Surfbort

New York’s Surfbort have been riding high on a seemingly endless wave of wild tours, outrageous photo shoots, beer soaked warehouse shows and even recently added “Gucci-models” to their bizarro resumes. And admittedly, it’s hard to not get caught up in the fun. They are all incredibly nice folks and rather than exhibiting an icy too-cool-for-school vibe, there’s a genuine and infectious attitude of friendship and camaraderie among them. Having already put out one album on Julian Casablanca’s label Cult Records, the band is going to be recording a follow up soon. On day 2 of Desert Daze, we caught up with Dani Miller (Singer), Sean Powell (Drums) and Alex Kilgore (Guitar) out on the beach while their friends Automatics played behind us.

Brendan Casey: So, I feel like you guys have been on blast for like two years now. Are you feeling like you wanna put your feet down from the whirlwind and have a chill couple months for a bit or you still enjoying being up in the air with it all?

Dani Miller: We’re never into chilling, we’re always into going hard. We’re gonna record our second album next month. Right now, if friends wanna play shows we’re down but we’re not on like a crazy tour whirlwind now. We’re just gonna play a show in LA and New York and then record.

Brendan: So you’ve already done Australia and you’ll be going back soon and you’ve done Japan too before right?

SURFBORT (Whole band): No! We haven’t yet! We want to

Brendan: So you hadn’t done Japan! I was gonna ask what the next territory was, so that’s it I guess.

Dani: We just got a new booker so we’re definitely gonna hit Japan.

Brendan: Would that be number 1 on the wishlist?

Alex: That and I wanna go to South America

Brendan: That would be sick too. Have you done Mexico?

Alex: No!

Dani: We’re new to the world.

Alex: We’re babies.

Brendan: It seems like all these tours you go on wind up being a friendship factory for you guys. Are there any fun bands that you’ve been out with recently?

Dani: Amyl and the Sniffers are sick, Viagra Boys but you’d probably have to bring an ambulance with us.

Sean: Those guys are pretty rough and tumble.

Dani: We just toured with Idles, it was sick. I wanna tour with them endlessly, they’re rad.

Alex: They’re the best.

Dani: Yeah, just anyone who’s into music and a good time on tour, no drama.

Sean: They have to hate music and love having the shittiest fucking time of their life.

Brendan: The two prereqs. I was gonna say, it seems like punk can have a cynicism to it but you guys are generally on the positive tip and the inclusivity tip. Had that always been your guys kind of vibe?

Dani: I think old punk was into violence, new punk’s into friendship.

Alex: I was never into violence! I was always into having a good time.

(At this point Dani saw a pal of hers and ran off to say hey)

Sean: Back in those days, people would fight against things like gangs of nazi skinheads that showed up at shows then there would be violence.

Alex:  Or homophobic rednecks

Brendan: I feel like that’s the things that seems weird to younger punks with the neo-nazi thing rising up again. In the 80s punk scene it seemed more common like “Oh there’s neo-nazi’s at this show, shit’s gonna go down”

Sean: Oh dude yeah, we said our nickname growing up in Texas was “Faggooooot” anywhere you went, regardless of anyone’s sexual preference, that was the scope of the mentality. The 80’s punk scene had violence of course cause people hated you and they’d fuckin kill you cause you were different.

Brendan: I feel like with you guys this positivity is almost a political thing in itself

Sean: I think it is.

Brendan: Not necessarily vote this way or that but just let’s not bring each other down, let’s bring each other up.

Sean: Yeah that’s a big deal.

Alex: You have to connect. That’s the biggest thing, that’s what art’s supposed to do

Brendan: Do you feel like that’s a ‘political’ decision to connect people?

Alex: Connecting people is the most political thing you can do, that’s the scariest thing for the people who don’t want people connected, they want ‘em fractured and fighting each other.

Sean: Government no likey

Alex: Divide and conquer that’s what they want

Brendan: I was laughing cause there was some interview where you guys recommend, and stereotypically you don’t have many punks saying vote and contact your representative, you know it’s fuck it man, burn it down, fuck the system but these are things young people need to do. That was interesting to see you give that advice. Do you feel like coming to this band in your older years you know how to do this right, get the message across and cut the bullshit?

Sean: I don’t know. I didn’t want to hear about that stuff when I was a kid. I didn’t know what the fuck lobbying was. All those things, all those words were so ridiculous to me.

Alex: I couldn’t vote cause I was a felon and then they changed the law.

Sean: But yes I think those things are really important. Voting. It’s the only way to really fight unless you’re gonna…

Alex: Can we pick this up in a sec?

(Some friends had walked up and the band wanted to come back to finish later. Sean came back in ten minutes and we finished talking)

Brendan: So you guys are all transplants in NY?

Sean: Yes, Dani’s the closest to both. She mostly grew up here in California but her dad moved the family there five years ago. Alex our guitar player was born in New York but grew up in Texas. I was born in Lincoln, Nebraska but ended up in Texas when I was really young so grew up there. And Dave Head the other guitar player is San Antonio. We’re all Texas people that fuckin… escaped!

Brendan: I think it’s interesting with a place like NY you’re one of the flagship bands there right now but no one’s a “New Yorker.’

Sean: Alex Kilgore can say he was born there but you don’t meet a lot of “I’m a New Yorkah” especially in like the music scene. People move there cause they have a dream of getting better at whatever it is they do and it’s a great place for that cause it’s a hustler environment. If you’re an actor, artist, whatever, you gotta hustle and I think being around that kind of energy is a good motivator.

Brendan: Do you feel once that energy started kicking up did everyone have that vibe of we’re gonna ride this thing now that it’s kicked off?

Sean: I hope. I was having a talk with Joe Talbot from Idles about spreading it like a virus, just positivity. I don’t know if you can hear it just by listening to a record but when see a band like that, you can see them live and then we meet them and understand that they are doing something that they love so much and they believe in it with all their hearts and it’s just spreading more and more. For me music changed…saved my life when I was a young teenager. A band like Idles has the power to do that for some young kid or maybe a fucking 60 year old dude would just go to one of their shows and ‘feel the love’ floating in the air.

Brendan: I remember I saw the Oh Sees at one point and there was some dude who looked like he’d just gotten divorced, like mid 50’s dad just raging in the pit and I was like he needed this tonight.

Sean: (Laughing) Yeah, it’s like an aggressive angry uplifting happy kind of thing.

Brendan: You had done the Sound of Metal and then had done the Gucci stuff, so you’re branching out here, are there any kind of genres or fields you want to put your stamp on?

Sean: We’re open to doing stuff with any friendly weirdos doing stuff. We went into that Gucci thing obviously not knowing anything about them but after like all the people that we met and worked for them. All the way up the chain those people are fucking awesome, good fucking people. Me personally I’m down to do anything like minded Freak-Os. I think that was a bold move on their part, like use Dani Miller’s mouth for their make-up campaign.

Brendan: It’s not like you guys had already crested into a mainstream thing at that point. I think that you guys blowing up was simultaneous with that. It’s not like you were a tried and tested thing. Like “This works and people will react well to it.”

Sean: (Chuckles) And a lot of people did not react well. But we’re lucky that we got to do something like that. All the dudes in this band are right around 50 so doing a Gucci campaign is a surreal, hilarious experience. Our little band was sitting on the steps of some ruins in Sicily doing a photo shoot for Gucci, that’s just a totally insane, weird thing. They’re doing a lot of that within Gucci with the Black Lips and the Sniffers in there. I saw that they’re just did some shit with Iggy Pop. And that’s kind of like a good one you know, Iggy Pop and Gucci. No wannabe punk can be like Iggy Pop’s trying to sell out. Just shut up.

Brendan: Besides his skin’s already like fine leather at this point.

Sean: Yeah, he just needs a Gucci brand like a cow stamp.

Bredan: So who else are you excited to see at the festival?

Sean: Woah, tons. Our buddies The Viagra Boys are so bad ass. The Locust. Lightning Bolt. The dude from Lightning Bolt is walking by right over there. Devo. Got to meet and hang out with Mark Mothersbaugh earlier. Wu Tang. Hey! Here comes a Viagra Boy now! I just gave your band a shout out!

And with that Sean headed off with his bud from Viagra Boys, onto freakier, more bizarr-o and more positive pastures.