MWN: With approaching the release of your album, how does that feel? Do you feel nerves at all? Is it more excitement to just get it out there?
SUR: Yeah, I think that after spending over a year recording you really want to get it out. Let it breathe, have people sit with it, and get feedback. You know? Especially because I made that record, for the most part, by myself. Whether I was on the road or in my studio at home…it was kind of a solo experience. For it to go out into the world, and to get peoples ears on it, and let it live. Then get feedback, that way…the finale. I’m looking forward to that. I’m pumped.
MWN: Now we spoke prior awhile back about this upcoming record you have. You did mention all the components were your own. How was the creative process? Did you have something in mind for the record that you wanted to put out there? Or was it a natural flow?
SUR: It was very much a natural flow in the sense I was…the first couple of songs that ended up being SUR were just me making music without any intent on a band or genre or anything. It was literally like whatever is coming. In channeling…it just so happened that that became SUR. So the song initially created the band. With me not having an approach at all, it was just kind of like “let’s see what happens.”
MWN: Where does “SUR” come from? Where did the name come from?
SUR: From Big Sur. I’m from that area. That was my sanctuary. As a kid, growing up and still to this day. A big source of inspiration for me.
MWN: Did you grow up playing music? Or was it something…did your parents influence you? Did you pick it up on your own?
SUR: I played guitar when I was a kid, and it was from like from 10 started playing guitar. I was a graffiti artist… an artist really. Then came back to music in my late late teens, when I was like 18 I came back to music. I was a hip hop group. I started producing and MCing. That became this, where we are now.
MWN: I caught your set list night, and you are really good live. You have a lot of energy, so what were some of the performers you that inspired you, that you grew up watching?
SUR: Well….I live in LA so I get to see someone of my favorite people all the time. I saw him the other day up right up the street from my house. Zack de la Rocha from Rage Against the Machine. Rage was one of the first big big concerts I went to when I was a kid. Their music was always a guide, I guess. Just an inspiration to me. The power in his voice and his energy on stage definitely was an inspiration. So if I could channel a piece of that, I’d be pumped.
MWN: Do you ever get nervous before you go on stage at festivals? Because it’s a different crowd, rather than at your own gig where people are there to specifically see you rather than just a mixture of people?
SUR: It’s different when people don’t know your music. You don’t know how they’re going to react at all. So, not really nervous, as much as it is I’m curious to know how it’s going to go. I get more nervous in a small crowd…
MWN: Really?
SUR: If we’re playing in this room for 20 people, that’d make me a little nervous. The more people, the easier it becomes because it becomes a wall of humans as opposed to an intimate setting.
MWN: When you perform, if it’s a small setting, do you look at people. Or do you get lost in the performance? That’s something I wonder all the time.
SUR: Yeah, it depends. You do have to look people in the eye. It’s an important part of connecting and communicating with them at some point. I would say, it would be, I would have to make myself do it in a small setting. You have to force yourself to look up. I would generally..
MWN: …get lost in the crowd. Now with your new album, sometimes albums have themes to them…not all the time, sometimes artists channel a certain theme with their music in a certain point of their life, because it reflects something they went through. Would you say this album has a theme to it, and if so what can you give us about that?
SUR: The theme is love, nature, violence and the combination of all three. That theme kind of came later through the process of making the songs. The through line…it wasn’t my intent like “I wanna make a record like this” It just so happened to go a certain way then I picked p on it, and elaborated on it.
MWN: So the album molded itself as you were making it?
SUR: Totally, yeah. I turned my brain off more than anything when I make music.
MWN: Is that hard to put yourself in that state of mind where you…
SUR: That is where I am most of the time. This is harder. Having a casual conversation is far harder than making a song or performing. Having an interesting conversation I love. I love having conversation with humans about things that are interesting, but small talk and stuff like that…
MWN: …yeah, press stuff
SUR: Not just… “how’s the weather” Just standing in line in an uncomfortable situation where you have to say something to people. I hate that.
MWN: I think we all do.
SUR: Making a song comes easy, it’s comes natural.
MWN: So when you are making music, do you find it taking yourself completely out of the world…do you turn off your phone? Do you stop talking to everyone?
SUR: Totally. No, it’s not that drastic, but I luckily have a nice sanctuary to work from. I definitly zone out. When the outside world does come, it’s a very abrupt change and I have to shake it off. I have to realize I am in a world with millions of other humans I have to deal with them now.
MWN: Yeah, it must be a weird shift going from that state of mind.
SUR: It can be jarring…It’s a jarring thing.
MWN: Back on and off…
SUR: My job is to be picking up frequencies and vibes…I don’t know where it’s coming from. I’m trying to be an antenna to something. I’m hoping it’s the consciousness of the world, and when you are in that zone, you are very aware of energies. So when somebody else’s energy comes abruptly at you in that process, it’s very a smack in the face sometimes. It’s something I have had to learn how to, as opposed to a light switch turning on and off quickly, I’ve had to make a dimmer switch to try to get in and out of it.
MWN: You explain it really nicely. I have a lot of interviews where they try to explain the concept, which I understand, but it’s the same concept but they don’t know how. It’s a very good way to put it. You are a creative being, so I get you’re constantly. Do you grab from your life when you’re writing music or do you do it from other people and yourself.
SUR: All of the above, I think. Different situations that I’ve been in, or people around me are going through. Sometimes, I won’t know it is about that until later. I’ll listen to the whole song you know.
MWN: You’re unware, but it comes out.
SUR: I’m unware then I go back and realize it. Where does this come from? When I finally get to a point where this is done and I can ask myself where this is coming from, it makes a lot of the sense most of the time. I’m like “oh shit, yeah that was because if this and this.” Then I can justify it to myself.
MWN: That’s interesting. You put it in an interest perspective.
SUR: Yeah, it’s weird. Because I don’t think about it. But when I’m being asked…
MWN: Yeah, it’s like picking at you.
SUR: You have to figure out. I feel like everyone should be interviewed in your life. It forces you to explain yourself.
MWN: To think about the way you…
SUR: To think about your process of life and why are you doing this? Why are you here? Then you have to explain it and make sense of it. I think that is important for everybody to do. Without people like you being interested, I would just be making music and not know why.
MWN: Think about how many people go through life doing stuff and without knowing why…
SUR: Right, right.
MWN: … And then you ask them and they are too in it and they don’t know.
SUR: They need to be asked. That’s why we do it.
MWN: So fun questions! I will ask you a question and it is the first thing that comes to your mind. Do you remember the first record you ever bought?
SUR: Huey Lewis and the News!
MWN: Wherever home is, what makes you think of home? What song makes you think of home?
SUR: Right now, my song Sticks and Stones. It’s selfish, but it’s true.
MWN: What’s the first recollection you have of live music?
SUR: The first recollection of live music was my former drummer, my brothers good friend in high school. He had a drum set in his room and I remember that it was the coolest fucking thing that he could go down there and be as loud as he wanted. Him and his buddies were playing guitar and he was playing drums. It was probably the first recollection of live music as a kid.
MWN: To wrap things up, when people read this interview, what do you hope they understand from you and your music? It doesn’t have to be detailed.
SUR: I hope that…my goal is to spark and emotion. The same or similar emotion I was trying to paint when I was making the song. I want people to feel that and from that be inspired in some way. Whether that is to reflect or whether it is to do something or just to feel they are not alone somehow. Just to go away with some sort of emotion.
MWN: I love that! Well thank you so much for taking the time to speak with MWN! For everyone reading this interview check out Sur’s tour dates below!
SAVAGE BEAST TOUR
May 18 Los Angeles, CA Bootleg Theater
May 19 Santa Barbara, CA Velvet Jones
May 22 Carmel, CA Folktale Winery & Vineyards
May 23 Sacramento, CA Holy Diver
May 24 Berkeley, CA Cornerstone Berkeley
May 25 Bradley, CA Lightning in a Bottle Festival (Grand Artique Stage)
May 29 San Diego, CA Casbah
May 30 Anaheim, CA Parish @ House of Blues
By: Maria Limon| Exclusively for @Music, Why Not! | All Rights Reserved |