer Blood? Here’s a little taste:
This Florida band captures the essence of sounding so peculiar and lively; endless quirks greet you in their albums. Surfer Blood is in the process of creating their next album, which you should get your hands on once it’s released. I was given the chance to interview Kevin Williams, bassist and backing vocalist, via a quick and insightful phone call. It was before Surfer Blood’s show in Hamden Connecticut at The Space on February 25th; where they were on fire. No one got hurt of course. They were so lively, the audience was ecstatic and it flourished into an unforgettable night. Kevin Williams tells us how Surfer Blood came to be and you’ll also find out how they became so charismatic. Get ready.
Kevin, can you tell me how you Surfer Blood met? What lead you guys to say, hey, we have to make music together?
We all started in South Florida together. Growing up in West Palm Beach, playing in different bands and we didn’t actually really start off playing together, but we all had separate bands that would often share bills together. Tom (Fekete, guitar/backing vocals), actually, was working at a record store called Backbone–that’s not there anymore, but they would often throw shows there and my old punk band would often play. He had a punk band as well, that would often do shows with JP (John Paul Pitts, lead vocals/guitar) and TJ (Tyler Schwarz, drums). It’s just one of those things where we kind of knew about each other for a while, but then as people started moving off after high school and whatnot–realized we’re still around, even though our respective bands were no longer together. All of a sudden it made sense that we’ve been at it the longest–naturally we played music together and it worked out perfectly.
Talk me through the music process. From a day in rehearsal or in the studio, what’s the first thing you guys do?
Well it’s been different on every record. Astro Coast was mainly written by JP and TJ in JP’s dorm room and then it became more of a band effort. Pythons was really the first time where we really worked on that record for probably a solid six months with reproduction with MOs; which included trips to LA and Seattle, trying out different producers till we found the right one, which is Gil Norton and now with this next record, we’re kind of taking that knowledge that we learned with Pythons. Through working and really demoing out songs in a rehearsal studio, we’re kind of having our own hands on approach. We’re considering doing this next record self produced again; going back to our roots, but with the knowledge that we’ve gained through working with Warner(Brothers Records). So we’re still recording all our demos on our own. We just actually got back from a trip to Portland, Oregon, where we were out for months; renting our friend’s practice suite while they where on tour and just demoing every day, bouncing ideas off of each other and when we’re back at home, even when we are away from each other we’re sending each other pro tools files. Working on parts, even when we’re in our own homes and away from each other.
How about songwriting? With songs like “Demon Dance,” which came off your album, Pythons last summer, does a single person write the songs or do you all collab?
With Pythons, every song was very collaborative. I would say that every person has input on a vital party every song–to some extent. I remember “Demon Dance” started off with this riff that Tom had been playing with and we actually–we’re doing a similar thing to what we just did in Portland, but in Chicago for Pythons. We had a practice space for about a week and actually on the last day, as we’re wrapping up cables, Tom started playing this riff and TJ, whose still hadn’t finished breaking down his kit, started playing a beat and all of a sudden, we realized, it wasn’t worth calling it a day just yet. We turned the amps back on, plugged in cables and just started jamming and recorded just a rough version of that. Everyone wrote their own parts around that riff and JP took that demo back home with him, to Florida, and about a week later, had really cool vocal ideas. The song just natural progressed over a month of typing up parts– everyone had their own role in shaping the song into what it was.
Where do you find the inspiration for these songs?
Everywhere from the music we’re listening to together in the van to just being in the van together. Being around each other a lot. Inspiration comes from a lot of different sources–kind of hard to necessarily pin it down. We’ve been playing music together for so long, we no longer really discuss influences or even need to necessarily say how we want a song to sound. Someone just has a part they’re working on–been together now long enough where we can just play a chord progression or TJ can play a drum beat or myself a baseline and there’s this kind of unspoken understanding where we kind of already realized what territory we want to take the song before it’s even discussed. It should be a quiet song, it shoul be a loud song, faster, weirder–generally in the board scheme of things, things tend to be on the same page. We don’t really discuss it until it comes time for production. Songwriting wise, we click pretty well.
So with these songs, what do you want to convey to the audience? What do you want us to walk away with?
We’d like the audience to walk away with songs that are both catchy and relatable, but at the same time, something that they can think about and continue to listen to and still get more out of it. I think that’s kind of what defines my personal favorite songs–are ones that are mediant to some degree, you have to want to come back to it. The one that still continues to reward, whether through the miracle of intricacy, or just maybe production wise; little flourishes here and there that maybe you only notice with headphones or just technical playing that maybe you don’t appreciate the first time around. I guess to some degree–all of that together ideally, is what we strive for. We’re still writing songs to challenge us to play, which I think is a good thing. Some of the new songs we’re working on, we’ve been practicing every sound check before our shows; trying to get them tight. They’re honestly not easy songs for us to play, but I think that’s a good thing that we still continue to challenge ourselves; we have not fallen into any sort of comfort zone yet.
How does it feel to be on tour right now? Can you describe that?
Right now it feels a little cold, the band’s coming from hot Florida. We got spoiled, we’re finally starting to get up north. Yeah, it’s been going well so far though.
What steps do you guys take in preparations for a show?
Generally eating is good before a long drive. There is a lot that goes into planning a tour and it is a lot to think about–everything down to renting a van to fixing van troubles; little things that come up. You prepare for what you can, like packing jackets and preparing for it to not always being like Florida weather.
Tell me some of the challenges you face. Has it ever made you question the direction you’re all going in?
It’s always been about the music–that we want to make it. It is a new light that we’re no longer going to be with Warner on the next record. Warner was, actually to be fair, always willing to let us do whatever we want. They loved Astro Coast. They wanted us to make a record we wanted, which is great, but nevertheless, just being on Warner for ourselves–we had our own psychological pressure to try to produce an album that would live up and exceed. Astro Coast, which is difficult trying to go in with some expectation–what we came out with was great, but at the same time we’re on our 3rd full length, we’re going back a little bit more to our roots. Allowing ourselves to maybe be a little bit more weird–something we’ve been wanting to do. I think there will be some more slower and longer jams, weirder time signatures in the record that maybe we weren’t quite willing to let ourselves go in that direction for the last record. It’s an evolution of sound, I love all our of records. I think that questioning it is always just a positive thing. It’s just questioning how we want the next record to sound and how we want to grow as a band. Never questioning the existential musical sort of way.
Now let’s talk about fun things. Tell me what are some of the best things about being in Surfer Blood? Do you guys get to see all these cool people and see things you wouldn’t ever believe?
Yeah! I think all of us have always really wanted to travel–definitely have to have that to be able to tour. We’re on the road for six months or more out of the year and it’s great because it’s what we love doing. A lot of us, when we’re not on the road, will still be traveling just for fun. It’s good to see other parts of the world–especially when you’re growing up from West Palm Beach, Florida, where you don’t have seasons. I think all of us had a bit of wanderlust growing up. That’s definitely one of the great perks of being in a band. Just playing music in general–something that we’ve always wanted to do and I think all of us would still be doing [this], whether or not we could do it as a full time thing. Even if we were working day jobs, I think every single one of us would be staying up late at night recording for fun at the very least.
So do you guys have any other interests? Cool secret lives or anything like that?
Everyone has their own hobbies. TJ surfs, TJ and Tom both surf. Everyone kind of started surfing after the band, which is funny. We’d always take questions about that–being a band called Surfer Blood. I guess through people always asking us, we finally realized we should try surfing. We’ve actually taken trips to Costa Rica now.
So what’s different about your live performances, compared to other bands?
I guess what makes us different is that we’re not trying to replicate our songs exactly live. I think a lot of bands do that these days, especially with these backing tracks and you kind of have to if you’re a quasi electronic band–which a lot of bands are nowadays. We have electronic toys on stage, synthesizers and stuff, but still at heart we’re a guitar rock band. We have no problem being able to extend a song an extra two minutes if we feel like someone’s doing something creative–we’re jamming. I think there are a lot of bands that try to sound like the record and we take pride in trying to provide an experience that’s more than just hearing the songs again. We like to have fun with it.
How are you all in social media? Where can I find you guys?
Yeah you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram; we’re on all social media that I know of.
Kevin also mentioned Vine; hopefully we’ll get to see them on it because I can’t get enough of those. If you haven’t heard of Surfer Blood, definitely check them out! Their songs are beyond catchy.
http://www.surferblood.com
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