Rollicking indie rock group entering new chapter in musical progression with upcoming album
Surfer Blood may use a surf rock sound, but their music is anything but breezy.
Synthesizing complex guitar and bass work with lead singer John Paul Pitts’ smooth vocals, Surfer Blood is no stranger to dipping into the dark, the light and everywhere in between.
It’s an energetic mixture, which is what brought a strong crowd out to New Brookland Tavern Wednesday night to hear them play. Some even sang along, and Pitts said “seeing people sing the words to your song” is the best part of touring.
“We’ve had bearded 40-year-old men singing the words to ‘Swim,’ and last night, we saw some 18-year-old drunk girls saying the words to ‘Anchorage’ and ‘Drinking Problem,’” Pitts said Wednesday. “I think finding people who relate to your music who you wouldn’t necessarily expect to is kind of the fun part of seeing who … you can reach through what’s hopefully emotionally charged music.”
In the five years since its debut single “Swim” came out, Surfer Blood has been developing as artists. Initially, the band’s success was quite the transition.
“We were a band who were playing shows in Florida for pretty much our friends, because no one in West Palm goes to shows,” Pitts said. “There’s no music scene, there are barely any venues. … We played one or two venues over and over again.”
The smash success of “Swim” changed that modest existence almost overnight.
“We would draw 10 people and make no money, and then suddenly we were starting to get written about in blogs, and people were coming to our shows that were really interested, including labels and booking agents … which is something we had never experienced,” he said. “We didn’t really know how to navigate those waters too well.”
Those waters led to a gig opening for the Pixies in 2011, a dream come true for Pitts.
“If you would have told me that when I was still going to college, that would have been my dream,” Pitts said. “I will say that that was probably my favorite support tour I’ve done, to this day.”
However, while success has allowed them some golden opportunities, it’s also led to some changes, which were most clear in the production of their second album, “Pythons.” At that point, the band was signed with Warner Bros. Records, and the experience was difference from the one they had making debut album “Astro Coast.”
“There was this whole production of, ‘Where we are going to record, who are we going to record with, who’s going to mix it,’ all of these things that were so different from anything we did before,” Pitts said.
Now that they’re no longer signed with Warner Bros., the band is looking forward to a back-to-basics approach for their next album, without bureaucracy or restrictions. After all, the guitar work on “Astro Coast” was done with one guitar and one amp.
“I think recording music is the most fun part of the whole thing, really, and having it taken out of your hands to some degree … it can make you a little bit crazy, you know?” Pitts said. “So I think that our plan is to record it ourselves. We’ve learned so much, met so many people who were so talented and had so much good advice that they gave away freely to us. … I think if anyone knows what our band should sound like, it’s us.”
Pitts and bassist Kevin Williams agreed that an evolving sound is important to any band’s continuing success, with Williams citing Radiohead as an example.
“Each album was really different from the last one, and people responded to that,” Williams said.
The same will be true for their next album, Pitts said.
“It’s different from anything we’ve done,” Pitts said. “I mean, I think it always kind of should be.”
With such a sudden and eventful rise to prominence — Pitts was just a fresh-faced 23-year-old when “Swim” came out — has come mistakes and restrictions that they’re relieved to be free from.
“We’ve been doing this for four or five years now,” Pitts said. “I feel like second-guessing at this point would just be the dumbest thing we could possibly do. We obviously have a clear idea of what we want, so put it out there and see what happens.”