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Carter Reeves of Surfer Girl · Caught on the Mike...

0:29
SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Caught on the Mic, from teenage tours to a pandemic reset that eventually became Surfer Girl.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: Carter Reeves has spent the last decade plus figuring out what he actually wanted to sound like.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: I know that feeling.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: Now, with more than a hundred million streams, a growing global fan base, and a new album called Midnight arriving this week.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: That's this Friday, everybody.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: Friday, August 21st.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Surfer Girl may be entering its biggest chapter yet.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: And teaming up with Wiz Khalifa on Smoked Out?
1:08
SPEAKER_00: Come on, man.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: If that's not any indication that Carter isn't exactly playing it safe, I don't know what is.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: Carter Reeves of Surfer Girl, welcome to the show, my friend.
1:20
SPEAKER_01: Yo, I'm very excited to be here live and direct.
1:25
SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to be caught on the mic and uh hopefully we can get into some good some good stuff here, man.
1:30
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's my pleasure when I got the email to have you on.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, are you serious?
1:36
SPEAKER_00: Of course I'll do this.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: Of course I'm why I don't.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's let's get right into it.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: Let's start at the beginning before Surfer Girl.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: You were touring nationally as a teenager and experienced a level of success pretty early on that most artists never even get.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: When you look at that version of Carter, what did that kid understand about music?
2:01
SPEAKER_00: And what did he have absolutely no idea about yet?
2:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was gonna say, not a whole lot.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: Um at that point I knew it was something I was interested in more than anything I had ever been interested in before.
2:17
SPEAKER_01: Uh sports kind of came and went for me.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, I went through the the the laundry list of of teenage kind of fads or whatever were the things that I was just chasing down to see if it would be something I'd be interested in.
2:32
SPEAKER_01: Um music stuck with me.
2:34
SPEAKER_01: It was there when I woke up, it was there all day throughout school, and it was there when I went to bed to the point where I didn't know who I would be or how I would be involved in the long run, but knew I needed to be involved in in one capacity.
2:49
SPEAKER_01: Um, in terms of what I had no idea on, I mean, I just had no idea where this would lead me.
2:59
SPEAKER_01: I think if you had asked me 15, 16 years ago when I kind of got a little little more serious about it, I was still 16 at the time, but I would have laughed in your face if you told me I was still doing it 20 years later, but I would have been stoked to hear it.
3:15
SPEAKER_01: Um I think I had no idea just about how how much of an industry this is, and and how there's so many different facets and so many people involved to make sure everything is running smoothly and and kind of everything is as impactful as it could be.
3:34
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know.
3:36
SPEAKER_01: I was young, naive, stoked, and had a lot to learn.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's uh it's funny you talk about the number of facets there are because there's way more now than there were 20 years ago when you think about social media algorithms and how marketing is approached, how people almost released half an album before the album even drops.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of crazy, isn't it?
4:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean I'm doing it currently, it's great.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: Half the album's already out.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: Trust me, I asked Jackson the same thing whenever I had uh Jackson from the elevators on.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: And it's just like, man, you guys released eight singles before the album even dropped.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, You haven't heard the best of it yet, and he was right.
4:23
SPEAKER_01: So thankfully, that's I I can I can echo that sentiment.
4:27
SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of our best music is still unheard on the album.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: So amazing.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: So your last project ended in 2016.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: You moved to LA, pursued music under your own name, and then 2020 essentially blew up everybody's plans.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: Mine included, man.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I I thought I was like all in on the fitness world, and then the world shut down, and I'm like, okay, I have to do something like creative.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: I started a podcast.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: What was actually going on in your head during that period that eventually led you to create the first Surfer Girl music?
5:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, it goes without saying that that time was uh everyone kind of dealt with it in different ways, and also everyone got uh dealt a completely different, you know, set of uh set of cards, uh hand of cards.
5:17
SPEAKER_01: So for me, I I I was able to make the most of it.
5:23
SPEAKER_01: Um I got I was you know with my parents on the east coast, just being able to take care of family and kind of be close with my loved ones.
5:31
SPEAKER_01: I was with my wife as well on the east coast.
5:34
SPEAKER_01: And so I was very fortunate to be able to actually recognize that moment as like a pause on life.
5:42
SPEAKER_01: Um, and it it allowed me to revisit what is my mission, what do I really want out of this?
5:49
SPEAKER_01: Um, because between air splitting up in 2015 and Surf and Girl starting in 2020, I was still putting out tons of solo music, but just kind of throwing things at the wall to see what would stick and uh see if something would raise its hand as like the direction that that I should be going in.
6:11
SPEAKER_01: Um but when the world kind of stopped and I was able to think critically about it, instead of just being on the treadmill, one thing after the other, one thing after the other, putting out all these fires all the time, you know, there was a bit of relief just in that pace.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: And I was able to sit down and actually plot and plan something that I believed in, something that I thought I could actually make a difference in, something I could make an impact in.
6:39
SPEAKER_01: Um and that led me back to the the California American reggae scene.
6:45
SPEAKER_01: Um for a ton of reasons.
6:49
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Air, my my first band, we had dabbled, we had, you know, we had dabbled in the scene.
6:55
SPEAKER_01: We got to tour with Dirty Heads and Pepper in 2013.
7:00
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I just remember being struck by the community on on this side.
7:06
SPEAKER_01: Like it is sunk.
7:08
SPEAKER_01: Die hard fans who are not afraid to go and scream it from the rooftops, who will show up whether there's 10 people in the room or there's 10,000 people in the room.
7:16
SPEAKER_01: And I don't think that that exists in many other places.
7:21
SPEAKER_01: Um and there's just this family aspect, right?
7:24
SPEAKER_01: And so to me, I I I was craving more of a connection uh with my audience or or craving to connect with an audience that I could actually feel like I knew, uh, people that I actually felt like I cared about, cared about me, instead of just this like faceless.
7:42
SPEAKER_01: I was trying to do some like indie pop, and it's just like they only want the coolest kid, the coolest person up next.
7:49
SPEAKER_01: Whereas I feel like this scene, it's people who actually genuinely want to invest in you and your growth.
7:54
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, pandemic gave me the the pause to craft something and craft an entire idea from scratch without rushing into it, without feeling pressured to uh, you know, jump on it.
8:07
SPEAKER_01: I was actually able to make something kind of in a vacuum and then put it out the way I want it to.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: Dude, there is so many different layers to a lot of what you just said and so many different facets we could jump in from.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: I talk a lot, by the way, if you can't tell.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, but no, I it it sounds like first point, it sounds like Surfer Girl was uh a massive form of therapy for you in a time where it needed to happen.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's how I view my creative and my current creative endeavor with caught on the mic.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: But two, the other thing that I caught on to was you talking about the Cali Reggae scene, because it's something I just recently jumped back into as a fan, former musician myself.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: I I was a never was been.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: I've been in punk bands, hardcore bands, singer-songwriter projects, funk projects.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: I've been in it all.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: So it means I listened to absolutely frickin' everything.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: But exactly how you just described the Cali reggae community and that group of bands, it's just insane how positive you do feel around that group of people, whether it be the bands or the fans or what have you.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I used to sing in post-hardcore bands, and I went to a punk show this summer, and then going and seeing 311 and Sublime and uh slightly stupid altogether.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: The audience and the community around those bands were two totally different things.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I gotta say, the more positive one was definitely more positive, and it it's just crazy, man.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: And it's more fun and it's easygoing.
9:52
SPEAKER_01: Like nobody wants to harsh each other's mellow, and it just it is genuinely just seems like good people who love.
9:58
SPEAKER_01: I think that's the thing is like they love music, like, and it doesn't matter if they're the hottest new musician, it doesn't matter if uh I just think what I like about this scene is they love music, and that's actually why I love where this scene is at right now, with bands like The Elevators, of course, um, with Little Stranger, who's way more rap than they are reggae, you know, with Tropedelic, who's funk and rap and reggae and pop and um denim, you know, I could go on for days.
10:31
SPEAKER_01: There's a new generation, I think, of artists who are really bringing things and kind of pushing the edges of the scene from where it maybe traditionally was 10 years ago.
10:44
SPEAKER_01: And I guess what I love about it is like it's awesome to see that these fans are taking, you know, fans that are a little more outside of the box uh in such stride and and you know, really getting behind them.
10:56
SPEAKER_01: It's just shows that these people love music and it's kind of all that matters, right?
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I talk about this a lot, specifically with my daughter, how people are just a fan of music now.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: They are not so adherent to genres, and a lot of that is the silver lining of streaming platforms.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: You know, we can we can sit and crap on streaming platforms all day long, but one of the upsides of it is it's like it's exposing people to diversity.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: And whenever I was comparing the two different genres and the two different types of shows that I went to, it it's one was based highly, highly, highly in style, uh, while the other was just like a celebration of music and art.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: I think that is one of the joyous things of that uh genre in particular.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: So the name Surfer Girl almost has a perfect California mythology to it, but you were a guy from New England sitting in the cold thinking about sunshine.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: How much of Surfer Girl is really about creating a musical world that you wanted to live in?
12:00
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a phenomenal question.
12:02
SPEAKER_01: I think I mean uh you kind of nailed it.
12:05
SPEAKER_01: Um, I would say uh it's just a multi-tiered name that has importance to not only myself, but uh, you know, the people around me, in a way that I think there's three ways to hit it, right?
12:19
SPEAKER_01: There's the literal, there's the there's the personal, and then there's the uh then there's like the heady and the spiritual.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: I think the literal is I am a massive Beach Boys fan.
12:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh Surfer Girl is not only a spectacular album, but one of my favorite songs by them.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: Um it is one of my wife's favorite songs.
12:39
SPEAKER_01: It is the song we walk down the aisle to.
12:42
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's it's it's a nod to the Beach Boys, which in theory is a nod to this kind of 1950s, 1960s, just retro California dreamy lifestyle, right?
12:55
SPEAKER_01: Um, so first and foremost, nod to the beach boys.
12:58
SPEAKER_01: Huge inspiration, huge fan.
13:00
SPEAKER_01: Um, from the personal side of things, you know, my wife is she's born and raised in California.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: She's a surfer girl.
13:07
SPEAKER_01: She's, you know, exactly my quintessential California dream girl in a way that, like you said, growing up on the East Coast, I always dreamed about what it may be and what it may look like my life in 20 years, and to kind of find my dream girl, to find my life, my little surfer girl was safe to say a win.
13:29
SPEAKER_01: Um and then from a more spiritual standpoint, it it is what is this world you're building, kind of the way you put on.
13:38
SPEAKER_01: And I think the world is attracted to this hazy, golden, breezy California surf culture, whether you have never encountered it or whether you're the biggest core lord in the world and like you own it.
13:52
SPEAKER_01: Um so I just think there's something that is so there's just such a picture that gets painted uh kind of the second you think of Surfer Girl and and Malibu and the Beach Boys, and it's just got a taste, it's got a smell, it's got a flavor, it's got a color, it's got a feeling, and uh I like to try and be as descriptive as possible.
14:13
SPEAKER_01: So that's where it came from.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: You know, speaking in leaning into that, um, one thing that really stands out in your earlier interviews is your description of Surfer Girl as having carte blanche, creatively, reggae, pop, surf rock, hip-hop, dub, whatever fits.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: Was that freedom something you consciously needed after air, or did you simply discover that it was this music that had been sitting inside of you all along?
14:49
SPEAKER_00: I definitely think the latter.
14:51
SPEAKER_01: I think I mean even listening to air, it's maybe some strain of feel-good music.
14:58
SPEAKER_01: But a lot of those tunes had reggae grooves.
15:00
SPEAKER_01: A lot of those tunes we were doing, we were making reggae songs.
15:05
SPEAKER_01: Air was making reggae songs without knowing they would be classified as reggae songs.
15:11
SPEAKER_01: And so when we started getting reggae festivals or we would get reggae uh, you know, torn up with reggae bands, we we were kind of like, wait, this doesn't even make sense.
15:20
SPEAKER_01: And then we're, you know, looking back now, I'm like, oh my god, so many of our foundational songs had that famous upstroke kind of reggae groove.
15:30
SPEAKER_01: We just were naive and or we were just kind of we weren't even consciously thinking of it that way.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: Um and if you listen to all my kind of solo stuff between Air and Surfer Girl, it was always a feel-good, kind of sunny, breezy, beachy vibe.
15:49
SPEAKER_01: Um I just think Surfer Girl was kind of the culmination of finally honing in exactly what I wanted to and not being afraid to kind of make the type of music that I was always attracted to, even if uh maybe I didn't think it had the most like global appeal, because for a while there I was doing, I was kind of chasing trends, and I was afraid to just do what I do fully, full stop, produce my own music.
16:19
SPEAKER_01: I was, you know, I had imposter syndrome, was a little self-conscious about my own style, and I was chasing trends.
16:28
SPEAKER_01: And I think Surfer Girl was the first time I gave my permission to stop doing that and just do what I liked.
16:34
SPEAKER_01: And that was kind of it.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: That's a good call out because it really started as a very Carter-driven project, but it has evolved into a real live band with Jack, Sam, and Bobby.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: At what point did Surfer Girl stop feeling like Carter's project and start feeling like a band?
16:52
SPEAKER_00: And how did that change the music?
16:55
SPEAKER_00: Great question.
16:55
SPEAKER_01: Damn, Mike, I'm getting caught on the mic right now.
16:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh I think it's a great question.
17:02
SPEAKER_01: I think, you know, the beautiful part of this project is while, you know, I'm still at the helm and I am, you know, at the end of the day, the creative force who's kind of driving it.
17:15
SPEAKER_01: I've been super lucky to have incredible musicians come into this project.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, some have gone on to better things or different things, and and you know, so kind of starting it as my own singular thing.
17:29
SPEAKER_01: It's given me the luxury of having so many incredible people pass through this door, join the team, and help push this along.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: So uh, you know, I want to shout out Brittany Maccarello, who used to play drums in the band, and my friend Sharif Adot, who used to play bass in the band.
17:47
SPEAKER_01: We wrote a lot of songs together uh as well.
17:50
SPEAKER_01: And uh I guess I I wasn't thinking about how awesome kind of the collaboration could affect Surfer Girl.
17:59
SPEAKER_01: And I think once I first worked with Britney and uh Sharif, the door was kind of open for me on like, well, darn, the people that I'm bringing in to play these shows don't just need to be people who show up, play the parts that I've written, and then walk away and leave.
18:16
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think Jack Pavlina, who now plays lead guitar in Surfer Girl, he was the first person to really show me that like he believed in the project on a deeper level.
18:26
SPEAKER_01: And he was coming to me with ideas how to make the show better.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: Um, and coming to me with cool little licks and transitions for the live show.
18:35
SPEAKER_01: And I was super honored and stoked to see someone believing in something that I had built, um, more so than just showing up to get the paycheck, right?
18:45
SPEAKER_01: Um, so Jack kind of changed my game a little bit.
18:48
SPEAKER_01: He changed my view to the point where that relationship crossed over just live ideas, and it started kind of going into songwriting ideas and melodic ideas.
19:01
SPEAKER_01: And once the two of us kind of got in and really started working on this midnight album, um, you know, the cool thing about these songs are some of them are just songs I wrote alone, some songs I wrote with him, some are ideas that he came to me with, and and vice versa, it really was a very collaborative thing between Jack and I.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: Um, but then being able to present these demos to Bobby, who plays drums, and Sam Callahan, who plays bass, and being like, how could we work these out in a way?
19:35
SPEAKER_01: Because at the end of the day, I think the live show, performing live, but being in person, that's where you connect with people most, no matter what.
19:46
SPEAKER_01: That's you're making eye contact, you're and as an artist, I'm getting to see you sing along back to me.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: Like, it is such a mutually beneficial environment that you know, admittedly, a lot of the Carter-driven Surfer Girl songs from the early days are great songs, but lack a little like for the live show, right?
20:12
SPEAKER_01: And or lack a little depth.
20:15
SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, a whole whole aspect of this this upcoming album is like not only are these super well-written songs, not only did they sound spectacular, but they're fucking excuse me, they are killer records.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: Don't apologize for cussing.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: I use curse words as punctuation marks.
20:35
SPEAKER_01: Just check it.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, man, but these songs also just rip live.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: And so to me, it's like you're you're checking all the boxes.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: And at the end of the day, I don't know how to play drums.
20:45
SPEAKER_01: I'm a real bad bassist, and I am a solid rhythm guitarist at best.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: So for me to be able to open up my mind and my ideas, and then get some players who not only have I been playing with for two and a half years, but some players who really love and believe in this project to jump on it, it was a no-brainer.
21:04
SPEAKER_01: So shout out to Jack Pavlina, Bobby Kurkowski, Sam Callahan for killing it on this record.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: Love that.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: Do you think that's a level of wisdom that age had to bring to you?
21:16
SPEAKER_00: I and the only reason I ask that is I know in my past creative endeavors, I wanted to have this level of control that I didn't start creating my best music until I opened myself up to people that actually challenged me as a writer.
21:33
SPEAKER_01: 100%.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think it's it's kind of a catch-22 because I think it's a forever evolving thing.
21:41
SPEAKER_01: I I recognize like I think if you check out SurferGirl for the first time, you hear my voice, you see my face in a lot of the photos, if not all the photos.
21:50
SPEAKER_01: I'm the one running the social media.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: Like it would be insane for me to think that someone coming into the SurferGirl tent would not.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Probably point to me as the person who's, you know, doing the majority of the work and or the brainchild behind it.
22:08
SPEAKER_01: So what more do you need personally?
22:11
SPEAKER_01: Like you're there's already such recognition for that.
22:14
SPEAKER_01: So if I'm limiting myself, uh limiting not only expressing the music that I want to, but limiting my ability to reach more people because I'm such a dick that I'm like, yo, I could be the only one to touch any of this stuff.
22:31
SPEAKER_01: It's like I just think you're getting in your own way.
22:34
SPEAKER_01: So I think opening up to other people, yeah, sure.
22:38
SPEAKER_01: I mean, maybe I own a little bit less of the music, or maybe I have to credit more people, or maybe some people will point fingers at me and go, he didn't do everything himself.
22:47
SPEAKER_01: It's like, well, yeah, I mean, that's not how music goes, at least not how great music goes.
22:53
SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, letting go of any of that was was good.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: I feel like it goes back to the the random guys getting together around a campfire and jamming for the first time.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: Like there's a certain level of magic to that that you cannot force by getting five hired guns together and say, okay, write a song.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's there's an organic authenticity to it all, for sure.
23:20
SPEAKER_01: Well, and we weren't even the concept of writing together, the the four of us, or or at least recording together, wasn't that like a guaranteed thing.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't pitched to them before they started working.
23:34
SPEAKER_01: It was that was a um, that was the natural response to how close we grew and to how much we really just enjoyed each other's company.
23:45
SPEAKER_01: So it was the obvious no-brainer next step was like, I fucking love you guys so much.
23:51
SPEAKER_01: Let's see what we can do because you're talented, you're talented, you're talented.
23:54
SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty, I'm all right.
23:56
SPEAKER_01: And together, let's see what can happen.
23:59
SPEAKER_01: And so that's what this new album is, which it sounds different, you can feel it, but I think I know it is it's the best piece of music I've ever had the pleasure of being a part of, let alone conducting and leading.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: Dude, I am stoked to get into the weeds on that here in just a moment.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: But I want to touch on one more thing.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: I want to touch about that energy translating to the live show because you've been cited several places of saying that you actually pride yourselves on the fact that your live show is being better than the recorded version.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: And that's a huge part of your story.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, you've played Tortuga, Beach Life, Warp Tour, and Shared Stages with bands like The Elevator, Iration, Pepper, and others.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: What does Surfer Girl understand about playing live now that you didn't understand when you first started touring?
24:54
SPEAKER_01: Admittedly, it's way more important now to tour, I think, than it was then.
24:59
SPEAKER_01: But I think most people would tell you the exact opposite, right?
25:01
SPEAKER_01: Because it's like, oh, well, touring's super expensive.
25:04
SPEAKER_01: Don't go out on the road, don't, you know, don't show up anywhere until you're wanted or whatever, which I think they're reasonable strategy in saving your money and making sure you're doing things right.
25:16
SPEAKER_01: But when I first started touring in 2011, people weren't nearly so consumed with the internet in the way they are now.
25:25
SPEAKER_01: And so it was just a fun ride back then.
25:28
SPEAKER_01: And I don't even know if I was thinking critically about it then.
25:31
SPEAKER_01: But now I'm realizing how touring is the last remaining place in which uh like it is like raw connection, like real community events, like in-person connection is rare.
25:47
SPEAKER_01: And so touring is the last place where you can see a blank stage.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: People get up there, they do their best.
25:54
SPEAKER_01: Unedited, you are watching them straight for an hour, and then you judge if you liked it or not, and that is it.
26:02
SPEAKER_01: That is the level of connection and and it's instant validation, it's instant making a fan or not making a fan.
26:10
SPEAKER_01: It is, it's just it's the last like hope, in my opinion, of where all things are going.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: Because just you know, when I started this, it just it wasn't so much of a concern of only having a digital fan base or fan base who swipes by all.
26:28
SPEAKER_01: Look at all these numbers this person has.
26:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, they can't sell fucking 20 tickets in Pensacola.
26:32
SPEAKER_01: Like, what I don't know what to tell you.
26:34
SPEAKER_01: Like the real world is not going anywhere.
26:38
SPEAKER_01: And I think touring has underscored that for me.
26:42
SPEAKER_01: And I just really hope that we can make touring more affordable for the fans and for the artists again, because it's kind of getting out of hand.
26:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh and I think it's it's it's pretty clear how important this is to both the fans and the artists.
26:58
SPEAKER_01: And so it's mutually beneficial that we all make sure that touring continues in a in a healthy and sustainable way.
27:05
SPEAKER_00: I agree with you.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: One thing I'll throw out there is you know, much ado is made about the algorithms and social media engagement, yada yada, yada.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: But you made a good comment at the start of that where you were talking about how, albeit expensive, touring is probably the most important part of sustainability of any project.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: And I will argue the fact that in the last two years, I think it's the noticeable difference between virality and longevity.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: Bands that actually get there on the road and go out, they last.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: Where bands that just have internet fame that, you know, John Feldman was just recently on my podcast, John Feldman and Goldfinger, and he talked about how like one like lasts one second, but a t-shirt will last a fucking lifetime.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: And that's the honest to God truth, man.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: It's like, you know, if you you want longevity, you gotta get out there and you gotta be seen.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes that means eating the shit of some expenses just to make it happen.
28:12
SPEAKER_01: And if you are thinking about your time on the road, and okay, I just played for an hour, and now I'm at the merch table and I'm having a two-minute conversation with you, and you buy a t-shirt, and you look in my eyes, and we shake hands, and we share a laugh, and think about how deep that connection is compared to you're scrolling past a million people all once, and you go, ooh, I really like this song.
28:36
SPEAKER_01: You like maybe you follow, and then two weeks later you forget who it is that you were even following, and that they've moved on from the other song, and so you unfollow them.
28:45
SPEAKER_01: So I would rather have way less fans that I am much more connected with than way more that are just gonna blow away the second the wind, you know, picks up.
28:57
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I think I think we're both spot on.
29:00
SPEAKER_01: And I think I do think there's a healthy balance though, because admittedly, I've been on the road like eight months out of the year, and I kind of need to pump the brakes for myself personally and mentally.
29:10
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, yo, and I am sort of running out of money to keep investing.
29:15
SPEAKER_01: So with all that said, you may see me a lot more on the internet next year, but it uh as well as still obviously working my butt off on the road, but just in a different cadence.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: But I also think that I've kind of paid my dues on the road, not for good and not indefinitely, but uh I just think there's so many options for people.
29:34
SPEAKER_01: You gotta find a hybrid model.
29:36
SPEAKER_01: But if your sole strategy and your sole goal is I want to go viral, it's like, okay, good luck with that, A, and B, good luck keeping that once you get it.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: For sure, 100%.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's talk about Sunset as a bridge to midnight.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, Sunset had guests like Bryce Vine and established that Surfer Girl could operate on a much larger canvas.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: When you started making Midnight, did you feel like you were trying to top Sunset, or were you deliberately trying to make the project something completely different?
30:10
SPEAKER_01: I think with each album I've put out so far, I've kind of had a unique mission statement in a different way.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: Whereas obviously, whatever you start with with the mission statement, then with what you wind up with doesn't always, you know, that's a long process getting from what your idea is to then when it's done.
30:32
SPEAKER_01: But with the first album, Sunrise, I I wanted to put my best foot forward.
30:38
SPEAKER_01: Say this is all the things that I'm capable of within this agreed upon lane.
30:46
SPEAKER_01: I'm holding a peach pit, by the way.
30:48
SPEAKER_01: Um just because I had a great plumb right before this.
30:52
SPEAKER_01: Um with noon, I my mission was I want fun stuff for live.
31:00
SPEAKER_01: Um, because I feel like I loved all the stuff from the first album, but a lot of it's slow and it's kind of all mid-tempo.
31:07
SPEAKER_01: I need some bangers for the live set.
31:09
SPEAKER_01: And so I was focused on making really fun records to play live.
31:14
SPEAKER_01: And then Sunset, my goal was kind of all right, I want to take what I learned from these two albums, I want to lean in on the reggae, but I really want to see if I can explore like a super earworm catchy reggae album where I'm just like shamelessly making pop reggae hits.
31:35
SPEAKER_01: Um I will always ensure that I do A, some stuff for the fans and B, some stuff for myself.
31:45
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, a song like Faces with Emily Brimlow.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: It's a slow, surfy, retro kind of sounding song that was way more for me than it was for either the mission statement or, you know, the fans per se.
32:01
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think, especially by a third album, I've earned the trust in my taste from my fans, which I am very proud of at this point, which is like, you know, nobody knows where we're gonna go, but you know, I hope to God that they, you know, that it seems as though they trust me that, like, hey, we don't know where he's gonna lead us, but I'm pretty darn sure we're gonna like where it it lands.
32:28
SPEAKER_01: Um and so with midnight, the thought was F all that.
32:35
SPEAKER_01: I know exactly what this sound is, and I wanna I wanna make some art.
32:44
SPEAKER_01: I wanna make some art this time.
32:46
SPEAKER_01: Like, and so I want to make something really pretty or really rockin' or like whatever each room we go into on this album is, I wanna make sure it's like a really, really tight and and solid version of that.
33:02
SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of why we not only employed the band to come and play all the parts and and write all the parts and work on everything together, but we worked with John Joseph, who did the latest Elevators record and the Sublime record.
33:15
SPEAKER_01: Um we went down to San Pedro, California to work with John Joseph, and he is a master of all things tones and you know, microphones and live recording of drum kits and all this stuff that I could literally never in a million years even learn how to do.
33:31
SPEAKER_01: So he was able to take these wild ideas that I had, that Jack had, that Sam and Bobby had, and wrangle them, arrange them, and make them actually sound sonically like a million bucks.
33:47
SPEAKER_01: So the goal with this one was kind of throw out the playbook.
33:50
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry, I got you.
33:52
SPEAKER_01: I know what you guys want, but we're gonna do it in a really, really explosive.
33:57
SPEAKER_01: And who's to say?
33:58
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully people like it.
33:59
SPEAKER_01: If they don't, then back to the drawing board.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: But Well, we could run through the roster so far.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: Chestnut Hill, Lose Touch, Slow Motion, Wear It Out, and Eavesdrop all have different personalities.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: Nostalgia, relationships, reflection, just enjoying life.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: That classic SoCal feeling.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: What is the emotional thread connecting all the songs that might not be so obvious to someone listening to these singles individually?
34:26
SPEAKER_01: I think there's a depth to it that I have lightly explored on various songs, but either didn't have the balls to explore fully or didn't think that's what people wanted.
34:40
SPEAKER_01: But I think to me, the music that resonates most with me is you know, I don't need to go so specific about my life that you're unable to envision yourself in it.
34:52
SPEAKER_01: But we all go through shit.
34:54
SPEAKER_01: We all have hard times, we all have relationship struggles, whether with our friends, family, you know, significant others, like there's real stuff out there.
35:02
SPEAKER_01: And I also think while catharsis and just writing like, hey, woohoo, beer on the beach, like while there's value in that from an escape standpoint, and then this like uh the ability to leave your mind somewhere, I think that showing depth and showing a little more emotion has more of an impact now than it than it has in the past.
35:29
SPEAKER_01: Um and not only that, but to me it's it's a way of inserting more of myself into the music instead of like, oh, anyone could have written that song.
35:38
SPEAKER_01: It's like, no, that sounds like Carter, or like that's a story that's true to him.
35:42
SPEAKER_01: And so to me, that just makes performing it so much more fun because it means more to me.
35:48
SPEAKER_01: Uh recording it and writing it was just that much more fun.
35:51
SPEAKER_01: And it makes me way more nervous to put it out because it's like uh it's raw.
35:56
SPEAKER_01: And I think that if you have those butterflies going into something like that, it just means you're you're proud of it and you're nervous about it.
36:05
SPEAKER_01: And so to me, that that was kind of the thing that sets it apart is there's just not only a sonic depth um to it, but uh, I think I'm just like writing from at least just a more clear and honest place instead of through the filter of like but what would Cali Reggae people say?
36:25
SPEAKER_01: It's like, nah, man, like what would you say?
36:27
SPEAKER_01: Like in this moment, what would you say?
36:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh absolutely.
36:31
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: Well, and and then there's the Wiz Khalifa element.
36:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh smoked out's a pretty significant moment, uh, not just because it's whiz, but because it puts your hip-hop background front and center again.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: How did that collaboration actually happen and what went through your mind the first time you heard whiz on a surfer girl track?
36:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I'd love to say it was as simple as I called up my old friend Wiz.
37:00
SPEAKER_01: I said, dude, I got this song for you.
37:03
SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, he came over to the studio, we got high, and we were jamming.
37:08
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, I don't have connections like that.
37:12
SPEAKER_01: Wonderful and well-connected team.
37:14
SPEAKER_01: And essentially the way it happened was I was just having fun in my own studio.
37:20
SPEAKER_01: I wrote and produced, right?
37:22
SPEAKER_01: I made this beat, and then I wrote a top line over it.
37:25
SPEAKER_01: You know, I wrote that first verse, and then I wrote the chorus to smoked out.
37:30
SPEAKER_01: And I kind of jokingly sent it over to the label and I said, Hey, this is screaming for Wiz on it.
37:37
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know what that meant.
37:38
SPEAKER_01: I was also kind of kidding.
37:40
SPEAKER_01: And I was also like, this doesn't really even sound like a Surfer Girl song, but I want Wiz on this song.
37:45
SPEAKER_01: Whether he's featured on it or he likes it so much, he says, Give me that song, I'll record your parts.
37:51
SPEAKER_01: I want that shit.
37:52
SPEAKER_01: Whatever.
37:52
SPEAKER_01: I was just like, Wiz Khalifa needs to hear this song.
37:55
SPEAKER_01: Six months pass by, nothing.
37:57
SPEAKER_01: Three months pass by, pass by, I get a text saying, Hey, Wiz is gonna listen to your song in the studio this week.
38:03
SPEAKER_01: Holy shit.
38:04
SPEAKER_01: That alone was crazy enough for me to hear.
38:07
SPEAKER_01: Maybe another month or so passes, don't hear anything.
38:11
SPEAKER_01: And then I get Wiz loves the song, he's gonna record to it this week.
38:15
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm losing my mind, obviously very excited, but being cautiously optimistic, I'm like, what do they say?
38:23
SPEAKER_01: Like a bird in hand is better than a like whatever.
38:27
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch.
38:30
SPEAKER_01: That's probably the smarter way to say it.
38:32
SPEAKER_01: Um and you know, he was, you know, he was he was moving on his own time.
38:40
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I like to see he was building up his inspiration for the record.
38:44
SPEAKER_01: And uh uh, you know, maybe about a year, a year and some change after the whole process started, I just get an uh a text message with the song with his verse on it.
38:58
SPEAKER_01: It was like a gnarly hurricane in New York City.
39:03
SPEAKER_01: I had just run back from the bar uh to meet up with the bus, which was parked under the BQE, like raining cats and dogs.
39:11
SPEAKER_01: I get back on the bus.
39:13
SPEAKER_01: My band is there, and I get the text, and I go, God, we gotta Whiskelifa feature.
39:18
SPEAKER_01: Boom, press play.
39:20
SPEAKER_01: And we're like we're all learning the words as we go.
39:24
SPEAKER_01: Like we're on the bus shaking it, it's pouring rain.
39:27
SPEAKER_01: We're learning all the words.
39:28
SPEAKER_01: I was like, where's the weed?
39:30
SPEAKER_01: We gotta roll up.
39:31
SPEAKER_01: Like it was uh yeah.
39:33
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that was just crazy.
39:35
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I used to I still do, but like I I idolize that man.
39:41
SPEAKER_01: I the impact he had on me from a musical standpoint, just he was someone I never even would ever even have thought of crossing paths with.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: But inflection points like that are so important.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: Like, the only way I could describe it to a non-creative is if you were climbing the corporate ladder, and it's every step on the on the way up of the corporate ladder, and then you have something big like that happen, and you're like, holy shit, how am I gonna top this?
40:09
SPEAKER_00: And you're just kind of like you're constantly thinking about it because it's like, man, this is a big, big moment, not only on an artistic and a marketing level, but on a personal level, like you illustrated.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: Right.
40:22
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think that that too is kind of the cool thing about this album is we only have three features, and the three features are with three like unbelievable people that I really like.
40:35
SPEAKER_01: I believe in Dylan Catrone, he's he's on one of the songs, and he's one of my good friends.
40:40
SPEAKER_01: And I just think he's a killer artist.
40:42
SPEAKER_01: Jack Pavlina is on the lead song.
40:44
SPEAKER_01: He is not only my best friend, but he wrote most of the album with me.
40:48
SPEAKER_01: He's an incredible player, he plays guitar in Surfer Girl, and oh, by the way, he's a nasty artist.
40:53
SPEAKER_01: Like, are you kidding me?
40:55
SPEAKER_01: So to be able to have Jack on this, and then of course, Wiskalifa, like it's just there's just meaning behind I think the choices there.
41:06
SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, good question.
41:08
SPEAKER_01: How do we top that?
41:09
SPEAKER_01: I think, first of all, there's no more time in the day after sunrise, sunset, noon, and and midnight.
41:16
SPEAKER_01: So I think we're off of that, that whole thing.
41:20
SPEAKER_01: And where do you go from Whiz Khalifa?
41:23
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
41:23
SPEAKER_01: I think maybe we take this moment to strip it all back and start over and see what happens.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: Man, you you call the next next album closing time, and it's all about when the bars close, man.
41:35
SPEAKER_00: I like that.
41:36
SPEAKER_01: That's actually not bad.
41:37
SPEAKER_01: Or uh, yeah, fourth meal.
41:42
SPEAKER_01: Little Taco Bell fourth meal.
41:46
SPEAKER_00: Well, the bigger question is what is Surfer Girl now?
41:50
SPEAKER_00: You've gone from a teenage kid finding unexpected success with air through a breakup in a period where you weren't sure that music was even talking to you, to building a band that's crossed a hundred million Spotify streams.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: You've played major music festivals, and now you're releasing what you've called your best music yet.
42:08
SPEAKER_00: When you look at Surfer Girl today, what do you think you finally figured out about yourself as an artist that you were still searching for all those years ago?
42:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
42:18
SPEAKER_01: I I think I've finally cut out a bit of the imposter syndrome I've had in my life.
42:24
SPEAKER_01: It's still there, but I finally trust my taste and not only my own taste, but I trust being able to place and and attract the right people into this kind of ecosystem and into this world to help further what now feels like a broader mission than just kind of me doing a thing, right?
42:44
SPEAKER_01: And it feels like there's a whole lot more people rooting to see this succeed.
42:50
SPEAKER_01: Because I think, and I don't want to toot my own horn, but you kind of asked me a heady question in which I feel like I need to a little bit.
42:59
SPEAKER_01: I think that Surfer Girl has evolved from an exciting kind of left of center project in this scene to being a scene that can really help to bring this this this American reggae scene to a broader audience.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: I think, you know, we do surf rock sound, you know, we do uh hip hop, we have very hip-hoppy stuff, and I think it's all still rooted in this scene and the love of this scene that I genuinely believe you know, we can help to make this bigger.
43:39
SPEAKER_01: I'm seeing the elevators do it every day.
43:41
SPEAKER_01: Their audience is growing and it's diverse, it's expanding.
43:44
SPEAKER_01: It's it's people who this is my first reggae show ever.
43:48
SPEAKER_01: And seeing that blueprint is something that I genuinely believe like we are next in line, if not right there with them, helping to kind of bring this scene to to a big.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: Your audience and just kind of invite more people into the tent and show them that.
44:05
SPEAKER_01: So I think that this album is kind of the perfect combination of like I don't care what type of music you like, there's definitely just like there's gotta be something here for you.
44:15
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm very proud of that, and I and I feel I don't know, I just feel like resolved in in that way of like finally actually having a project that matches your belief in yourself and your expectations of yourself with your actual reality to get it done.
44:36
SPEAKER_01: Um I've never ever been able to meet those two things, and this album does that.
44:42
SPEAKER_00: So dude, pretty high.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: I have such a such a kinship with you on that.
44:47
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm I'm like you know that's this podcast, yeah.
44:50
SPEAKER_00: This podcast is the same age as Sir Server Girl, which kind of leads me to the next question.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: You know, pandemic happened six years ago.
44:57
SPEAKER_00: I know it's kind of hard to believe it happened in such a flash, but six years from now, when you look at the midnight era, what do you hope this represents for you?
45:08
SPEAKER_01: You know, I think I'm a realistic dude and I think I tend to sell myself short.
45:12
SPEAKER_01: So uh, you know, I I'm not gonna sit here and say that by this time next year I'm buying everybody Lambos.
45:21
SPEAKER_01: That's not how this is gonna work.
45:23
SPEAKER_01: I know how hard work works and I know how incremental success works, but like I would hope that I am still making killer music, touring, and hopefully doing really well.
45:35
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and you know, having a lot of people there.
45:38
SPEAKER_01: But I would view this kind of as the first, like I, you know, like I just said, like the first time I actually felt aligned with my goals and my ability to do it.
45:49
SPEAKER_01: Um and like I touched on of next year, kind of putting myself first and person putting myself personally first, um, and not being on the road eight months out of the year just because I'm told that's what I have to do and I just have to put one foot in front of the other.
46:06
SPEAKER_01: But valuing my priorities, valuing the things I like in life, and letting the art benefit from that, letting the music become better because I'm better, because I'm happier, and because I'm doing the things I truly value.
46:22
SPEAKER_01: Um I love being on the road and I love touring.
46:27
SPEAKER_01: But you'd rather have your favorite artist want to be there than just be like, holy shit, they've been in Salt Lake City four times this year, they must be exhausted.
46:35
SPEAKER_01: Like so I'm viewing this season in this chapter of midnight, and then also kind of what 2027 will bring as the first step of doing this because I really want to last doing this, and I want to be in love with doing this.
46:52
SPEAKER_01: Um and I think that this is the first time I've really, you know, set some boundaries for myself and also encouraged myself to be true and aligned with what it is that like I actually want out of life.
47:07
SPEAKER_01: So I guess all that's to say is stop forcing it, enjoy the ride, and I believe that that's where the best stuff comes from.
47:16
SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, dude.
47:18
SPEAKER_00: I think it is entirely possible to have a launch pad and a reset button occur at the same time.
47:25
SPEAKER_00: And it sounds like that's kind of what you're looking looking to have happen.
47:29
SPEAKER_00: I think so, man.
47:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, it it's one of those things when you tighten your focus and you like have established your purpose, like everything becomes a lot easier because you know what your goals are, and it they're not so defined.
47:46
SPEAKER_00: You're not spending so much time rediscovering yourself because you know what you are by a certain point.
47:51
SPEAKER_00: And it sounds like that's kind of the place where you've made peace with.
47:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
47:56
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I don't know if I was planning to get this candid.
47:59
SPEAKER_01: You took it out of me, bro.
48:01
SPEAKER_01: Ah.
48:03
SPEAKER_01: But this is good.
48:04
SPEAKER_01: This is good.
48:04
SPEAKER_01: And honestly, I I your your questions are so you just you're you're very good at what you do, Mike.
48:12
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, man.
48:13
SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
48:14
SPEAKER_00: I I'm take that as such a high compliment.
48:17
SPEAKER_00: And I've been kind of, you know, if I'm gonna get candid for a moment, I've been kind of thinking about my show a lot lately.
48:23
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that um I realize is my superpower with this show is the fact that I've had experience in the music business, and maybe not making it in the music business was probably the best thing to happen to me to make me a good podcast host.
48:40
SPEAKER_00: Because I can talk to you about things on that level, you know, if that makes sense.
48:45
SPEAKER_01: 100%.
48:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
48:46
SPEAKER_01: I mean, screw you for saying I'm failing, but like, no.
48:50
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, no, no.
48:54
SPEAKER_00: Shit.
48:54
SPEAKER_00: You're like, no, no, no, no, no.
48:56
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
48:57
SPEAKER_01: That's not what I was saying.
49:00
SPEAKER_01: I I I but for real, like I I couldn't like echo that more.
49:05
SPEAKER_01: I mean, air when I was that age, when I was 18, it was almost just one thing after the other, it was just growing and growing.
49:13
SPEAKER_01: We were seeing what virality was, but in the early sense of it.
49:17
SPEAKER_01: So we were just kind of on an upward trajectory.
49:20
SPEAKER_01: But the time after air, where I just thought success was easy, and if you just show up, everybody gives you whatever you want.
49:26
SPEAKER_01: That's just how it works.
49:28
SPEAKER_01: But the time from air until I'd like to say the start of Surfer Girl, but I'll say until today, like right now, I rebuilt from scratch and I rediscovered myself as an artist, and I failed a lot.
49:42
SPEAKER_01: And I spent money in stupid ways, and I uh believed and trusted people.
49:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, you know how this goes.
49:50
SPEAKER_01: I trusted people to do a job that that they weren't capable of doing, or well, whatever.
49:55
SPEAKER_01: I trusted myself to be able to deliver on things that I wasn't able to.
50:00
SPEAKER_01: Your ability to talk on that level, I think goes way further than just being like, you know, of course, what albums inspire you?
50:08
SPEAKER_01: Da-da-da, like whatever.
50:10
SPEAKER_01: Or I I like to say it as like any good tour, any good music manager has been a tour manager once in their life.
50:18
SPEAKER_01: They've actually been on the road, they know what it's like, and they can empathize.
50:21
SPEAKER_01: And I think for you to be able to empathize with this, it's just it, it you could just speak on it in a way that I think a lot of people cannot.
50:31
SPEAKER_01: And so that's that's why I've loved this conversation, dude.
50:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm oh me too, man.
50:37
SPEAKER_00: I am so flattered, and uh man, this this means the world to me.
50:41
SPEAKER_00: My closing question, I ask every single guest that does this show, and um, I want to hear from your purview, through your eyes, through your experience, what's your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today?
50:55
SPEAKER_01: The world is a whole not only are we falling into these kind of isolated digital traps in a way that music can just be one small catalyst to get you out of the house around some energy, around some people.
51:10
SPEAKER_01: You might share an interaction with someone in which you smile, you laugh, they see something, say something.
51:17
SPEAKER_01: We need to just be with one another.
51:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's it's insane that we've, at least in the States, allowed ourselves to get to a point in which we feel as though there's so little in common between one another.
51:30
SPEAKER_01: That's bullshit.
51:31
SPEAKER_01: We are all together on the same damn ship.
51:35
SPEAKER_01: And so I think that whether it's music, whether it's art, whether it's film, whatever it is, we need to refocus back on a community.
51:45
SPEAKER_01: We need to trust our neighbors and we need to be able to appreciate people for the differences that they bring to all of us because we are strong together.
51:53
SPEAKER_01: And I know that sounds like some political stump speech, but like I genuinely believe it.
51:59
SPEAKER_01: The internet was cool.
52:00
SPEAKER_01: The internet is cool, the internet's a great tool, but the internet is not real fucking life.
52:06
SPEAKER_01: Like, we have to go touch grass, we have to be together, we have to hug, we have to laugh, we have to kiss, we have to do all this shit.
52:13
SPEAKER_01: And so I fear the deeper we get down the internet rabbit hole, the more necessary it is for just to like go outside and go sit in a park with a friend, have a beer, talk shit, ask them how they're doing.
52:25
SPEAKER_01: Like, that's gonna change the world.
52:27
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
52:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, my friend, tell everybody where they can find you and your music online.
52:34
SPEAKER_00: Plug your shit.
52:35
SPEAKER_01: All right, hey guys, I am Carter Reeves from the Surf Rock Reggae Hip Hop.
52:42
SPEAKER_01: Oh my god, I could say genres all day.
52:44
SPEAKER_01: We are a band, we're based in Los Angeles, California, and we can be found at SurferGirl Music Everywhere or Surfergirl Music.com.
52:55
SPEAKER_01: And uh we got a brand new album, Midnight, coming out August 21st.
53:00
SPEAKER_01: Cannot wait for it to drop.
53:02
SPEAKER_01: And uh, you got here Carter Reeves from SurferGirl right here on Caught on the Mike.
53:07
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, brother, I gotta tell you, I have really enjoyed this conversation.
53:12
SPEAKER_00: Take me out of that fan column, throw me in the friend column because I'm both now.
53:17
SPEAKER_00: So uh anytime you want to collaborate and come back on the show again, the door's always open for you.
53:23
SPEAKER_01: Likewise, Mike, and uh anytime you want to get on stage with a maraca or a microphone, it's all yours, bro.
53:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm in, I'm in.
53:31
SPEAKER_00: Carter Reeves, thank you so much for doing the show.
53:34
SPEAKER_00: The world's a much better place with you in it, man.
53:37
SPEAKER_01: Later, guys, thank you.