By Jim Barber
Brian Wilson is at rest now, and hopefully he understood the respect, admiration, love and inspiration associated with his life and his career as a songwriter and performer. The founder of the Beach Boys, who succumbed to a lengthy illness on June 11, had a pivotal role in developing the artistry and craft of both rock and roll and pop music through his innovative compositions, peaking with the seminal classic Pet Sounds album in 1966, and songs like ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice,’ ‘Good Vibrations’ and the powerfully compelling, ‘God Only Knows.’
He can rest easily knowing that his legacy is in good hands musically as there is a youthful rejuvenation in the popularity of what has been termed ‘surf’ music as epitomized by The Beach Boys and Jan & Dean, as well as by a plethora of guitar-based instrumental bands who were contemporaries of those more vocal-focused group. Bands like The Ventures, The Surfaris, The Tornados and The Chantays were influential too, with imitators and appreciators continuing to evolve the sound over the ensuing decades.
Part of the flourishing of the genre, which while still fairly niche, is nonetheless populated by millions of fans throughout the globe, includes a Canadian act which is garnering glowing press accounts, going viral on social media, and delighting audiences throughout North America as well as far flung European locals as Spain and Estonia with their unforgettable live concerts.
Starting life in small town Port Perry, Ontario, Canada, the dynamically wonderful, eminently tuneful and joyfully effervescent Surfrajettes are bringing the inimitable happiness and unadulterated fun of the twangy, melodically irrepressible instrumental surf music to a venue near you this summer, as they embark on what is, surprisingly, one of their first big efforts to tour their home and native land.
Comprised of high-school pals Shermy Freeman and Nicole Damoff, their twin lead guitar attack is buttressed by longtime bassist Sarah Butler, and newcomer Annie Lillis on drums, who hails from Cleveland. Butler is a full-time teacher, so when the band is on the road during the school year, her spot is taken by another Cleveland resident, Abby Joe J.). Starting in late June, the quartet has shows straddling the U.S.- Canada border with stops in Buffalo, NY, on June 26, Lake George, NY two days later and then on to Amherst, Massachusetts on June 29, before sliding across the border into Quebec for a show on June 30 at Bar Le Ritz in Montreal, then on Canada Day at House of TARG in Ottawa.
July 2 sees The Surfrajettes make their first ever stop in Kingston, Ontario, at The Mansion, before moving on to The Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto on July 3, then participating in The Creative Festival in Toronto on July 6. After that, they head west … and north for a show in Whitehorse, Yukon on July 9 leading to a show at the Altin Arts and Music Festival in Atlin, British Columbia on July 11; the last date on this run of concerts.
The band has released two full LPs, Roller Fink, issued in 2022, and Easy as Pie, which came out towards the end of 2024. They’ve also released a handful of singles and EPs along the way, with each release bringing in a pile of new fans, new admirers and building on their reputation for firecracking live shows.
In keeping with the brilliant and picture perfect throwback retro aesthetic of the band, let’s step back in time to more than a decade ago, when McKenzie ‘Shermy’ Freeman and Damoff first met, and how their common desire to make music, their chemistry as writers and performers, and Freeman’s near-obsession with the culture and lifestyle of the early 1960s were the building blocks of what would soon become The Surfrajettes.
“We weren’t in bands together in high school, but we knew each other, although she was two grades above me. There were two main bands which were like extracurricular activities after school: a rock band and an R&B band. Shermy was the guitar player in the rock band and I was the guitar player in the blues band. So, we were in this music program together and would run into each other all the time. Outside of high school I got into an all-girl rock cover band. We met at a music summer camp and played around at a few places. We were still teenagers. I didn’t get into a professional band of any kind until The Surfrajettes,” explained Damoff, who now lives near Haliburton, Ontario, while Shermy still lives in the Port Perry area.
“She and I had lost touch for a bit after high school. Then a few years after I graduated she just contacted me out of the blue with this concept. She thought of the band name, The Surfrajettes. She said, ‘hey, wouldn’t it be cool if there was an all-girl surf band called The Surfrajettes. I really want to make this happen.’ And because she remembered me from high school being like the only other girl guitar player, she called me and asked me to help her form this band. So, the concept was all hers and then we got together and made it happen.
“I really don’t know why she decided on this concept. But I do know Shermy’s always been a lover of vintage, retro stuff and we had some friends in the Toronto surf scene around The Great Lakes Surf Battle, which is a festival they have every year. I think she was inspired by that and wanted to start her own surf band. She’s a very, very creative person and I think this was an outlet for her, and for her love of retro clothes and furniture and instruments.”
For a quick recap of what surf music entails, let’s go to our pals at Wikipedia:
“Surf music (also known as surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is instrumental surf, distinguished by reverb-heavy electric guitars played to evoke the sound of crashing waves, largely pioneered by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones. The second is vocal surf, which took elements of the original surf sound and added vocal harmonies, a movement led by the Beach Boys.”
The nascent Surfrajettes delved deep into the lore, legends and legacy of surf music, and cultivated a look that could easily have been lifted from an Annette Funicello beach movie of the 1960s, or more recently, a Quentin Tarantino film. The beehive hairdos, matching miniskirts, Go-Go boots, and brilliantly coloured set dressings, throwback instruments and even the furniture and knick-knacks in all their videos and photo shoots have been carefully and artfully crafted, with an attention to detail that would impress any theatrical art director or museum curator.
The whole image, tone and vibe of The Surfrajettes is one of unbridled fun. They project bright, Technicolor awesomeness through their music, their presentation and energetic live shows – something that is bringing a pinch of light and positivity to what is seemingly becoming a darkening world.
“It was a lot of work, but I would say that it all came pretty naturally. It is very deliberate, but that’s Shermy. That’s what her actual house looks like and she’s really into all that stuff. She has a very good eye and vision for aesthetics so it comes pretty easily to her because that’s what she’s into anyways. Some of the props and stuff are actually hers, and others we needed, she would just go hit an antique shop or prop shop. She’s a collector of all that stuff. The look was her vision from the very beginning. The Go-Go boots, beehives, which was always the vision and it’s something that has always been consistent with our aesthetic,” Damoff explained.
The name Surfrajettes is clever in so many ways, incorporating the genre of music, alongside not-so subtle dose of female strength and solidarity as it’s a variation of the term suffragette, the name given to women in the United Kingdom and North America who began to organize together, protest, lobby, demonstrate, write about and demand the right to vote throughout the late 19th and into the early 20th centuries. Changing out the ‘G’ for a ‘J’ adds another layer of authenticity, as it fits with the naming conventions of bands from the original surf movement. It also perfectly fits the mandate of the band from day one to be all-female, all the time.
“Actually, when Shermy thought of the name there was no choice but to actually make it happen because it’s such a good name. And having a clever name like that and even messing around with the ‘G’ and ‘J’ was a way for us to have a bit of an identity because we don’t have a singer, right. Neither one of us really sings, and we really didn’t want to. Plus, it was another way to set us apart and for the band look and sound different?” Damoff said, adding that they also drew inspiration from a fairly wide musical palate within the Surf genre, including The Ventures, a legendary instrumental surf music band that is considered to be of the most influential acts of all time, selling more than 100 million albums. They have been dubbed ‘the band that launched a thousand bands,’ for how many young musicians throughout the 1960s picked up the guitar, bass and drums and formed bands. ‘Walk, Don’t Run,’ their debut album, based on a single of the same name, is a must have for every early rock and roll aficionado.
“When we first started out, the first songs we learned were by The Trashmen and The Rancheros, who were some of the more obscure older surf bands. And we love The Ventures, they’re probably our main inspiration on what we do. We started things based on doing covers of songs that we learned before we started writing our own. We loved the way The Ventures were so creative with the versions of the songs that they covered and made them their own. And that’s what we’ve always tried to do, like in covering Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ and doing unexpected covers, which I feel was really the thing that made The Ventures so good and so popular.”
The YouTube cover of ‘Toxic,’ released in 2018 was an instant hit, and has garnered more than 7.3 million views, propelling the band into a level of popularity unheard of for a modern surf band, earning them a record deal with Hi-Tide Recordings, and leading to offers to perform throughout the United States.
Another bump in recognition came when they were featured on a video by Norman’s Rare Guitars, a website and YouTube channel very popular with guitar nerds (not meant as a pejorative!). As well, they’ve also been featured in the venerable industry touchstone Guitar World Magazine.
“I would say probably the most important thing that has happened to our band is that video [‘Toxic’]. I don’t really understand how the algorithm of YouTube works but for whatever reason that video just got millions and millions of views. People come up to me at every show and say they discovered us because of the ‘Toxic’ video. So, it’s definitely a big reason for our success. And I also get a lot of people because of that Norman’s video. For a guitarist, that’s a pretty big thing to be on that channel, and also the Guitar World feature. I think it’s helped get us a little more respect because a lot of times we’re still hearing, ‘just look, oh, girls with guitars, they probably don’t know what they’re doing,’ and write you off before they even listen to you,” Damoff said, talking about the persistence of sexism, misogyny and sheer dismissiveness that still exists towards female in the music industry, even in this apparently ‘woke’ age.
“If you go and read our YouTube comments, and I know they’re just comments, but we’ve even had people say things to us in person like, ‘oh, that was better than I thought it was going to be,’ because of people’s expectations when they see women with guitars. I mean, most people aren’t like that, but there’s a minority of them, and they’re pretty loud at times, who think like that. We try not to let the negative ones bother us; the majority of people are very supportive.”
While the current album, Easy As Pie contains another cover version that should delight 1990s pop music lovers, a delightfully jangly and eminently danceable interpretation of ‘Spice Up Your Life,’ from The Spice Girls, the bulk of the material, as on Roller Fink, is original. Damoff and Freeman are the primary writers of the band, which makes sense considering they’ve known each other for so long and are geographically compatible.
“We do most of the songwriting and its usually pretty collaborative. One of us will come up with an idea for the melody or whatever and then take it to the other person and say, ‘hey, have a look at this, what should come after it? Can you do anything to add to it?’ We just work together like that but it’s not all emailing back and forth. We used t live together and so it was easy to just sit around and come up with songs in the same room, but now usually still like to do it in person, even though we’re not in the same town anymore,” Damoff explained.
“Once we have a song kind of mapped out, we’ll record a little voice note of it and send it to our drummer who is in Cleveland, and she will work off that voice memo. Then she’ll lay down her part and send it back to us and the next time we get together, we’ll rehears it and then record it.”
Easy As Pie, as well as the previous album, was recorded at the Woodshed Studios in Toronto, which is the home studio of the legendary Canadian band, Blue Rodeo, and was produced by Blue Rodeo guitarist, and noted Canadian producer, Colin Cripps, who created what Damoff called ‘a really cozy, welcoming vibe.”
Cool tunes and viral videos alone do not a success story make, especially within a niche musical market such as surf. Like much of rock and roll, a band or artist earns their stripes, builds their fan bases and makes a better living for themselves on the road. Or in the case of The Surfrajettes, an excursion or two on the high seas. Another breakthrough moment for the band came with a pre-COVID pandemic appearance on The Beach Boys Cruise, an incredible opportunity to connect with folks who already had a predilection to love their music – in a captive setting!
“We also did the Melissa Etheridge Cruise and we got to go on stage and sing with Melissa Etheridge. And then we did the Beach Boys Cruise two years in a row and even just getting to travel for me is amazing. I just love doing those cruises and going all over North American and seeing Europe: places I wouldn’t have had the chance to go to otherwise if not for the band. So getting to tour and visit new places and meet people and play for them – it’s all been a highlight,” she said, adding that besides hanging with Etheridge, she and her bandmates did get to meet ‘Uncle Jesse’ from TV show Full House, as actor John Stamos often plays with The Beach Boys,
“Yeah we got to hang out with Uncle Jesse. I mean, when I was watching Full House as a kid, I never thought I’d be hanging out with Uncle Jesse on a cruise. I really wanted to ask him to say, ‘have mercy,’ but I managed to restrain myself.”
The cruise appearances led to more bookings, at a significantly longer distance. After a hugely successful set at an event in Spain, The Surfrajettes were contacted by a promoter of a festival in the small Baltic country of Estonia to participate in their event [The American Beauty Summer Meet car show]. The leap of imagination it takes to think of a kid from Port Perry spending time playing music to a rapt audience in Estonia, is certainly not anything Freeman and Damoff would have even considered back when they were acquiring their first pairs of Go-Go Boots.
“It’s only been a year or so since we kind of took the band full time and started really hitting the road. We played a festival in Spain last year and the festival in Estonia and that was the first time we’ve been outside of North America. We found there’s these little surf music communities all over the world, and I think they love it because it represents Americana, or what America used to stand for, and people in other places around the world still find that exotic and exciting. These little communities are so passionate about it and it’s exciting for them to see their favourite bands performing that music,” said Damoff.
“We had played a rockabilly festival in Spain and the person who puts on the festival in Estonia was at the festival in Spain and they offered us the show just from seeing our performance. We kept saying to ourselves through the entire trip, ‘did you ever think we’d be playing in Estonia of all places?’ And it was a cool festival where there were all these classic American cars, but the festival itself took place on the grounds of an old castle and it was like, wow, what a beautiful setting. The scenery was amazing. And the people were really nice. Everyone there was so excited because they had brought in performers from all over the world. I was a really cool, unique experience that I never thought I would get to do.”
Returning to the subject of the band’s lineup, there is a bit of the Spinal Tap curse at play, as over the band’s decade long existence, Lillis is their fifth drummer.
“Fortunately, no one has spontaneously combusted or died in a gardening accident. It’s more of a thing where it’s hard to commit to being in a full-time band, and people want to do other things with their lives, which is totally understandable. Annie was in another band called The Beyonderers, a surf band out of Cleveland and they opened for us once and so we noted at the time, ‘wow, this girl’s really good.’ Then a few months later our drummer at the time left the band so I thought of Annie and called her, and she was super into it and really wanted to join us. So, yeah, we stole her,” said Damoff with a laugh. “And Abby Joe J., she’s childhood friends with Annie, so she fit in perfectly.”
Touring across Canada has always been something The Surfrajettes have wanted to do, but since going full time, their dance card has been filled with dates in the U.S. and further abroad. There’s also the pure size of the country and stringing together enough dates to make it both practically and financially worthwhile. They are hoping the summer shows, most of which are in Ontario and Quebec, will help build momentum for more in the Great White North.
“We haven’t played many gigs up here compared to how many we do in America. We played Toronto a lot and we always do pretty well there. And we’ve played Montreal a few times, so we’re looking forward to doing some more Canadian shows this summer because we just haven’t had the chance. I mean, we’ve never played Ottawa or Kingston before, so we’re really looking forward to playing and hopefully building up the Canadian fan base more. But it’s hard because Canada is so large, and the population is smaller than in America. And there’s way more people in each town and city and they’re closer together down there. It’s the same in Europe. But we really do want to play more here, and I think playing in Ottawa on Canada Day is going to be a big deal for us,” Damoff said.
Another aspect of the modern music industry, one The Surfrajettes are eager to capitalize on, is getting their music placed in TV shows, movies and maybe even video games. It’s a way to use original music to generate another revenue stream, but the placement also exposes the artist to possibly millions of new fans. They jokingly mention in their bio that they are actively seeking to be in a Quentin Tarantino movie but would settle for having their music part of its soundtrack if they weren’t cast. But just think of how cool it would be to see The Surfrajettes cameoing in a Kill Bill 3 or especially a Pulp Fiction sequel.
“It’s something we haven’t tapped into quite yet, but we want to. We did have an offer a few years ago, but nothing ever materialized from it. They wanted one of our songs to be on a British Netflix show they were making, but I never heard anything more about it,” Damoff said.
Whether they make it to the big screen or on a major streaming platform, the sheer joy and happiness and sense of escape generated by listening to The Surfrajettes music, and especially seeing them perform live, is an amazing enough legacy on which to build for decades to come. The notion that their music brings happiness to people in what is sometimes an awful world is not lost on Damoff or her bandmates.
“That’s what we try to remind ourselves of all the time. You said the world we’re living in is tough. Yeah, it feels kind of silly sometimes for us to be doing our silly surf music when there’s all this heavy, awful stuff going on. But you know, we’ve had a lot of people come up to us at shows and say, ‘thank you so much.’ So, we just try to keep our heads up and remember we’re doing things that bring people together and give people joy. And I love seeing little girls at our shows. Not all venues we play allow underage people in, but we’ve definitely had shows where lots of parents bring their little girls and we always try to meet with them as much as we can and say hi. It always brings a tear to my eye to see that. I grew up without many examples of women as role models as musicians, especially in rock music. So, I think when women and girls see an example of that, it’s really energizing and lets them think, ‘yeah, I can do that.’ And that goes for hockey and basketball as well as music.”
For more information on The Surfrajettes, Easy as Pie and their upcoming shows, visit https://www.thesurfrajettes.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for more than 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavors, he works as a communications and marketing specialist and is an avid volunteer in his community. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
