The story behind Surfing Pointers is built on experimentation and a love for analog recording. The band’s name even nods to their influences, taken from a song by Further. True to their ethos, their early demos were recorded on a Tascam 4-track recorder in 2019 and 2020. Despite the challenges, they stuck with this approach, using the same equipment for their latest release—a collection of songs recorded between 2019–2020, out now on California’s BirthDIY Records.
Surfing Pointers is a psych/shoegaze band that emerged from Manchester in 2019, initially as an experimental recording project between Curtis Paterson (guitar/vocals), Andrew Beswick (guitar), and Callum Tough (drums). Tilda Gratton later joined on bass and vocals, completing the lineup.
Their roots in lo-fi grunge and shoegaze were inspired by early ‘90s bands like Further, Dinosaur Jr, and Tomorrow’s Tulips, with touches of lo-fi artists like Alex G and Daniel Johnston.
Though Surfing Pointers ended after a brief but vibrant run, their members continue to create. Curtis and Tilda now focus on Atmos Bloom, a London-based dreampop project, while Andrew and Callum pursue individual ventures.
“These songs give a good impression of what we sounded like for what was a very brief but productive couple of years,” Andrew reflects.
The release of these recordings on BirthDIY Records marks an important artifact for the band, aligning them with other lo-fi psych artists. “It’s nice to have these and to release them on such a great label,” Andrew adds.
The band’s influences shine through their sound, from the lo-fi textures of Soda Lilies and Dear Nora to the playful grunge of Ribbon Stage and Fritz. On the local scene, bands like All Girls Arson Club, Palette, and Bedroom Vacation hold special significance for the group.
To get some more inspirations and under the radar names, the band’s guitarist Andrew shared his go-to records, highlighting a mix of fresh favorites and timeless classics that have influenced his taste and creative process:
- Soda Lillie’s – Love Cometary Tapes
- Dear Nora – First Demos
- Ribbon Stage – Hit with the Most
- Frankie Cosmos – Zentropy
- Fritz – Pastel
- Thanks for Coming – No Problem
- Old favorites: Beat Happening, The Swirlies, Maher Shalal Hash Baz.
We asked the band to give us their track by track rundown for “Surfing Pointers” and here’s what we got.
In the end
This was an early favourite and I guess one of the songs that really stood out from the first songs we did. Curt actually sent me a demo of a track he’d recorded before we met, which was an early version of this song. The song really took on a different dimension when Tilda joined the band and added her vocals.
The first version curt sent me had a more laid back, surfy kind of feel and a beautiful melodic intro part which we added in. Sometimes when I listen to this it reminds me a bit of early Pastels songs, especially Curt’s vocals. The way the drums change is very subtle, I think our songs were very driven by the drums and you can hear this.
Recording was always a challenge as we never played a song the same way twice, and the lyrics I think were often very improvisational and they really fit the dreamy feel of the song.
Far Out
This is possibly my favourite Surfing Pointers song, I think it came out of the experimentation we were doing with writing and trying different guitar tunings. I’d written a couple of songs in a similar tuning, which was kind of a unison tuning based around c# and f#. Curtis wrote this one, I remember him playing the initial riff and I think we jammed on it and he eventually developed the other parts to the song. The way the song stops several times was always fun to play live, the crowd never knowing when the song had ended :)
We kept a really chilled tempo which is one of the things I like about the song, it’s a pretty simple song and it has that kind of loud/quiet and also happy/ sad contrast which I think makes the song nice as you can hear different things from it. Also there’s a nice contrast between the clarity of the main riff and the quite muddy and dense chorus section of the song.
I remember the last few times we played this Curtis had started adding a fuzz pedal into the chorus and part of me wished we had recorded with that, though this version has a more laid back feel. Also Tilda’s vocal part in the bridge was amazing, we hadn’t really settled on a vocal part and I remember we said just make it sound like Kim Gordon or something that!
But the part she came up with sounds so good and also the two vocals together in the song really reminded me of the band Drop Nineteens, which I was quite happy about as they’re such a great band. Again we recorded on 4 track and I think the lo-fi sound of the drums really suited this.
S.Y. song
This was an instrumental which we often played live. It was written in almost the same tuning as Far Out. I think our plan was to add vocals to this though we never got round to it, though it always sounded nice as an instrumental anyway. It was recorded slightly after the other 2 songs, me and Callum laying down the drums and guitar and then Tilda and Curtis adding their parts separately, as they had moved to London by this time.
It was quite nice to record like this though, and the parts they added really sounded great and we really didn’t need to do much mixing, it was a very straightforward song to record. I think we added a bit of synth in a few parts which Callum did (he’s multi talented :))
When I wrote the guitar part I think I had been listening to the Swirlies and I guess you can hear that, and also clearly a bit of a sonic youth influence (hence the title). I think it breaks up the record nicely and flows quite well from the other songs.
Losing Contact
This is the last song we had been working on before the band broke up. We hadn’t really played it that many times so it’s s little rough around the edges, the recording was actually from a live session we did at Aatma in Manchester, which is where we used to rehearse. We all thought it sounded really good though so we decided to include it.
Not much to say about the recording, Keir Stewart was great at mastering the song and helping it to fit with the rest of the record. I think the song really showed the direction the band were going in, incorporating a slowcore vibe and also getting a bit of a heavier sound. Tilda’s bass is really great on this song, it makes me think a bit of the band the Pixies when I hear it. I think the climax of the song always involved me and Curtis basically just improvising and making a lot of noise, so it often sounded quite different each time we played it and was really fun to play live.
Since Surfing Pointers ended Curtis and Tilda have been focusing on their other project Atmos Bloom which is a really great dream pop band based in London, and the other band members continue to work on individual projects. These songs I think give a good impression of what we sounded like for what was a very brief but productive couple of years. It’s nice to have these and to release them on such a great label as BIRTHDIY with other similar artists. I think all of us have great memories of the band and we hope others enjoy the music too.
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