Reference Points: Plastic Mermaids talk surfing

I think people from the mountains get it too, this inexplicable connection to a certain geography. The sea’s always been a part of my life; you can’t escape it living on a pretty small island. Its influence on the music I write and what we create as a band is massive, though tricky to put a finger on. I go surfing as much as I can, normally four or five times a week, waves permitting - the summer can be a bit fickle here. The best thing about it is the sea’s ability to clear your head, the only time I feel vaguely content is standing on the cliff looking back down at the ocean after a good surf. Often I’ll come back from surfing with a new angle and enthusiasm to tackle a recording or song that’s previously become stale or had reached a dead end.

Surfing can give you some really special moments too, where you find yourself out amongst the weather in situations you’d normally do your best to avoid. I remember one last winter, it was about 3 degrees, grey, sleeting and howling north easterly. I paddled over to my mate and we were both just grinning. It’s a real strange satisfaction but a wholesome one.

I wouldn’t say its influence is all positive though, it’s a strange obsessive relationship we have. When the waves are good there’s no point trying to get on with anything else, you just feel anxious and sick if you’re not in the sea. To explain the severity to someone who hasn’t felt this, it’s kind of like being forced to sit there and watch while your girlfriend get off with someone else. I regularly have nightmares about not being able to go surfing.

I don’t think surfing has a direct influence on the sound of our music but certainly for me, my brother Jamie and Chris Jones, it affects our approach to it and puts us in a much better headspace for making it. Not in a spiritual or religious way and I don’t want to come across as some surf hippie (I really hope I’m not) but the sea definitely has a way of making me feel grounded, it’s as important to me as music. I couldn’t live happily without either.

—by Douglas Richards

You can check out some photos of the band (quite literally) mid-wave below. They play the Lexington tonight (30 April), in support of Coves, with limited tickets still available. You can check out the band’s brilliant new single, “Polaroids”, here.