When we were contacted by Josh Bolton to do some music for Drawing Lines, his and Justin Weber's east-coast surfing movie, we were of course pretty psyched about getting involved with the project.

Steve and I set up a session at The Shop in McLean, VA, with our co-producer Rob Salerno from Vanishing Point Productions and assistant engineer Bear. It was much different than our sessions for the Eight Track Mind CD. For those we had written and rehearsed a group of songs and knew them well and cut them with a purpose. This was spontaneous, almost improvisational, which is how Steve and I have always enjoyed playing, but we'd never had the luxury to record that way.

Since this wouldn't be a proper Eight Track Mind project, we created an alter-ego and dubbed it The Lords of DC. (Record label and production company red tape almost delayed the sessions, but eventually an agreement was reached: the film credits would go to The Lords of DC, while the credits in the DVD packaging would refer to us as "Eight Track Mind as The Lords of DC.")

When we got to the studio, we couldn't access the website where Josh had posted some surf clips and suggestions/requests for certain musical styles and vibes (i.e., "Santana-esque," or "Herbie Hancock circa Headhunters" and other helpful clues….)

We tried to remember what he wanted, but once the tapes were rolling we just sorta played in the moment, keeping it simple and loose. Neither of us are surfers, but in a way there's an analogy there: a riff is a bit like a wave. It comes at you and you try to get up on it and ride it wherever it takes you. Sometimes the riff doesn't take you far and you fall off quickly; other times it's the right speed and you can ride it for a while….

It wasn't all improv of course. Steve had a few riffs he brought for us to work on, and he pretty much had the structure for "Isolated Souls" written and had demo'd an acoustic version. I think the first track we laid down was "I Get You Getting Me." Steve had the basic riff, and as we sound-checked, he plugged into Bear's Russian "Bass Balls" fuzz pedal. Steve liked the sound he was getting, and we were off and running on that one. Steve added bass, as I messed around on the keyboard while listening to playbacks, I stumbled on a percussive keyboard part. I'm just a drummer, so the idea of me "playing keys" was a bit funny. It gave the track some funky texture, but it's certainly a far cry from the "Headhunters" vibe Josh was probably looking for.

"Baseball" is just a reworked jam based on the song "Basketball" by Aloha! (one of Steve's old side projects and another contributer to the Drawing Lines Soundtrack). "My Guitar Is Going to Melt" was a spontaneous jam that sorta happened when we came back from a break and pressed the record button. Steve was on bass for the initial track, cut live with my drums. The other tracks were done with Steve on guitar (also cut live with my drum track), adding bass lines and/or extra guitar parts later. The final cut used was an acoustic track Steve recorded called "Campfire Blues".

These sessions also produced an "outtake." Understandably, the Drawing Lines guys opted not to use the super-mellow, meditative track "Los Bramacitos (Watch Over You)." But this quiet and spare tune is something we're quite proud of, as it is very different from anything we've ever done. Recorded with most of the studio lights off, the song sounds conjured out of thin air. Might work for a scene in a movie where a guy goes soul searching in the desert or something; it sounds like something Daniel Lanois might produce for a soundtrack to a western. We include it here to give you a complete sketch of what happened over these two days in June.

I had the privilege to attend the Maryland premier of Drawing Lines in August. First off, I must say the film is really solid. As Josh explained before the film, it's not just a bunch of surfing clips set to music. There's the human element of all the driving and time in between sites, and the never-ending search for good waves. They had a great turnout at the premier, a good 50 or more people on a Sunday night. Our music seemed to mesh with the rest of the fine music contributed by others. Somehow all the music manages to provide both diversity and cohesion.

It was definitely weird/cool sitting there watching a movie and hearing our music. I've played live shows, and I've played our CD's for friends/family, but I'd never experienced that kind of semi-anonymous presentation/reaction before. Hopefully we'll do this sort of thing again sometime.

For more information about this independent film, please visit www.DrawingLines.org.

Todd L. Frank
August 2005