“I feel like this is the first record where I’ve actually been willing to talk about the lyrics and songs and where they come from. Honestly, I’m a pretty reserved person and pretty gun-shy about sharing my work with people,” quoted Surfer Blood’s John Paul Pitts . He’s reflecting on new album “Snowdonia” to be released February. 3rd on Joyful Noise, Its the band’s fourth full-length and first in a new era for the Florida foursome. Its eight jagged, adventurous songs embrace experimentation while bidding a reverent farewell to founding guitarist Thomas Fekete, who died in 2016 after battling cancer.
Pitts has dared to post Snowdonia’s lyrics on Surfer Blood’s website, peeling back the layers of the glass onion of his creativity.
In past releases, he played his cards close to his chest, especially since his 2012 arrest on suspicion of domestic battery against his then-girlfriend. The charges were dropped once he completed an anger management program. The experience led to the vague 2013 album “Pythons”, which critics and even some fans held at arms’ length — for its possible references to the arrest and because it was seen as a sellout move when they signed to Warner Bros. Two LPs later,
“What can I say? 2016 was a pretty awful year. It started with my mom getting cancer, and somewhere in the middle, Thomas passed. Then we had the election,” he laments while discussing “Carrier Pigeon,” the album’s Monkees-meets-Wilco closer. But then he perks up. “My mom’s doing a lot better now. I’ve been able to spend a lot of time with her. It seems like things are really looking up for her. But it was really scary when I first heard that news.”
When Surfer Blood came on the scene with 2010’s Astro Coast, they wore their ’90s alternative fan badges with no shame. Those mighty detuned guitars have evolved on this fourth outing into multiple-act epics, reflections on aging and tweaking of common instruments like organs through vintage speakers to birth a new whole species of indie rock.
Snowdonia is Pitts shedding his skin. The remnants of Astro Coast, Pythons and 1000 Palms are still there. Fekete’s memory is still there. The major-label trials and the tribulations with former lovers are still there. But there’s a new freedom and more agility to this version of Surfer Blood.
The Fat Angel Sings 