Surfer Blood

Whilst the whole country has seemingly got themselves into a state of pre-emptive delight over The Drums here at Gigwise we've been enjoying another band coming out of Florida, West Palm Beach's Surfer Blood. Their debut album 'Astro Coast' was released last week with Gigwise scribe Jamie Milton describing it as, “An endless supply of songs worthy of closing or opening a Hollywood blockbuster ”.

Quite whether we'll see Bruce Willis detonating a bomb to the sounds of Surfer Blood remain to be seen but chatting to JP Pitts from the band they clearly have big ambitions, even going so far as to fire their album engineer, “We only budgeted two days for tracking, however, things took much longer than we expected initially and we ended up spending both of them working on drum tracks. We decided to take the files and leave at that point, I didn’t like the engineer’s approach and wasn’t willing to throw any more good money after bad.”

Recording music since high school Pitts finished 'Astro Coast' himself and took to distributing CD-R's at Surfer Blood shows before signing to Kanine Records. “We met Kay and Lio from Kanine Records (which was actually based on a recommendation from Jacob Graham of The Drums) who signed us soon after and we’ve been preparing for the release of Astro Coast ever since.” Speaking of the album Pitt says certain tracks have achieved fan favourite status already, “People always love ’Swim,’ probably because its been the most played so far. They also seem to love ’Take it Easy,’ which makes sense because its one of the more dance-ready songs on the record, especially the ending. I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by the reactions we’ve been getting to ’Anchorage’ live, its one of the more epic songs and one of the darkest. ”

Influence wise Surfer Blood look to the US alternative scene for inspiration. “I was listening to a lot of Pavement when I started writing and recording some of my first songs, I’m sure some of Stephen Malknus’ hyper-melodic sensibility worked its way into the way I play and write for guitar. I also love the way both Stephen Malknus and Rivers Cuomo write about pain with a sense of humor, I feel like it gives their music more depth because there is an extra element blended into their songwriting.”

Surfer Blood will be making their UK debut next week when they come over to play gigs in London and Manchester, something JP is looking forward to, “ I’m really excited to visit Rough Trade and get some Indian food in London. I visited England once or twice when I was younger, and I was really struck by how nicely the ancient and the modern sat right next to each other.”

For tour dates and more visit Surfer Blood on Myspace

Surfer Blood