Riding the wave

SET WAVES: Made up of, from left, Ricky Boyd, Robson Timbs, Jay Papworth and Dylan Haley, Wainui band Set Waves revive the early 1960s American surf music sound in their self-titled debut album. Picture supplied

The jangly-guitar and rolling beats of the 1960s South Californian surf music sound is instantly recognisable in Gisborne band Set Waves' debut album.

Song titles such as Shoot the Curl, Kook Don't Steal My Wave, and Acid Drop tap into the American vernacular of the time.

In the spirit of freewheeling Beat writers like Jack Kerouac and pal Neal Cassady, Americana in the album even crosses the border in the track Lost in Mexico.

With reverb-heavy electric guitars to evoke the sound of crashing waves in the tradition of the original surf guitar sound, largely pioneered by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones, Set Waves' line-up is purely instrumental.

“The band grew out of Wainui with friends from there,” says lead guitarist Ricky Boyd.

Those friends include Jay Papworth on bass guitar, rhythm guitarist Dylan Haley and Robson Timbs on drums.

“I'm into vintage music, and surf, and Wainui is a surf beach so I made a surf music band,” Boyd says.

“The early 1960s California surf sound is clean and bluesy with a lot of reverb which makes it sounds like you're ducking under waves.”

What is surprising though, because the advent of The Beatles changed the pop-music landscape, the Californian genre's popularity lasted only two years.

Quentin Tarantino helped revive the sound in movies like Pulp Fiction in the 1990s.

The vintage, instrumental flavour made popular by bands such as The Surfaris, and Dick Dale & His Del-Tones, is invoked again as set waves roll to shore as you cruise the coast, elbow out the window with easy-listening surf tunes driven by fine musicianship on the stereo.

Set Waves' self-titled debut is available on Spotify.