Drakes

Drakes was inspired by two surf trips to the Hollister Ranch on the central coast of California.  Privately owned, this spot is coveted by surfers around the world, and many pay a lot of money to have the chance to surf here.  I remember crawling into the back of a faded grey 4-runner packed with surf gear.  Grey-bearded and wearing drug store sunglasses and tattered shorts and t-shirt, my dad’s friend Chris picked us up from my parents’ house.  We loaded up the boards and drove the 101 to the winding road that led to the gated entrance.  Chris stopped to report he was bringing visitors and we all checked in. He bought a small plot of land years ago solely for the surfing rights.  Many surfers did the same.  He told us stories about what it was like before very many people knew about it.  Land was a lot cheaper, and it was a little more rugged of an experience to get there.  We drove more winding road and out onto the beach in the surf buggy, and we ended up just a few feet away from the surf.  As the afternoon sun sank towards the horizon, we, along with the pelicans and the seals, were the only ones out. The break we surfed was called “Little Drakes”.  I used this same name for the song at first.  As it continued to take shape, I thought “Drakes” sounded better.

Drake is another word for dragon.  I didn’t know this when I wrote the song, but I think it was meant to be.   The mood and energy of the song can be likened to the brooding, scaly, fire-breathing creature.  The explosion of the 6/8 sections of the song highlight a Hammond organ melody line reminiscent of early British Invasion keys sections of the Animals and Kinks. Also distinctly British, the image of a Hobbit frantically dodging dragon fire on a mountain of gold is a fitting one.

For me, my dad and Chris, it wasn’t gold we were hoarding, it was the waves and the good times spent together in a beautiful setting experiencing God’s gift of the ocean.  Rather than causing us to shut off the world and become callous and scaly, we experienced and shared the goodness of this world.  In doing this, we became more human rather than more like Smaug, Eustace and other dragons we find in our favorite books. “Drakes” subverts the dragon as a character while keeping the ominous imagery and vibe.  It’s all-out rock & roll when we play it live, and I think we captured this same explosive energy on tape.

Great Whites

I have always thought sharks were scary.  I remember as a kid getting an intensely ominous feeling whenever I watched the sharks lazily lurk in the tank at the aquarium.  I would imagine being in the tank and recall documentaries that showed sharks thrashing, swarming and snapping in reaction to blood or attacking the camera cages.  Hammerheads are creepy looking, but great whites are enormous and have no rival.  They can reach 5,000 lbs and grow to nearly the length of a school bus.  When they choose to attack, whatever they zero in on is doomed.  I also heard stories of sharks attacking surfers.  When my wife and I were on our honeymoon, a great white fatally attacked a swimmer at a nearby beach.  She still reminds me that I went surfing the next day.

These sharks lurk in dark, cold water, circling and stalking prey.  They wait for the vulnerable and attack blindside.  Dead, black eyes, and gaping razor-toothed mouths show no emotion.  The great white has the sole purpose of self-preservation.  Many have skin and fins marred by fights with other sharks.  No matter how injured, the countenance of a great white does not change.  They are cold creatures of the deep sea, and no work of fiction could create a more foreboding, ghostly, and underworldly image.

Acts of cruelty and abominable perversion litter the news daily and make me ask why.  Why do such wicked things exist?  People can be so set on self-preservation that, like predators of the deep, they are given completely over to a callous heart consumed by self.  Whatever their senses tell them to do, they obey, and an evil idolatry forms and leads to unthinkable pain for others and eventually for themselves.  This has been the vicious cycle of sin in the world. 

It may take a while, but people reap what they sow.  God’s sun shines into the darkest places and will expose the secrets of the human heart.  Only grace can intervene and cause someone to honestly seek forgiveness and truly change us and pardon each wrongdoing we’ve done so we can live in peace.  Jesus’ death on the cross secured forgiveness for those who will seek it. 

At first, I shied away from these lyrics.  I have never liked songs that sound like they vaguely accuse.  At first listen, it might seem that Great Whites does just that, but I’m learning to live with the tension  knowing that it isn’t accusatory, but rather meant express my processing the immense evil that confronts each person on earth.  There aren’t easy answers, but in the midst of pain caused by evil Jesus’ cross and the grace he secured offers hope in forgiveness and perfect justice.  He has suffered for us and suffers with us when evil seems to overcome.  In his grace, victims are healed, criminals are pardoned and seek restoration.  Redemption is an unstoppable process in the lives of those who love God no matter where they have been.  

This song has been well received.  A music writer in Greece deemed it the best unknown song of 2012.  The spaghetti western riff evokes lonely wastes, deserts or sea floors.  The drums are steady and create a shoegazer hypnosis as the guitars increase in noisy, frenetic energy.  The Wurlitzer adds dark texture throughout.   This is the backdrop for considering the themes of evil, grace, redemption, healing and judgement.

Davy Jones's Locker

Davy Jones’s Locker is the place of the dead at the bottom of the sea in pirate mythology.  The opening guitar riff is one of my favorites in the Sanoma set.  It has a surf quality, but is also really dark and foreboding.  I get the image of pirates ready to board another ship, cannons, blasting, sailors yelling in aggression and terror.   I wrote this riff during a snowstorm.  I’m a fan of rock & roll – surf, British invasion, early punk and the early fist-pumping proto-metal of Zeppelin, AC/DC, Motorhead, and Sabbath.  I think the opening riff gives away my love for the last genre. 

I am fascinated with the way humans explain life after death.  Like the sea, death can be dark, mysterious and fearful.  I used the mythology of Davy Jones’s Locker as a metaphor for heaven and hell.  Davy Jones was known as “sailor’s devil”, and the Locker cast fear into the hearts of sailors. The life of a pirate was cut-throat – full of debauchery, murder, theft, and cheating.  I imagine these sailors feared retribution for their sordid lives. 

I think most people grapple with a similar fear, and with the mystery of death.  We’ve heard stories about bright lights, encounters with God, and we’ve read in Dante and the New Testament about the terrors of hell and the paradise of heaven.  In my mind, this is fantastic subject matter for this kind of rock & roll.