George Greenough in tune to the Band of Frequencies

As surfer’s we are always embarking on that epic road trip. From the then to the now, surfers world wide have packed up the Kombi, Wagon, Van or UTE taking off to the horizon, following the waves, the freedom. And as modern technology pushes us further beyond the imagination, it is humbling to step back in time and take in the good ol’ days. Especially when that inside look at the times before comes from behind the camera of the very forward thinking George Greenough.

Recently George and good friends The Band of Frequencies got together to put music to movie, coming up with an amazing film clip titled “All I’ve Found”. We love George and the Freq’s, and thought we should have a bit of chat with band front man Shannon Sol Carroll to hear a bit about the making of the soundtrack and working with George.

All I’ve Found by Band of Frequencies. Film by George Greenough. from Low Pressure Productions on Vimeo.

Working with George Greenough is not something just any group of funky musicians can do. How did that relationship come about and what was it like to work with him?

We first met with Andrew Crockett around the time his book Switch-foot was coming together. It is always great hanging out with George. We usually just have a laugh, talk story and then he will come up with a new left field concept regarding whatever we are talking about. He is a really innovative human being, regardless of the subject or context, so working with him is always an exploratory process of seeing things in a new light and coming up with a fresh approach.

How was it coming together as a band to fuse a piece of new music to such nostalgic footage?

It is always a new experience. We’ve improvised a lot of soundtracks to George’s footage before and it always feels like we are bringing present life into a past moment. It’s like time travel in a way, bringing the past into present. Our first idea was to pay homage to ‘The Farm’, the band who composed and recorded the soundtrack to Georges legendary film ‘The Inner Most Limits of Pure Fun’. The footage from this film clip is all from around the same era and we love that soundtrack so it seemed to make sense. But as I watched the silent footage at home I just started playing spacey sound-scapes with acoustic guitar and delays and the theme of this life being a never-ending journey came through. The footage features all these snippets of classic cars on surf adventures off the beaten track over the years so the theme seemed to all fall into place. When we were in the studio the band hadn’t even heard the song yet and at first we toyed with making it into a driving shuffle reminiscent of The Farm’s track in ‘Coming of the Dawn’. It was cool but felt a bit like we were going back into the past rather than staying present. George is such a forward thinker that going retro didn’t seem to fit. I’ve been getting into various electronic composers sonic explorations lately so we tried an approach influenced by that, even though we kept the instrumentation as a live band. I like the blend, but I’m also itching to hear it remixed!

Where did you record the track?

We recorded it at BlackBox Studios in Brisbane with Jeff Lovejoy at the helm. His production skills are second to none and he’s an expert in capturing the live essence of the band. I played my demo version to the band, then we rehearsed it while Jeff got a mix together and then we laid it down in a few takes onto tape. There’s a whole bunch of instrumental outtakes and jams there as well so it’ll be good to check out some of those one day.

Did George have much input into the music?

George’s influence is all the way through the session. He always says, “If you don’t go, you’ll never know.” Lyrically that concept is the backbone of the track. Musically, he likes the bass to be rolling, driving and for the band to “have some horsepower’, so that influence was present in the studio also. George is always thinking about new and better ways to re-design, re-approach or re-create so it only fits that we should approach the sounds in that way.

What are the differences when trying to organize a track for someone else’s creative visual piece compared to writing a song without visuals for a record?

It is different in that it guides your creativity a little more. Themes emerge and there are certain subjects and marker points that jump out as being highlights. Once I had watched the footage a lot I then let the images and the stories that George told conjure up the emotions that I felt before sketching out the basic story. It works well for me as a writer and the band has always really gelled well whilst improvising soundtracks to film so it’s a winning combination.

The Band of Frequencies just came off a completely different style of road trip, joining Dave Rastovich on the TransparentSea Voyage USA. What were some of the highlights from the journey?

There were so many highlights. Being on a trip down the Californian Coast with an eclectic bunch of surfers, artists, shapers, filmmakers, producers, musicians and creative environmentalists was just epic! We wrote and recorded a song a day for 23 days and uploaded it with artwork to the website as our contribution to the voyage. It was great to collaborate with such inspiring and unique artists as Will Connor, Angus Stone and the whole crew along the way. (The album, is available for download at www.transparentseavoyage.com with all proceeds going to the cause.) It was great to meet people in each location who were passionate and engaged in protecting their coastal environment. Every coast line on the planet needs local, active stewards to keep an eye on what is affecting their local ecosystems and protect them from other humans and corporations that may not care as much about our ocean and this planets natural wonders. Meeting more of those kinds of people and seeing how much of a difference we all make was definitely a highlight.

Tell us a bit more about the new EP?

The new EP, All I’ve Found, is a limited edition release featuring a frame grab of George Greenough from ‘The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun’ on the front cover. It has seven tracks filling 26 minutes with the Freq’s signature blend of exploratory roots, rock, reggae, space blues, psychedelic jams and acoustic bliss-outs. There are a couple of tunes from our forthcoming album ‘Rise like the Sun’ and some extra tracks that will never be released again. The theme song to the ‘’Minds in the Water’ documentary is on there as well as a cosmic surf guitars jam called ‘Primordial Soup”. The last bonus track is an acoustic composition written for a short film featuring Dave Rastovich that explores surfboard designs and music that follow the Fibonacci sequence, (0,0,1,2,3,5,8… etc.) It was recorded in Dave’s tipi and even the crackling of the fire can be heard in the recording.

What is in store for the Freq’s in 2012?

We have a calendar full of infinite possibilities at the moment. We will release our new album ‘Rise like the Sun’ later in the year and tour Australia to launch that. We are also planning to tour several very amazing locations with great waves and music but that is not locked in yet so we will have to wait and see. Next month on March 12^th we are playing during the Noosa Festival of Surfing with my fathers band ‘Moonstone’ at the Noosa Surf Club. ‘Moonstone’ were the band that played the soundtrack to life in Coolangatta back in 1970-72 so it’ll be great to jam with them and see who comes out of the woodwork for that. Otherwise we’ll just be making music in our local neighbourhood and getting in the water whenever possible.

Check out the Freq’s at www.switch-foot.com/band-of-frequencies