The Gaviota Coast is a beachside Shangri-La just west of Santa Barbara, California. Here, eucalyptus groves pepper the views of the jade and navy water; offshore winds carry the smell of sage from the hills; and rare SoCal wildlife like bobcats, quail, boar, and roadrunners roam freely. Since he was a kid, Scott “Scojo” Claassen — vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist, and primary songwriter of Santa Barbara-based surf-rock band Scojo & the Keel — felt this area represented a paradise where everything just felt right.
Scott has made many memories with dear friends inside this idyllic expanse. Sadly, one of them recently passed away in her sleep, leaving behind a loving family. To process the loss, Scott returned to Gaviota. The debut record from Scojo & the Keel, fittingly-titled, Gaviota, is a collection of sketches and feelings from this sacred space during a reflective time. “The songs on Gaviota are an attempt to process personal loss, and transform it into uplifting music through exploring surf culture and its potential for healing,” Scott says.
Scojo & the Keel’s breezy, roots-based music, and Scott’s boldly vulnerable lyrics have garnered the group comparisons to a “surf-rock” Jason Isbell. Scott wrote, sang, produced, and recorded Gaviota.
Today Glide is premiering the moody and immaculately orchestrated single, “Lost Coast,” which features an elegant interlace of teardrop slide guitar, keys. and violin. Indeed, the song showcases Spanish-style chord changes alongside a sound that feels like a lovely marriage between indie-folk and California sunshine-soaked rock and roll in the vein of Tom Petty. Intended to be a sonic snapshot of Northern California’s Lost Coast, the song brings contrasts longing vocals with bright harmonies and earthy violin.
Scott Claassen describes the inspiration behind the tune:
This song is about the tension between escapism and relationships of all sorts. Many of us want to be able to get away. Some of that is healthy. Within the surfing community, escapism is inherent. Even the act of surfing locally removes the participant from normal life. But surfing also has aspects of locational longing and aspiration that are not particularly healthy, such as “if only we were in THAT place everything would be better.” Those locational dreamlands range from Indonesia and Hawaii to Santa Barbara or the Lost Coast. The Lost Coast is an undeveloped stretch of Humboldt and Mendocino counties in Northern California. To me, Gaviota is the little sister of the Lost Coast. I love the idea of escaping to the Lost Coast to surf, camp, and get away from it all. But that escapist notion comes at a price. Getting away from it all neglects our loved ones. It’s healthy to have some isolation, but escapism easily leads to avoidance—be it avoidance of personal issues as evident in the first verse of the song or avoidance of pressing social issues like climate change, political divisions, etc. as implied in the second verse.
There’s the saying “Hurt people hurt people.” Unresolved pain and avoidance is destructive. However, I think that heartbroken people can console one another. Acknowledging my own hurt and loneliness helps me see and assuage the hurt and loneliness in others. That possibility is what forms the lyrics in the song’s coda.
LISTEN:
