Surf City

Surf City’s self-titled EP was one of the most pleasant surprises of 2008. Throwback surf rock with a ton of reverb earned the band some much-deserved attention and brought them off the New Zealand beaches and into Indie music conversation and even into the US earlier this year to tour with Woods and Real Estate. With a full-length album, which Ash cannot wait to hear, slated for later this year (check the tracklist here), the band was generous enough to share a few moments of their time with us and answer a few questions about the shores of their homeland and beyond…

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First of all, what part of New Zealand are you guys from?

we’re from auckland.

Could you describe a little bit the music scene in general in New Zealand? Your music reminds me somewhat of bands like The Clean and some other older stuff, but you list bands from all over as your influences, do you think you have a ‘New Zealand’ sound? is there such a thing?

well we do like flying nun music but in saying that flying nun bands were also influenced by many american/ british bands just the same as we are. im not too sure whether we have an nz sound or not, if we do its unintentional.  alot of bands do the trebly, reverby guitar thing from all over the world.

I saw you guys play with Woods and Real Estate in Washington a few months back, how has your experience been playing in the US? How did you feel you were received? Do you see the US as sort of an ideal destination when it comes to indie music? If this is the case, it must not be easy to be so far removed.

its mostly a good time for us too play in the states. sometimes it can be hectic and we’re always a little worried about how much money we’re losing but the experience is what really counts. in some places we played to good crowds, others not so good, but that’s the nature of what we do i guess. it would be nice to be located a little closer to the US, there’s a lot more people and it almost seems feasible that a band could actually live as a band. the hardest thing being so far rmoved is how much it costs to fly pretty much anywhere from nz.

Are you guys all surfers? what exactly is Surf City?

no none of us are surfers, we all grew up around beaches and i did surf for most of my teenage years but not so anymore\. we used to be called kill surf city after a jesus and marychain bside but had too change it cos some other band already had it. strangely enough no one had taken surf city.

To me, your songs carry a lot of nostalgia in them, whether it’s the guitar riffs or the hazy, distorted vocals. Is this intentional? are you guys trying to recall the era of surf rock? or bring it back?

i dont think anything we do is intentional. we’re influenced by other bands, but i think thats about how far it goes

I just saw on your blog that you have released the track list for your full length album coming out in next couple months. You say that you finished it last year, are you waiting for just the right moment to release it? because I would imagine that the end of summer (in the United States at least) would be perfect timing. Does the album have a theme of any sorts? where did you record it?

no theres no theme, just a lot of reverb, maybe thats the theme? we just had alot of negotiation time with people puttung out the record etc..

What differences are there between recording an ep and a full-length album?

it takes a hell of a lot longer!

As I said, I saw you guys play with Woods and Real Estate, what are some current bands that you guys are into and would perhaps like to play with in the future?

this is a hard one as we dont really keep up with the current happenings, probably cos we’re so far from it..

Will there be a tour to follow up the album release?

i hope so, we’re coming over cmj in october and there has been talk of an east coast tour

What has been your favorite country to play in so far?

well we have onyl played nz, australia and the US so id have to say the US at this stage

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Listen to two new tracks, Kudos and Autumn, off the upcoming Surf City album on their myspace page.

Special thanks to Davin of Surf City for taking the time to answer our questions.