Forrest Frank and Colin Padalecki are the two behind the uplifting music under the name Surfaces. When you listen to their music you think of sunny summery days, ocean breezes, leafy palm trees and sandy shores. Their music has a cool jazzy, reggae, soulful feel to it. With Frank taking lead on vocals and both Frank and Padalecki working on writing and arrangements, the pair have meshed their individual talents into one impressive whole. Their family, close team make it that Surfaces will always be a team full of authenticity and positive outlooks on life. Surfaces have a few shows at the beginning of 2020 and ECHO had the chance to chat with Surfaces at their LA show at The El Rey Theater.
How are you guys?
We’re doing good.
You guys went on tour this summer?
Colin: Yeah, we had a small tiny little tour. It was kind of like a homemade tour, we didn’t have management or booking agent.
How was that?
Colin: We did the best with what we had, it was pretty successful.
Forrest: It was good in the fact that we sold it out and that felt great, but then going to the shows, sold out shows, the logistics of it got messy. There was an Austin, TX show and we wanted to meet our fans and stuff but we didn’t have any barricades and we were like “hey we’re going to be outside if you want to meet us and then like 400 people were outside to take pictures. We didn’t know that wasn’t a good idea.
How did you guys meet and get Surfaces started?
Colin: So, the idea of it kind of started like three or four years ago and then Forrest and I met through sound cloud and once we met each other, we went to school like an hour and a half away from each other, so we decided to meet up and jammed with each other, we didn’t really have an agenda in mind, we just kind of went with it. From there we just kept on meeting up with each other and giving each other ideas and feeding off of each other creatively. Once we started writing and got production lined up, that’s when Surfaces really started taking off.
Forrest: We didn’t think this would be anything, it was purely let’s just see what happens if we make a project together, we didn’t even have Instagram at the time, just straight up on Soundcloud and it slowly took off, we never paid money for marketing.
How did you guys come up with the name “Surfaces” and why that name?
Colin: I just thought music today is the most powerful tool for connecting young people in our generation, it’s always been that middle ground for kids our age to talk to each other, they’re always posting about a certain song on stories and social media and I’ve always wanted to create something for that middle ground of communication for kids that seemed really happy and connected with one another. Like Forrest and I say, a lot of the music today is kind of negative in a way and we wanted to make something that says “hey” you can surpass all that negativity, everything is so hollow sometimes with apps, not to knock them but with bumble and everything, it’s swipe right, we wanted to make music that can get past all that hollowness and feel something and I wanted to make a name that had levels to it, Surfaces reminds you that there are layers to people, you can use music as a tool to surpass skin color, pass backgrounds, dark pasts.
What does Surfaces mean to you?
Forrest: Colin already had the name when we first met up. Surfaces to me, what it is now. Our first project was trying to figure out what we are, if you think about it as if you were going to start a brand, there’s a lot of stuff to figure out, what’s the message I’m trying to share. There’s definitely a light at the end of the tunnel, everyday can be a better day despite the challenge, that’s kind of the core of what it is to me.
You guys released your new single “Bloom” recently, talk about the creative process behind that. It has a summery vibe to it so why did you released it now and not summer?
Forrest: I think all of our stuff has a brightness to it, making it summery. We kind have been releasing songs in the winter too, it’s kind of our timeline. We kind of naturally make summery music, I think people associate the winter with restricted and cold and more introspective than summer, being social and the fact that we make bright music makes it summery. We were at his parents lake house for an extended period of time and there was a really pretty day and we were both and we weren’t trying to make it a creative incubator, but it just kind of was that way, so that morning, Colin got out his ukulele and I started making the project file and he came back in and we were wondering if this was a direction we wanted to vibe with and we were like absolutely, so we cracking on the lyrics and building around it and it just came about.
What was creating the animated music video like?
Forrest: We worked with a company called showoff and I think it was showoff or maybe someone involved with showoff that did Childish Gambino’s “Feels Like Summer,” so it’s that kind of animation if you can picture it. We were on a conference call just trying to roll out ideas and the idea of the most perfect ideal love story kind of came about and wanted to get that through, it’s kind of when you meet at that young age, young summer love, high school relationship and for that relationship to withstand the test of time, the lyrics are “I could spend forever next to you.”
What are some of your goals for 2020?
Forrest: Well, I get married in March, the 21st, so I guess a big goal would be to figure out how to balance that with music and all the progress that we’re making and to make the best music we can.
Colin: We have an album coming out early next year, hoping the best for that, I don’t have any doubts about it because we put everything into it. Just seeing how people receive it and how they connect with that, it’s not really a measurable goal but it’s going to be fun seeing how people react to it.
What’s a lesson you’ve learned from this past decade?
Forrest: Removing unnecessary fear from your life. I grew up with this kind of voice in my head whether it’s from society or the environment I was raised that the American dream style where you get the job and work your way up the latter rather than dream and take a risk. So I would say that’s been the biggest thing, that the inspirations that you get and dreams you get are possible.
Colin: Take the bad with the good, that’s a lyric from a song I really like. Even though I’m falling into place, over the past ten years everyone has dark moments or stuff of perseverance, those things that always happen in your life always have meaning, no matter if you think it’s a good thing or not, it’s always a blessing.
What is a setting you would set your fans up in for them to listen to your music?
Forrest: Highway
Colin: To add onto that I think the best music I always associate with road trips with your friends, just turning up your music in your car as loud as you can and all of your friends just screaming those lyrics at the top of your lungs.
Forrest: Yeah, on road trips it’s really refreshing to listen to an album but sometimes it’s hard to find a good album you want to listen to, so my hope is that our music would be that for them.
What is one quote you’ve heard in life that you want to ECHO out to fans?
Forrest: I just posted one on my story, it was a bible verse, “Don’t worry about anything but pray on everything and then you’ll experience the piece that comes from God.” That’s refreshing to me, I don’t have to worry about anything, it doesn’t matter if this is the last concert that I do or not do, it’s all going to be ok.
Colin: I can definitely resonate with that.