Surfing highs and lows
Speaking from the tour van en route to Atlanta’s Shaky Knees Festival, Surfer Blood leader John Paul Pitts is in high spirits despite the uncertainty that has dogged the band since 2013 album Pythons.
The Florida band’s second album was their major label debut and, as it would turn out, their major label swan song.
“Warner poured a staggering amount of money into us, and I will always be really grateful that I got to record an album with (Pixies producer) Gil Norton, but at the same time it’s not something that our band has ever really needed,” Pitts says.
Knowing that they would never make back the money that was invested in them, it came as little surprise that Surfer Blood were dropped by the end of 2013.
With little certainty about what the future held, the guitar-pop trio decided to make the next record in their home studio, like they did with their debut, 2010’s Astro Coast.
“I have an OK home studio,” Pitts says. “I have some nice stuff, some OK stuff and some broken stuff but it’s all my stuff, so I love it all. It took us all six months of recording, and definitely by the end I was delirious and losing my mind but that’s how some of the best music gets made.”
The resulting album, 1000 Palms, sounds closer to Pythons than the messy freewheeling of their debut, which saw critics herald them as worthy successors to indie-rock kings Weezer and Pavement.
But shortly after 1000 Palms was finished and the band had signed with Indianapolis-based label Joyful Noise, guitarist Thomas Fekete was diagnosed with a rare form of abdominal cancer.
“If anyone can get through this, it’s Tom,” Pitts says. “When I met him he’d gone through having cancer as an 18-year-old, and I met him when he was 20 — he was healthy but he looked like somebody who just beat cancer.”
Through crowd-sourcing website GoFundMe more than $US85,000 ($110,000) has been raised to help pay for treatment. Pitts remains optimistic. “Most people have never had to face the possibility that they might die but Tom’s done it once before and I think that’s why he is able to handle this so well.”
1000 Palms is out now.
