Ocean Kid
Coming Into Existence
Photographs by Rick Perez
Surfer and musician Neil Levin opens up about finally letting the past die and shares the story behind his new album, “I Want Blue Roses On My Grave”. Featuring surfboard by Degree 33 Surfboards and wetsuit by Hyperflex Wetsuits.
Malibu, California, USA
What came first, music or surfing?
Surfing is definitely what came first; I was competing and taking surfing pretty seriously for awhile and it wasn't till I started making my own surf edits that I needed a way to put non-copyrighted tunes into my videos. I started messing around with garage band and eventually came out with a few songs with the purpose of having them as background music for surf edits.
I got introduced to surfing via my step dad who surfs and music got introduced at a young age, with my biological dad being a pretty epic guitar player and multi-instrumentalist.
What's your journey as a surfer?
I started when I was about 7 and I competed in middle school but didn't really have a clue how to compete until high school. I competed throughout high school and ended up winning League Champs for Shortboard my Junior Year in 2017. I competed in college too but got a little side tracked with being a music major and changed my approach to surfing. I started riding less standard equipment in favor of more traditional, old school board riding. I definitely learned a lot more about surfing away from competing than I did whilst competing. Not saying I don't like competing, as this whole quarantine has been wanting to get me back in shape for competitions, there's just so much more to surfing than pleasing a few judges, so much more freedom.
How does surfing inspire you as a musician?
Surfing and the ocean lifestyle have inspired so much of my music I've written over the years. I always like to weave in a few oceanic themed literary devices into my songs. Especially with the band [Counterconformity], we incorporate a lot of ocean themes into our songs and little ocean themed motifs on our instruments, too. When you can't be singing about heartbreak, or bad luck, or doing drugs, you can be rest assured there's plenty of tunes to be sung about the sea. "Ocean Kids" and "1000 Sailors" are some of the ones that come to my head first when thinkin' of the waves.
You have a new album, "I Want Blue Roses On My Grave", coming out July 3rd. What's the story behind the album?
This album was a long, fun, cerveza flowing road to come into existence. I wanted to showcase Blues music in a way that people haven't experienced before, but I had no clue really how to do it.
One day, a friend of mine invited me over to another old friend of mine's house. That old friend was Cristian Sandoval, who has a neat little D.I.Y. studio he built in his garage. There were few other people over that first day at his house and we kind of accidentally made this interesting, but simple song, which is the opening track to the album "We Go hard on every Tuesday.” I realized in that moment that the future of blues music I wanted to create was there in front of me. I asked Cristian, "What if we took the Blues, combined it with some 80s synth sounds, and gave it a modern overall feel?" Rest was history: within the week we were already working on the second song. The album unfolded itself like a book, each song in the track list is in the order we made it, and it tells a story that way.
I play most of the instruments on the record, but many of the trippy, psychedelic synth playing is the work of Mr. Ron Anderson. He has a passion for synthesizers and electronic music like no other, and without him, the songs wouldn't breathe as much and take on the personality they do. We became a little trio throughout the months making this album. It honestly felt like we were a band from the future. I write, and play guitar, Ron holds the bass and mid down on synth, and then Cristian has the beat and holds everything together on the mixing end. Great experience.
The idea of Blue Roses comes from letting the past die. As I mention in track 3, "Cable Car Blues," I totaled my car when I was 16, then again when I was 17. Bad things happen, and you have to let the past die. Those experiences shaped who I am now and in some strange twist of fate sent me on a musical path I had no idea existed. The grave is who I was before I started making music, the close minded person, who didn't know any better. The blue roses are who I am now. I had to learn to open my mind, expand it, and interpret the world from a childlike perspective, in order to objectively inspect my life and if I was doing it right. The whole imagery of Blue Roses parallels the idea of Blues music never truly dying. We're taking the Blues to a new time period, but leaving these Blue Roses on the grave of it's golden years as a reminder of all the greatness that was.
How have you changed and grown as an artist since your 2018 album, "Psolar System"?
A lot definitely happens in 2 years. When I released that album, I was at the start of not only my musical journey, but schooling as Music Major at Saddleback College. When you’re in High School, and you’re somewhat good enough at guitar and know some stuff about theory, you think you’re Top Gun; as soon as you go to school where everyone is a musician and better than you, you get humbled.
When I made Psolar System, I was obsessed with the sound of the 60s; although I made an album I'm still very proud of, I only had a fraction of the musical knowledge I have now. I made the music I wanted to make without the extensive theory training, but with the new knowledge, comes new ways to create, new ways to connect musical phrases I would not have been aware of otherwise. It also gives you an excuse to break the rules. It's kind of like in English class: if you know the grammar rule, you can break it. Theory gives you this box, a very fragile box, and it's up to you if you wanna break it. Some people break it without knowing it, some people choose to keep it in tact. I choose to do a little of both: Keep things musically correct when they should be and break the box when it can be. Knowing music theory is not only the best gift anyone could have given me, but ear training as well, just gives me an upper hand over my old self.
I stand by Psolar System as a tribute to the sound of the trippy 60s, but the sound I've been developing this past year is who I am now, representative of where I'm at. I listen to Psolar System and can almost feel that same feeling I felt while recording that one song, at that one place in time. I think that's the best part as the creator of art, as you were the only one truly there witnessing how that moment people are consuming, was made. I think there's a level of mysticism behind Psolar System that will never be lost. Many of those songs were made whilst, or shortly after going through rigorous, spiritual journeys through time and space, exploring who I really was, and the purpose of many of those songs is to convey the message I was gaining from alternate states of conscious whether positive, negative or useful. That's what the purpose of my last two albums were, "Melonchaholic" was made after seeing a friend have a bad psychedelic experience.
Now, I feel like I said all I needed to say in regards to those subjects, whereas that was my focus two years ago, I want to shift my musical perspective into more day to day, less esoteric subjects. The music will always have its tributes to the psychedelic genres of music that influence me, but I think there is just as much value in hearing about everyday things, that can maybe end up knocking some spiritual thoughts into your head. Happens to me all the time, I'll hear a song on the radio talking about love and start questioning the veil of reality, very common occurrence.
What's next for you?
Gonna keep going with my music studies at Berklee School of Music (online). The most important thing in day to day life is trying gain knowledge that can help with making new music. Always gonna be gigging around as a solo musician or with my band Counterconformity. The band [Counterconformity] acually has music coming out late July. Also, not to get too ahead of myself, but I've been working on this folk rock album with my dad, Alan Levin, planning on getting our duo going called Father Son Levin, thoroughly excited for that one. Till then gonna be surfing a bunch, making music and playing my guitar.
To Keep Up with Neil’s Music, Follow His Instagram @neillevin
Preview single off of “I Want Blue Roses On My Grave”
