The Surfers Club Brings Homegrown Southern Rock to the Azalea City
Mobile Southern rock band The Surfers Club is building a following with 1970s-inspired originals, a debut single called "Lauren," and a fall tour through the Southeast.
Mobile has no shortage of jam rock devotees, with local crowds drawn to the earthy, wide-open sound of bands ranging from Goose to the Grateful Dead. Azalea City rockers The Surfers Club have been tapping into that same appetite, filling it with a sun-baked, saltwater-drenched sound rooted in classic Southern rock.
After cutting their teeth as a cover band on the local scene, Joe Williams (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Cody Smith (lead guitar), Josh Summers (bass) and A.J. Hunter (drums) have spent recent years developing a sound built around a shared love of 1970s roots rock.
Williams said the band’s retro feel grew naturally out of the covers they chose to play, reflecting a shared belief that 1970s-era rock artists “cornered the market really early with the guitar stuff.” That connection between their originals and their classic covers, he said, has made it easy to slip new material into their live sets without losing the crowd.
“It’s like we’re going for a classic style and kind of sound,” Williams said. “It’s been really easy to just slip them in, and people will come up and be like, ‘Man, what Free song was that?’ or ‘What Lynyrd Skynyrd song is that?’”
From the Stage to the Studio
The positive reaction to the band’s subtly original material pushed the group into a Theodore-based studio called the Groove Garage. With help from a producer known as “Nick D.,” The Surfers Club recorded their debut single, “Lauren,” a sunny, Southern rock instrumental that many listeners will hear as a musical cousin to the Allman Brothers Band’s “Jessica.”
Where Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts drew inspiration for “Jessica” from his daughter, Williams said the new song took its name from a friend of the band after a suggestion by singer-songwriter Kat Deal.
“We were jamming, trying to figure out the parts to this song, and our friend Lauren was around,” Williams said. “She said, ‘Hey, you know, this isn’t “Jessica.” This is “Lauren.”‘ So we all thought it was clever, and we were like, ‘OK, that’s what it is.’”
Williams said recording the track came with both rewards and challenges. The process let the band explore its sound, he said, but pinning down the right sonic relationship between “Jessica” and “Lauren” proved difficult. “If you listen to something a hundred times, people aren’t going to recognize things that you would recognize, especially if you played it too,” Williams said. “It’s easy to get caught up in the smallest things. Recording ‘Lauren’ was easy and fun, and we got to be creative. The hardest part was probably just getting everything perfect.”
More Original Music on the Way
The success of “Lauren” has pushed the band to keep working on original material for a future EP. While a release date and title remain undecided, Williams said the group has been recording at Greg DeLuca’s (Mulligan Brothers, Abe Partridge) Bazooka Music Co., with Leif Schaffner of Southbound Sound Company also lending his ear to the project.
“We’ve got one song that sounds kind of like a Free song, and we’re drawing a lot of inspiration from Paul Rodgers,” Williams said. He added that guitarist Cody Smith has written another track that leans toward a Lynyrd Skynyrd-inspired sound.
Until the EP arrives, The Surfers Club will continue road-testing new songs at live shows, giving fans a chance to watch the material evolve before it’s finalized in the studio. “You get to see what’s working,” Williams said. “It’s a hard thing to write music and have people actually interested in it. That’s kind of a rare thing — to just be able to play and say, ‘Hey, this sounded good. This didn’t sound good. When we get in the studio, this is how we’ll do it.’”
The band isn’t confining its growing reputation to Mobile. Williams said The Surfers Club has been making regular runs through Southeastern college towns, and this fall the group will embark on a tour stretching from Dallas to Athens, Georgia, with stops in Tuscaloosa, Auburn and Sewanee, Tennessee, among other cities. Williams said the band is especially looking forward to an hour-long opening set for the Athens-based band The Gringos.
The Band’s Classic Rock Touchstones
“Jessica,” written by Dickey Betts, is an instrumental from the Allman Brothers Band’s 1973 album “Brothers and Sisters.” Free, the British band the group cites as an influence, featured singer Paul Rodgers and is best known for its 1970 hit “All Right Now.”
