Surf music may have had its heyday in the 1960s and ’70s, but guitarist John Reis believes the style still has plenty of new territory to explore.
While he’s best known for playing in alternative rock bands like Hot Snakes, Rocket From The Crypt and The Night Marchers, Reis has found inspiration from other music styles over the years including surf music. That interest grew great enough that in January 2013 he joined forces with Minneapolis rockers The Blind Shake, who previously impressed him backing his guitar hero Michael Yonkers, to put their own spin on surf music. The result is Swami John Reis and The Blind Shake and their debut album Modern Surf Classics. The album, which features 13 songs full of instrumental surf and rock ’n’ roll, was released on Reis’ Swami Records.
“I’ve always loved the surf music from the 1960s and for maybe the last 25 years it’s been an influence on the way that I play, at least partly,” Reis says. “I thought it was time I did something that was a little more literal in terms of an influence, directly inspired by certain music…to do something that I consider part of an ongoing preservation of that music and try to take it into the future. To be respectful of the form and the conventions of it and at the same time do it in my own voice.”
Reis says he remembers growing up listening to surf music.
“We lived right here on the beach so surfing and beach culture and water activity in the ocean is a big part of my formative years,” says Reis. “You couldn’t help but hear that music, even though I was born at the tail end of the ’60s. You still couldn’t help but hear the echoes of it all around you. I remember being young and listening to the classic sounds of Dick Dale and The Ventures and even the Beach Boys, if you want to put them in that category.”
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With the help of The Blind Shake—who impressed Reis with their “explosive” and “shambolic barrage” rock ’n’ roll—that goal was achieved. Their music offers a California-meets-Midwest modern update on the surf music. Reis was excited to work with musicians he hadn’t played with before and tackle new sonic territory.
“I wanted to hear [The Blind Shake’s style] in the surf music,” Reis says. “I thought that would be the key to keeping it from sounding too dated. I didn’t want this record to be costume-y, like we’re pretending to be something we really weren’t.”
He named the album Modern Surf Classics tongue-in-check but also with some truth.
“I thought it was funny because it’s very self-important to call something a classic. And then to call something a modern classic was a bit of a misnomer because it’s a bit of an oxymoron,” Reis says. “There is some truth in that, not that it is indeed a modern surf classic, but we want the record to be a current version of surf music. We want it to be seen as something contemporary.”
To get in the surf mindset, they recorded a handful of the songs at the beach. They recorded underneath Crystal Pier in the Pacific Beach part of San Diego, with producer Ben Moore turning his VW van into a mobile recording unit.
“That was a neat experiment,” Reis says. “It defined the record, at least the process of making it for us.”
The experience proved a change of pace for Reis. While he typically has played more rhythm guitar, for this band he tackled more lead guitar.
“I’m playing music that doesn’t come natural to me,” he says. “So doing this has been a challenge, but it’s been a fun challenge.”
Swami John Reis and The Blind Shake plays Shank Hall on Friday, Feb. 20 at 8 p.m. with Brokeback and Whips.
