Interview with Inner City Surfers

Inner City Surfers: "It's been a wild couple years" – by Mel in Toronto

This Canadian band calls Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, home and is comprised of Dustin Jones (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Brad Lacell (vocals, bass), Dave Bahun (vocals, lead guitar), and Michael Hawdon (vocals, drums). Inner City Surfers has been together since 1998 "but Brad, Dave and I have known each other since grade school," Dustin says, "it's where we learned to do all the bad things that we enjoy doing today. And then we met Mikey around 10 years ago."

Inner City Sufers "writes the music as a band together collectively," Dustin says. The lyrics are written by "whoever brings the song to the table usually writes the lyrics for that specific song, but not always. We collaborate on lyrics at times," he continues.

The band's inspiration "varies from record to record. If we're laying around depressed and tired for most of the year, the record's going to have that isolated depressed underlying feel to it. If we've been partying hard for a long period of time, the songs are going to reflect that," Dustin says. As per their new self-titled album Inner City Surfers, Dustin says: "Let's just say we partied pretty hard while writing this record."

Their self-titled album will be released tomorrow, October 23, 2007. Inner City Surfers has a record deal with the Addictive Records, which has a distribution deal with Universal Canada. All three songs on Inner City Surfers' indieSolo profile are going to be on the album, based on these; it's going to be a great party album!

Dustin tells us more about these three songs, which are going to be on the new album. WHAT A LIFE "is about the repetition of how the average North American spends their day: gets up, goes to work, comes home, goes to bed, gets up, and does it all over again. I don't know what it is, but I've always been afraid of the 9 to 5 life. The song isn't really putting that type of life down or the people that live like that. It's really just me saying that I want something different." Dustin says about PICKIN FROM THE COUNTRY that "the vibe of the music is upbeat, and fun to dance to. It's a blast to play live." HERE'S TO THE DAYS "is kind of an anthem for how we've been living our lives over the last couple years. We've been playing a lot and drinking a lot. I guess it's kind of a drinking anthem. I really wanted to write a song that kids could dance to or a love song that girls would melt over, but the more I thought about what I loved, it always came back to partying and/or drinking. So I just gave up and wrote about what I know best. It's been a wild couple years."

And that's what comes across when you see these rockers live, an honest performance of what they do best: partying! The next big gig will be this Saturday, October 27, 2007, at the Bitchin Barn Halloween Bash, an indie campus tour by indieSolo.com and Maxwell's Music House, where Inner City Surfers is going to perform with Sleddogs, Trophy, and Unit. Dustin says: "If this party is going to be as crazy as I heard its going to be, I think you picked the right band to play. 300 college kids, plus the Inner City Surfers, plus booze equals trouble, fun, but definitely trouble!"

"In your own words" – ONE on ONE with Mel and Dustin

Mel: Who are your influences?

Dustin: All four of us have different as well as some overlapping influences. If I had to name some, I'd go with: The Beatles, The Beach Boys, John Prine, Motley Crue, NOFX, Sabbath, Weezer, The Clash, Johnny Cash, Superchunk, Nirvana, Sebadoh, and on and on.

Mel: What does it mean to you to be an indie artist?

Dustin: With the state of the music business today, it truly is the best way to go. I think, the average person has a misunderstanding about major labels. It's not free money they give you. The artists owe back every cent the label dishes out or spends on you. So if your records aren't selling a shit load, and the label is spending a shit load on you, then you're fucked. You owe them. There are a million different scenarios and factors, but bottom line is, if you have the knowledge and ability just do as much as you possibly can yourself. It's like any business, the more you can do yourself without outside help, the more money you will make. Same for the music biz. That's what we love about our deal with Addictive Records. They are distributed by Fontana North / Universal Music Canada, this gives us a way to get our records in stores, but allows us to retain control of the records we make.

Mel: What would you like to achieve with your music?

Dustin: I think we all just want to make enough money to support our bad habits, and ummm, World Domination, I guess.

Mel: Which opportunities do you see with indieSolo?

Dustin: Sounds like a pretty rad thing you got going on. We hope it helps get our music out there to a few more people.

Mel: What can people expect from your album which is going to be released tomorrow?

Dustin: I think people are really going to dig it. The response from those who have heard the record already has been amazing. I've never really been one to brag about our records, but I really think it's a solid record from the first track through to the last.

Mel: If you could choose one venue in the world, where would you like to play and why?

Dustin: The Playboy Mansion, you figure it out.

Mel: Where do you see Inner City Surfers in five years?

Dustin: Dave will be in the woods somewhere in a house he built from scratch, playing video games all day, and yelling at the trees, smoking a thousand cigarettes, hording his millions.
Mikey will be the Mayor of Sault Ste. Marie and the proud owner of his own porno company.
Bradley will have written a book about how he feels the world should be. He will have been arrested for narcotics and assault a few times by then, and then he'll have settled down in the far north of Ontario, and will spend his days fishing and telling stories to whoever will listen.
And me, I'll probably be at the bar down your street.

-end

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