|
|
||
I had the opportunity to interview Kelly Slater about his new CD Songs From the Pipe. I couldn't just talk to him about surfing, so here's some of the other stuff we talked about. I'll probably add more of this interview later. The Cd review is below as well. This all first appeared in Juice magazine and is copywright of me, Anne Beasley.
Tell me about life on tour
Right now I’m kind of just cruising. I’m having the most relaxing year of my life. I’m sort of taking a different look, trying to enjoy the travel a bit more, not being less serious about the competition, but not feeling like it’s my life, yak know. It took place of a lot of things in my life, but now I’m getting older. I’m trying to soak in the good things and not worry about things that won’t matter in the future.
You’re at the top; do you keep surfing professionally?
Yes, although I think the one thing that drives you to lose interest is if you’ve met your goals. I’ve sort of exceeded the goals I made for myself. I just never thought I’d be where I’m at now. I knew I could do it--there was never a doubt in my mind, just because I’m so scared of failing. I just made sure I was winning all the time. I look back now and say wow I’ve accomplished all the things I ever wanted to.
Has your attitude toward surfing changed?
My reason for doing things, my goals have changed. I think aggression really drove me a lot in my surfing. I think competitively I was driven by things that made me mad, but now that stuff doesn’t work. I’m trying to figure out how I can be happy and still be as competitive. A lot of things that drove me to surf so well have sort of changed in my life. Maybe it’s getting older; I’m not sure if it’s a certain age in physical years but mentally you just start accepting things and change the reason or way you’re going after things.
Do you ever think about family, settling down?
I do. It’s always been a dream of mine. But right now I can’t think about that. I’m young and I haven’t done all the things I want to do yet. You have to do everything in you whole life so you can figure out what you don’t want to do. I want to travel throughout South America, the Pacific Islands, the Philippines. I’ve been to so many places I loved that I want to go back to. {Note: Kelly tells me about his two-year-old daughter Taylor. She lives in Florida with her mother and he visits Taylor whenever he goes home. He plans to teach her about the waves and how they move.}
What’s it like coming home to Florida?
I love coming home. I loved growing up surfing here, but the fact is there are better waves in other places. Yeah there are some classic days, but not nearly as often. It’s frustrating that to prove yourself you have to move to California or Hawaii, or around the world and surf against all those guys, but they have to do it to. The East Coast doesn’t get recognition. We’re 3,000 miles away from the major mags. They have 20 staff photographers up and down the coast of California, what do you expect. You see Tom Dugan and Dick Meserol out there once a month.
I just read how much money you make surfing contests; do you think women will ever catch up?
Ummm.. it will get there. It’s just different. I don’t compare the two. I think there are more and different outlets women can get sponsorship from. It’s a whole different marketing ploy, women can distinguish themselves. We sort of need to work on a few things in the foundation of the sport before we can get big sponsorship deals for people on tour.
Just because Kelly Slater is a five time world champion surfer, driven by aggression; a man who carves into waves, throwing huge sprays, and catching more air off a wave than most kids can get off skating vert ramps, doesn’t mean his music should be loud, raunchy, meaningless blather. Rob Machado, who also rips and gives Kelly a little friendly competition, played punk rock for Sack Lunch and Peter King doesn’t deny he loves punk rock music. But together, the three formed a band, The Surfers, and their new release entitled Songs From The Pipe, is nothing like you would expect.
Songs From The Pipe, is a compilation of three surfers, their stories about life, their travels around the globe, their souls searching for answers within song and music. An expression of their innermost selves, evolved into eleven eclectic recordings featuring Kelly Slater on vocals, Rob Machado on guitar, piano, backing vocals and mandolin, and Peter King on guitar, bass, backing vocals, and organ.
Peter King said it would be too easy to put out a trendy ska/punk album. He thinks punk rock is an oversaturated sound. "We had some serious stuff we wanted to say in our songs. We could have done a punk rock album in a week and a half, we gave this the full treatment." Full treatment means it took them nearly three years to put Songs Form The Pipe together. A lot of it had to do with schedule conflicts. These guys are busy surfing contests all around the world.
That’s exactly what Epic Records producer T-Bone Burnett found so fascinating. It wasn’t the fact that Rob, Kelly, and Peter were celebrities in the surfing world, it was their way of life, the constant travel, and the never-ending experiences. "Our lifestyle is nomadic, digging into a culture, leaving and experiencing a new one the next week," said P.K., who agrees with Kelly and Rob that T-Bone is an incredible producer and a legend himself.
To get a feel for surfing and understand the powers of the ocean, T-Bone spent some time in Hawaii. There, he learned about the spirit of the water, the tempo of having to breathe and hold your breath. "I think T-Bone had to be in the water to get the flavor to produce this album. I think it helped him envision the sound in his head," said P.K. who says Song From The Pipe isn’t written just for surfers, but doesn’t deny the background.
The Surfers came together as a band on the North Shore of Hawaii, where they spend winters surfing, and playing music was just a fun thing to do at night. They had thought about recording on four track, but had no plans to pursue a public release. Then one day Roger Klein, who does A&R for Epic, was surfing with P.K. This led to a videotaped acoustic session at Kelly’s house in Orlando. Klein took it back to Epic, and T-Bone discovered The Surfers.
Songs From The Pipe could be described as moody, earthy, almost worldly. It fits the soul-searching genre. It’s something you really have to open up your ears and mind to hear. Kelly, who wrote most the songs for the album enjoys its originality. "It’s like shock treatment. It’s something you have to listen to and don’t expect to hear any sounds because it’s something totally different from what people would picture."
I told Kelly it made me feel kind of sad and lonely. He chuckled and said; "I think that’s maybe where they were written from. I think the scary thing and the good thing is that all the songs were written from the heart. True feelings and true stories about what we’ve been through."
The music on Songs From The Pipe is supposed to tell a story. So whether you read the words or hear the music, it paints the same picture. 'Hawaii' paints beauty, 'Cause It’s Me' paints strength, and 'Anything From You' paints forgiveness.
Kelly wrote 'Anything For You' to deal with some differences he’s had with his mother in the past. "If you read the words without listening to the music I think you can probably start getting a story out of it, and then when you hear the music, it sounds eerie, maybe angry, it has this bitterness coming out."
Kelly hasn’t told his mother about the song, although she’s heard it. " I listened to the CD with her and when it came on I got all nervous and sweaty, she could hear the words and I was scared she would ask me what it was all about, but I wasn’t ready to tell her." Kelly laughs and says, "I’ll tell her eventually."