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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Surf Musician »

Permalink Surf Guitar feature in Guitarist Magazine

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Freelancewriter wrote:

Hi all. Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is
Ed Mitchell. I wrote the surf article in Guitarist
magazine.

Welcome, Ed!! Great to have you here!

I want to say thanks for all the positive
comments. I'm a fellow surf music freak so as you can
imagine this was a brilliant project for me.

Indeed!! You definitely know your stuff - well done!!

My mission was to make surf music sound exciting and
enticing to those guitarists that hadn't been exposed
to it; or bothered to dig deeper than the usual
well-known recordings. I hope I managed to do that.

Absolutely! One thing I do wish you were able to do was to talk just a bit more about the modern surf scene. I completely understand that you have certain constraints within which you have to work when you're writing a piece like this, and like I said above, I do think you did a great job, but it gets frustrating that whenever surf music seems to be discussed in the more mainstream media, it's always all about the classics. As you undoubtedly know, it's a living genre, with hundreds of bands around the world gigging and recording, and many of them recording some pretty remarkable music, equal to the classics IMO, and I just wish you were able to convey that a bit more. But i understand that for mainstream readers, the classic stuff might be a more effective 'gateway drug.'

Along similar lines, there's no question that Deke, Rick and Eddie know and understand surf music - but the first two are not surf guitarists (though Deke was at one point, and Rick can certainly pull it off as well as anyone when he wants to), and Eddie's heart is really more with Link Wray and '50s rock'n'roll (whether instro or not) than surf. Again, it would have been nice to interview a true-blue surf guitarist, someone like Dave Wronski or Mikko Lankinen of Laika & the Cosmonauts or whoever else. But again, this is a minor gripe.

The slight problem with this type of article is that
you have to go over some ground that has been
well-trodden. That's obviously frustrating for the surf
faithful who know a lot of the history of the music
already, but it's necessary to pull in the intrigued
and unconverted.

Of course, and I think everybody here undestood that. No problem.

My comments re: Dick talking about the aborigines was
designed to illustrate just how fascinating he is to
speak with... and amusing.

I believe the majority of us around here are fully aware of Dick's... emmm, let's call them eccentricities. I personally really enjoyed how you dealt with that issue. Nicely played. Smile

Anyway, I'm thrilled to see the positive feedback. I
thank you all for your comments.

You're very welcome, and thanks for doing such a great job with the article, and doing surf music justice! Here's hoping they'll let you do a follow-up in due time. Good luck!

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
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The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Freelancewriter wrote:

Hi all. Thanks for your comments... and your
suggestions.

I'll put some of the unpublished words from my
interview with Dick together in the near future and
post the results here. It will be a pleasure!

Best
Ed
London

Hi Ed, thanks for all your efforts, it's really appreciated. If it's more convenient to provide the audio of the interview instead of transcribing it, we can accommodate that here at SG101 as well.

Danny Snyder

Latest project - Now That's What I Call SURF
_
"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

I'm back playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Ivan's dead right here:

One thing I do wish you were able to do was to talk just a bit more about the modern surf scene.

It's a problem tied to most of the articles in most of the guitar mags. Last time I checked, there isn't a whole lot of guitar oriented rock on the radio. But there are a huge number of semi-pro guys all over the world making GREAT music in all sorts of retro guitar-based genres (surf, gypsy jazz, rockabilly, etc). You might see the occasional mention in the mags, but mostly you sort of have to be in the know to find it.

That's actually one of reasons I love surf guitar - and this forum. Its proof that there are still folks out there that care about the guitar and who know that there is still life to be had in the older forms.

But I must say, my hats are off to ANY writer or publisher for putting surf - or older musical style - on their cover! Huge applause for that!!!

Last edited: Sep 13, 2011 23:30:58

Hi guys. Believe me, I would've loved to get more info in the piece: the modern worldwide surf movement, the 60s Japanese scene (Yūzō Kayama etc), all that stuff. There just wasn't space unfortunately.

Whenever I'm commissioned to do a feature like this I get 100 ideas running through my head. I think of all the information I want to include; the people I want to talk to; and how I'm gonna keep the reader engaged. Then, at some point, I realize that I can't cover every angle, so I have to pick that information which is fundamental.

For instance, a magazine asked me to write the ultimate guide to The Beatles, from Hamburg to their split, in 2000 words. That's not easy! Try doing that on just one surf artist. You'll have written 5000 odd words before you know it, and still have things you want to say.

One of the things I love about surf is that it is the great survivor. Cream always rises to the top and that's why surf will never die. It never gets old; despite musical fashion... if there is such a thing anymore. Those readers that are turned on by the story of Dick Dale, and the 60s surf scene in general will search out those new bands.

I personally got into surf when I bought The Rumblers' Boss CD. Maybe they're not strictly surf... dunno. That lit the fuse for me anyway. I was already a big fan of Link Wray and the other instrumental greats but that record made me ache to hear surf played live. Luckily, I was in a bar in LA called the Lava Lounge a few years ago and caught a band called The Insect Surfers. They were awesome. I bought their CDs at the show and listen to them often.

Incidentally, I picked Rick Miller and Deke Dickerson because, as a guitarist myself, I'm a fan of both, but I also knew how informed and enthusiastic they were about surf music from previous encounters. I like the way Rick uses surf guitar sound and techniques in many S.C.O.T.S songs. I knew that Dick was going to be the foundation of the piece, so I needed guitarists that could tell other parts of the story.

By the way: I also wrote a piece on surf music for the Music Radar website in the UK. It's not without its errors - I wrote it very fast. Things like referring to The Ventures and Los Straitjackets as surf groups (Eddie Angel put me straight on that one!). But I think there are some interesting links in there including one to this site:

Here's the link

Thanks again for your comments. Hopefully I'll get the chance to write about the current surf scene in the near future. I'll keep you posted!

Best
Ed
London

Last edited: Sep 14, 2011 12:30:08

Freelancewriter wrote:

By the way: I also wrote a piece on surf music for the
Music Radar website in the UK. It's not without its
errors - I wrote it very fast. Things like referring to
The Ventures and Los Straitjackets as surf groups
(Eddie Angel put me straight on that one!). But I think
there are some interesting links in there including one
to this site:

Here's the
link

Nice A-Z ! Cool plug for SG101 to be sure. Thumbs Up

(Definitely recommend everyone check out the other 25 letters, but couldn't help but show the goods for this one!)

image

Fady

El Mirage @ ReverbNation

Last edited: Sep 14, 2011 12:24:17

Wow, I had no idea that existed!!!!!! THANKS!

Oooh...look at the old site design! Flashback.

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me

"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

Brian wrote:

Wow, I had no idea that existed!!!!!! THANKS!

Oooh...look at the old site design! Flashback.

2nd wave. Big Grin

(Vintage First Wave: Y! Group & Cowabunga)

Fady

El Mirage @ ReverbNation

Last edited: Sep 14, 2011 18:47:39

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