The Surfers Have Progressed Beyond Surf Rock
Photos from James Kates’ camera roll.
Noa Deane might be surfing’s busiest pro - well, maybe after Creed McTaggart.
In the span of a month, Stimulant, the video he filmed with his good friend and bandmate, James Kates, premiered, and Window of Islands, the fourth album with his band Blistar was released.
Windows of Islands is a twenty-track collection debunking the inferred notion that surfers can only make “surf rock”. The album characterised by loud guitars, bouncy yet balanced melodies, and muffled vocals sounds nothing like what you’d expect to come from a bunch of surfers. Being the first Blistar album where Noa shares the role of lead vocals with Shaun Manners, Windows of Islands takes on a bit of a slower pace than the band’s previous releases. It’s an album that is really fun with a DIY nature radiating through each song. Wanting to know more, I called up Noa to talk about both Stimulant and the new Blistar album.
If you’re in or around Wollongong, Blistar are playing at Van Q on Saturday the 22nd of November, supporting MC favourites Garage Sale and Twine on their joint Australian tour.
Congrats on the video, how were the premieres on the weekend?
They were good. Once you’ve done a couple in a row, you’re pretty keen for them to wrap them up. I did four in a row, so it was kind of hectic.
How long is the video?
Forty eight minutes, it’s pretty long.
Sitting through a video that’s mostly yourself four times would’ve been such a challenge, too.
Yeah, on the third night I didn’t watch it because I couldn’t see, but I was kind of stoked. It’s not just monotonous surf clips, there is some pretty funny shit in it, so it’s pretty cool to watch it a few times because you pick up on different things.
Yeah, what's this video like? Is it similar to the last two you and James have done?
It’s pretty similar being in James’ style but it’s got a different story line, it’s touching on why people even make surf videos anymore and how they’re a waste of money but everyone who does it loves doing it, so they just do it anyway. You could definitely get away with not doing them and there’s a whole bunch of people who do, but it’s pretty cool that the people who do it are just locked in to doing it and aren't giving up on it.
Oh, for sure, I always find it crazy when people give up on something when it starts being a little bit hard to do and you’re just there ‘I love doing this so much why would I stop’.
Exactly.
You guys make one of these a year, right?
Yeah, and hopefully, we don’t increase that number [laughs]. It’s probably just James and I being so go, go, go, and never wanting to stop. He’s made them all different so it’s like a little box set which is cool after watching this one.
Three is the perfect amount, it makes it feel complete.
Exactly. You can see his progression in his editing style and vision towards what he’s doing through them all too. It’s become the clearest in this one, even if it is crazier, but that’s what he was always trying to go for. Stimulant brings up questions more than just telling you stuff which makes you think about how things have changed and how it’s kind of crazy to be still doing the same thing.
What do you think is the craziest thing that has changed in the time you’ve been a pro surfer?
The main thing is trying to get funding. To just make a purely artistic film to do with surfing, no big brand is going to try to put money or fund that because it kind of makes no sense for it.
Yeah, ten years ago I could imagine it being so different.
There are so many forms of media and ways to promote a brand now, people aren’t going to want to go out on a limb to back someone to do a big project. For the amount you’re going to spend on that one thing you could put the same amount into a bunch of different things and roll the dice on that. At the same time, while there isn't anywhere as much funding and it isn’t as sustainable, so many people are doing it purely for the love, which is so sick.
That makes it so much nicer too when it is just for the love.
Because there have been some restrictions on the budget people have gotten more creative with how they make them and what they do with them.
It’s sick how creative you guys get with these videos. Looking at them from a skateboarder’s perspective it’s so interesting how different the surf approach is, it would be so rare to see something similar to what you and James do in the surf landscape.
Yeah, I’m trying to think of stuff that I’ve seen that’s similar, maybe some of those old Antihero videos are like that.
Yeah, for sure, getting the personality involved, there’s some talking too, but even then, like Tent City is a tour video, it feels different to a project that has had a good amount of time go into it.
For sure, the cool thing those videos touched on which what James is always trying to hit, is why you do it and why we love it, which can be a hard thing to convey just through your surfing but through all the other stuff in it you can see why people get so attached to it and why they want to do it.
It’s such a nice way to look at it. Can we talk about the Blistar stuff? I didn’t realise for so long it was your band, I just really enjoyed it. I sent it to a friend, and he was like ‘Oh yeah that’s Noa Deane’s band’.
Yeah, and Shaun too, Shaun and I have been playing in it for a while together. Beau moved away so we didn’t have a drummer, now Katesy plays drums and Steve Bourke plays bass.
Man, you guys are so busy. You put out the album last month, the video this month. How do you balance all that?
I feel a bit dysregulated right now [laughs]. When I’m at home my partner is pretty good at helping me to stop thinking that I have to be doing something 24/7. You can keep it up for a while but there is a time where it’s too much. Even like last week I had all those prems and played a gig, this week I have a bunch on too.
I’m so glad the video is out, it feels like a weight off my shoulders. When you have all this shit, you don’t know what it’s going to look like, or if all these hard drives are going to crash one night. I feel bad for Katesy because he works two months straight on this shit and he’s just playing back what he’s worked on watching it over and over. I’ll be like get off the computer and he’s just so focused on it. I’m glad I don’t have to be involved with it because I can trust that whatever he’s going to do is going to be really sick. I saw the video for the first time at the premiere, and I did that for the last two. It's nice being able to trust someone that much.
It's nice that you two are actually good friends too and you know what you both like.
For sure. Actually too, touching back on before about the budgets, this started with Chucky from Snapt, after we made Horse, we were like we can’t really be doing this anymore. Chucky wanted us to film a part, sent us on so many trips but he only wanted a small amount of footage for one section. He started that one up and we finished off. Katesy was like that’ll only be five minutes, we’ll have so much more good footage we won’t be able to use we may as well make it a longer video. That was a lucky break for us.
Windows of Islands is a bit slower from the last Blistar albums which were a bit faster and drivey. Was that something you wanted to change coming into this album?
Yeah, I’ve always wanted to make stuff slower, I’ve always really enjoyed slower stuff. When Beau was drumming he would drum so fast, I would try and bring some slower songs in there, but it wasn’t ready yet. It’s really good with Shaun too because at the same time he was making up songs which were real slow too. We were both on the same page and we played on each other’s songs, it was what we wanted to do at that point.
Shaun’s singing too, right?
Yeah, he sings half of the songs, which is really cool because that opens up little opportunities for me to play guitar. I find that I tend to make thirty of the same sounding things up, which means it’s really nice when Shaun is bringing his songs to the table, it helps me be fresh. I’m so stoked that he sings live too because it’s nerve-wracking to sing in front of people. It’s alright when you have other people doing it with you too because you feel like you’re both stuck in the same situation. I’ve also found it's easier when you’re doing it in front of people you don’t know. For a while I just played gigs with crowds who I know everyone.
Oh for sure, I don’t think I could handle it. When you started making music, did you ever feel like you had to make surf rock just because you’re a surfer?
Yeah, that’s always a funny one, I’ve spoken about it with my friends where people will just assume it’s surf rock. I always wonder what demographic would listen to the music if people didn’t realise you surfed.
Did it ever feel assumed that you were going to make surf rock.
Yeah, totally. I played in Skeggs too and I feel like if you look a certain way and play stuff, that’s what is assumed.
Yeah, how did it go from playing in Skeggs to you starting Blistar?
It was having two things that were too big for each other to exist in the same realm. My surfing was blowing up and so was the band, there was no way I could’ve done both of them, but I still wanted to make music. That also wasn’t really my favourite style of music, but it gave me some confidence to actually want to do it. Doing your own thing exactly how you want to do it is pretty cool and having no compromise on what you’re making because you it’s going to be huge.
Is that how you felt with Skeggs? You were just making it because it's what people liked?
Well, there was no reason for me to be there, Ben was already holding it down on guitar and vocals, so I would just be playing the same thing he’s playing. It makes sense they got so big, he’s a great writer. I liked a lot of the songs, but it wasn’t really me. You can see that even with the first stuff I put out with Blistar is so different from Skeggs. That was cool, because I had no experience writing music and playing shows. It was a nice crash course in getting an understanding of that side and seeing if I liked it.
It's nice having a taste of it in something that wasn't super personal.
Yeah, if I just wanted to be there to play and not have much input I could. I wouldn’t have worked out that I wanted to write my own style of music, if I wasn’t in Skeggs. I also think you can't have too many writing influences in a band, even if they were letting me write shit it would’ve fucked everything up.
What were you listening to around that time?
I was listening to The Melvins, Sonic Youth, J. Mascis and Dinosaur Jr.
That makes heaps of sense especially listening to the earlier Blistar stuff that was really guitar heavy.
That first record I was pretty much only keen to do the guitar bits and have no vocals but it would’ve been boring to listen to.
There are some nice instrumental albums though.
For sure. It’s hard to know what you want to do until you’ve done it, look back and be like ‘That wasn’t what I wanted to do’, you don’t know until you’ve done it.
Do you feel like this new album is exactly what you wanted to do?
Yeah, I think it is. I really like how all the songs came together.
