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Hi guys, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?
Pretty good, apart from the pandemic and everything we’ve been holding up pretty well. We’re both currently quarantined, have been and will continue to be, but we’re keeping our sanity. Well wishes to the readers!
Can you talk to us more about your latest single “Swell”?
For sure. “Swell” was a song that sort of popped up out of nowhere during a particularly frustrating recording session. At the time, we were isolated out on a beach peninsula in the middle of winter, surrounded by every piece of recording gear either of us owns. We’d been at this house, owned by a friend of ours, totally alone for a couple of days and we hadn’t gotten the ideas flowing quite yet. We both have a tendency to overthink a lot of musical ideas, but when the main riff of that song cropped up on Tyler’s guitar, it was just too simple and catchy to screw up. Like many of our projects the instrument parts were recorded as they were written, but the lyrics came at a later date with just Tyler and his acoustic.
Mixing took quite a while; it’s definitely our personal record for most tracks in a project file. Nothing crazy, maybe 40-50 instrument tracks all together (plenty of artists routinely double that) but it was definitely our most ambitious sonic attempt to date. We got our friend Aidan Hobbs to hop on a sax solo at the end to tie the track all together, and that was that.
Did any event in particular inspire you to write this song?
It’s funny: “Swell” exists as a fun reminder that sometimes things can work out if you really try to force it. We’d just arrived to this house, literally in the middle of nowhere, with the intention of writing and recording an entire EP and absolutely nothing was flowing. Sometimes that just happens and there’s nothing you can really do about it except get some sleep and try again the next day. For some reason, Tyler was really determined to squeeze something out of that day. In the middle of recording another idea that was going nowhere, he just picked up Sam’s guitar and out sprung the main riff of the track. Chords came immediately after and, all of a sudden, we had something.
Any plans to release a video for the single?
Yeah, originally we were planning on getting together with our cameraman Ben Collins and shooting an official music video. What we weren’t planning on, however, was a virus to cause a global pandemic and prevent us from even being in the same room with each other for months. So, Tyler’s roommate Henry Francis and him started teaching themselves how to animate and are currently in the process of trying to throw together some scrappy music video. We’re leaning into it, I’m sure it’ll be fun.
How was the recording and writing process?
This track came easy to us. Recording, like many of our tracks, actually preceded the writing process. Writing is always trickier for us, but sometimes the words just flow. Tyler wrote the lyrics for this one at his house and we got Sam in front of a condenser mic in his barn the next day.
What role does NYC play in your music?
NYC has changed our music entirely. As soon as Sam started going to school at NYU, we suddenly had so many more opportunities than ever before. We made so many connections in the student body of NYU and the school gave us an audience in the city. Opportunities are easy to find.
Maybe most importantly, we met our bassist John Carlson in New York. He’s an exceptional funk player with lots of live experience and has been a huge factor in shaping our recorded sound and our live act. He’s also one of our best friends and is just an all-around amazing addition to the band.
In another sense, NYC has sort of made us look outside of the city for an escape in our music. Most of our songs exist in more natural environments, something that the concrete and bustle of the city juxtaposes pretty dramatically. NYC is definitely ingrained in the style of the band, but our music is still very beach-y.
Does the new single mean we can expect a new material – how’s that coming along?
Yes. In all transparency, “Swell” was meant to be the first track off of an EP. However, with the pandemic we are calling a bit of an audible. With all this time we’re planning on churning out a whole lot more material. Our next single comes out on April 25th.
Any tentative release date or title in mind?
Look for a new full-length project from us in late May!
What else is happening next in SURFLINER’s world?
Well, first and foremost, the pandemic is throwing a mighty large wrench into the whole live act thing. On that front, we don’t know. Ask Dr. Fauci.
For us personally, Tyler is graduating college this May. After that he’s planning on devoting all he’s got to the band. Sam is entering his third year at NYU, so there’s lots of things up in the air.
As a band, our goal is to give our supporters something to escape into from this scary world we live in right now. For us, that means more music, more content on social media, and creating a positive connection with as many people as we can.
