Surf rock in the middle of Canadian winter? It’s all part of Pitted’s plan. The Prince George-based band, featuring Camosun College alumna Naomi Kavka on guitar, are set to drop their debut album So Pitted on February 25 through digital service providers (with a vinyl version to follow later this year), and they’re ready to spread their surf sounds.
“I like doing deep dives into where different types of music come from, and why it’s being made, and who’s making it,” says Kavka. “And surf music is such an interesting avenue for that because it’s kind of a genre that everybody knows. It branches out into all these different genres and it’s a fun field to be creative in, because there is so much music to draw from and be influenced by. All of these songs are references to this goofy viral video of a surfer talking like a total jerk that was on Fox News. I don’t know when that was, like 2010 or something. None of us knows much about surfing, so all of our introductory knowledge of surfing came from this one video of this guy who’s saying expressions like ‘so pitted’ and ‘smacks the lip’ and all these expressions that we had no idea what they meant until we did a bit of research about it.”
Kavka says the transition from going to school to being an artist has been tough.
“Being in an arts program gave a lot of focus towards what I wanted to do with all my time, which is being a musician,” says Kavka, who graduated from the music diploma program at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, through Camosun, in 2011. “I wanted to improve my skills, and I thought there was a lot more I could learn about music, so the program really helped me and I thought it would give me more focus and it actually just opened all these different avenues where I was like, ‘I don’t know what to do with my life’ a little bit. Playing in a lot of bands and playing in orchestras I realized that I don’t have a single focus as a musician. I guess the program gave me the ability to feel like I can do anything with the abilities that I was given, which is pretty cool.”
One of So Pitted’s more interesting moments is a surf-rock take on the classic Tetris theme song.
“I grew up playing a lot of video games, and my dad is also Eastern European,” says Kavka. “I was exposed to a lot of Eastern European folk music and also just love playing Tetris. So I felt that this was kind of a fun, recognizable melody.”
The band is planning on performing at the ski hall in Smithers when the album is released, but Kavka says there are lots of fun opportunities out there for a surf-rock band.
“My ultimate dream with this band would be to do a tour with a food truck,” she says. “Like, pull up to a beach, play surf tunes, and have people get, like, cubanos and tacos or whatever kind of food. I think that would really be a fun tour.”