Surf’s Up: Interview with Cayucas

by Richard Moore

In the depths of the Drake Underground, Toronto, a group of mellow surfers were preparing to take the stage.  The ripped jean shorts were a dead giveaway that the band was Cayucas, suitably named after their home town Cayuc0s, California. The band is currently on tour promoting their latest album, Bigfoot.

Once the band took the stage, fans of the older surf sounds from the 70’s & 80’s inhabited the raw front of the crowd, while the more laid back younger fans filled the remaining space. Cayucas played all of the songs from the album, as well as one new track, concluding the night with “High School Lover,” a perfect way to top it all off.

Earlier that day, we sat down with lead singer, Zach Yudin, to talk about the band and their music.

Rich Moore: What does “Cayucas” mean?

Zach Yudin: It’s an old classic surf town; its south of Big Sur and it’s just a really cool nostalgic town.

RM:  You use a lot of echo and reverb throughout the album.  Is there any significance to that?

ZY:  I think the overall sound of the band works well with it, I like nice vintage reverbs.  I just like a “Reverby” sound, especially for guitars, the nice old style.

RM:  I read that you spent a year living and teaching in Tokyo, has that experience had any effect on your music?  

ZY:  Actually when I was living in Japan, I was listening to electronic dance music, so I started writing some of that.  Then I got really into sampling and that was a direct influence on how this project started.  Because the original songs I wrote were based around samples.

RM:  What was the experience like getting to work with Richard Swift of “The Shins”?

ZY:  Richard was really cool, he moves very quickly.  Recording with him, we would do one song a day and we recorded the entire album in basically ten days.  He’s a multi-instrumentalist, he’s an amazing drummer and he added a lot to the album.

RM:  What is it like have your twin brother in the band, and getting to travel and work with him all the time?  

ZY:  He has a very similar voice to me, so he’s good for background vocals and he’s a really good guitar player.  I think on the first album he wrote two of the songs on guitar, and he became our bass player because we needed one.  I think going into the next album, he will be more involved with writing song.

RM:  What are you currently listening too?

ZY:  Well, we spend so much time on the road that we listen to almost everything.  Some of the current albums we are listening to are Foxygen, the new National album and the new Kanye West album.

Check out where Cayucas are playing next here