sig, coming from a listener appreciation point of view I have wondered if being fortunate to live by the Pacific ocean as I do enhances my surf music experience.

My beach is in Oregon in the Pacific Northwest of the USA. While we do have many beautiful sunny days, it is mostly of the colder, windswept variety, and the water is cold for swimming. That said, it has its own rugged beauty and the vistas are quite breathtaking.

I say this because my favorite surf band, Satan's Pilgrims are an Oregon band and I'm sure they have written many songs inspired by the beaches here.

The really interesting thing is, I can feel the Oregon Coast in their music! When I am out among the dunes or driving along 101 on a drizzly day with their music on, it is like a soundtrack to my surroundings. This is what "artists" can do, and I'm very impressed by it.

And I live on the Pacific coast even farther north than Oregon! (Oregon is stunningly beautiful, BTW). For me, I cannot just simply draw upon some non-existent SoCal surfer nostalgia...I was born just after the Beatles broke up! I cannot be a purist because that would be awfully disingenuous. That said, I love the vintage sound of first wave surf and much prefer to follow in their footsteps of using a reverb tank & occasional harmonic tremolo, model after vintage recording techniques, use small club drum kits & Fender guitars, and sidestep any hyper-Mutt Lange hi-fi modern sounds. The closer to mono it is, the more I enjoy it! And I will use effects like Echorec/Space Echo.
The picturesque sandy beaches (yes, we have them on the Canadian Pacific shore!), windstorms, kayaking, hot summer days and warm summer nights, sunsets, sunrises, having fun at the beach...they all inspire tunes that I put together.

Lorne
The Surf Shakers: https://www.facebook.com/TheSurfShakers
Vancouver BC Canada

Last edited: Mar 02, 2022 21:10:13

shake_n_stomp wrote:

And I live on the Pacific coast even farther north than Oregon! (Oregon is stunningly beautiful, BTW). For me, I cannot just simply draw upon some non-existent SoCal surfer nostalgia...I was born just after the Beatles broke up! I cannot be a purist because that would be awfully disingenuous. That said, I love the vintage sound of first wave surf and much prefer to follow in their footsteps of using a reverb tank & occasional harmonic tremolo, model after vintage recording techniques, use small club drum kits & Fender guitars, and sidestep any hyper-Mutt Lange hi-fi modern sounds. The closer to mono it is, the more I enjoy it! And I will use effects like Echorec/Space Echo.
The picturesque sandy beaches (yes, we have them on the Canadian Pacific shore!), windstorms, kayaking, hot summer days and warm summer nights, sunsets, sunrises, having fun at the beach...they all inspire tunes that I put together.

Thanks for that Lorne. Yes, I share your feeling about nostalgia. Sometimes the desire to recreate something out of context can in fact kill the very thing you’re trying to recreate. Growing up in NZ was more about following UK trends rather than SoCal ones. But then I also use a Jaguar (Squire VM) and a Surfy Bear tank.

I’ve long felt that music has to be inside of you, before it can come out of you. I wouldn’t be good at playing Death Metal, because there is no Death Metal inside of me. I could learn the songs and go through the motions, but the musical output would be uninspired and lifeless.

I heard First Wave Surf as a child, because my older sister listened to the Top 40 stations of her day and there were occasional Surf instrumentals played on those stations. That music is part of me, in spite of the fact that the closest large body of water was Lake Superior, a fresh water inland sea that is notorious for being very cold, even in mid summer. To me, the Pacific Ocean was something I saw in movies and TV shows. We had beaches and young people gathered there in the summer, but the beaches were on local lakes or rivers and there was no surfing to be found. Any feelings I had regarding Surf, or the ocean were most likely confined to wishing I lived someplace warmer.

Flashing forward to my adult years; I have been to the Pacific on a number of occasions and driven the lower 200-300 miles of the Pacific Coast Highway. When I look at the Pacific, I am taken by it’s majesty. I look across the waters and my mind zeroes in on the history that has happened upon it. I think of the Naval battles of WW II, the early explorers that sailed that vast body of water with no idea of what they would find, and people coming from Asia to the West Coast of the US to start new lives.

Youngsters in SoCal gathering on the beach for Surfing, swimming and social interaction were certainly part of the youth culture of the time, but the presence of the Ocean was an accident of geography, for the kids in SoCal, but even without the presence of an ocean, there were plenty of kids gathering at bodies of water, worldwide, and I suspect that they identified closely with what was going on in SoCal.

As I recall, Dick Dale compared his Surf guitar sound to the roar of the waves, so I won’t claim that there’s no inspirational connection between Surf music and the ocean, but in the next breath, I would have t9 state that I don’t think that most Surf listeners would have made that connection. A teenager in the Midwest that had never seen the ocean in person might not even be aware of the sounds Dick Dale was talking about.

I have always held that Surf music was a blend of factors; the state of Instrumental Rock n’ Roll, the Twist craze, the development of portable reverb for electric guitars and the fact that the SoCal Surfing community received some publicity about that time. It’s also notable that instrumental guitars with reverb were also used in Spy movies, Spaghetti Westerns, Space movies and Hot Rod/Racing movies, but with the exception of Spaghetti Westerns, these associations are all but forgotten all of these years later.

Another thing which comes to mind is what is on my mind when I’m playing Surf on a guitar. The one thing that is not on my mind when I’m playing Surf is the Ocean, or water sports. I may be thinking about Surf Music and the bands that gave us this genre, but that might well be the Astronauts, who were over 1,000 miles from Huntington Beach and over a mile above sea level in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Another thing which comes to mind is what is on my mind when I’m playing Surf on a guitar. The one thing that is not on my mind when I’m playing Surf is the Ocean, or water sports. I may be thinking about Surf Music and the bands that gave us this genre, but that might well be the Astronauts, who were over 1,000 miles from Huntington Beach and over a mile above sea level in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies.

Thanks for this. I find your last paragraph interesting. I am aware there are a lot of “Surf” musicians that are in completely land locked situations. Is there a difference between us then if as you say it’s inside you and say me if I’m influenced by the Pacific and you’re influenced by something/where else?

Thanks, Synchro. I want to thank you for a really honest and thought out couple of posts.

Sig

synchro wrote:

stratdancer wrote:

Although it would be a good idea to project escapism in my writing right now, the world is in chaos and that is what I project in my writing. I feel that musicians have always expressed and reflected their world view through their music in some form or another even if it wasn't blatantly laid out. I've always leaned toward aggressive music and surf music can be extremely aggressive. Ask DD!

Strangely, bad times frequently beget good music. WW II was no picnic, but there were some memorable songs written in those years. Likewise, the Vietnam war of the ‘60s and the economic uncertainty of the ‘70s didn’t prevent the creation of some great music in those decades. As I write, this is a time of warfare and uncertainty, and many people are on edge. If I wanted to write a song in the context of March, 2022, I couldn’t even imagine what I’d write. Would I want to write something sad, write something hopeful, or just write something that allowed me to forget about all of this. In occupied France, Django Reinhardt’s dreamy Nuages (Clouds) was something of an anthem among people who had few choices but to submit. They could listen to that song and think past the war and the situation they found themselves in. It was an act of defiance to listen to that song.

I am currently tracking a 7 minute song for surf side project. I had written it about three years ago. It's very aggressive and very progressive. It's all about reality. One of the goals of this project is to combine it with a very well made and pertinent video which will illustrate what the song and music means to me. I will also express my thoughts that surf doesn't need to be about surfing, oceans, monsters, outer space, 60's retro, it can also relate to the world in a way that people that don't listen to surf can understand. I just think surf music is capable of reaching more audiences.

The Kahuna Kings

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Kahuna-Kings/459752090818447

https://thekahunakings.bandcamp.com/releases

stratdancer wrote:

synchro wrote:

stratdancer wrote:

Although it would be a good idea to project escapism in my writing right now, the world is in chaos and that is what I project in my writing. I feel that musicians have always expressed and reflected their world view through their music in some form or another even if it wasn't blatantly laid out. I've always leaned toward aggressive music and surf music can be extremely aggressive. Ask DD!

Strangely, bad times frequently beget good music. WW II was no picnic, but there were some memorable songs written in those years. Likewise, the Vietnam war of the ‘60s and the economic uncertainty of the ‘70s didn’t prevent the creation of some great music in those decades. As I write, this is a time of warfare and uncertainty, and many people are on edge. If I wanted to write a song in the context of March, 2022, I couldn’t even imagine what I’d write. Would I want to write something sad, write something hopeful, or just write something that allowed me to forget about all of this. In occupied France, Django Reinhardt’s dreamy Nuages (Clouds) was something of an anthem among people who had few choices but to submit. They could listen to that song and think past the war and the situation they found themselves in. It was an act of defiance to listen to that song.

I am currently tracking a 7 minute song for surf side project. I had written it about three years ago. It's very aggressive and very progressive. It's all about reality. One of the goals of this project is to combine it with a very well made and pertinent video which will illustrate what the song and music means to me. I will also express my thoughts that surf doesn't need to be about surfing, oceans, monsters, outer space, 60's retro, it can also relate to the world in a way that people that don't listen to surf can understand. I just think surf music is capable of reaching more audiences.

The appeal of the genre may be timeless. I could imagine that even thousands of years ago, young players plucked their Lyres for maximum twang. Reverb may have been a bit of a challenge, but I’d bet money that if you could bring people from ancient times back to life, there would be at least some of them that would relate to Surf instrumentals.

My interest in Surf is part of a broader interest in Instrumental Rock, ranging from Honky Tonk in 1956 up through Jeff Beck, who continues to create new music with Rock guitar as the main voice. Surf was sort of an apex in the continuum of Instrumental Rock. The music was tremendous, the popularity was tremendous and the to this day, Surf elicits a response.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Hmmmm.... I just have the cavemen attitude: guitar > cable > fx board > fender amp....

But I'm not a savage.... won't use any Marshall amps, no way!

www.alohasluts.com
Aloha Sluts on BandCamp
www.arnyzona.com (my photography)
Aloha Fest on facebook

It's a sound thing for me more than anything. And if in the mood, I will most definitely use a Marshall!