Santa Cruz surf rock group Trestles gets salty on sophomore album
Salt might be the new album by Santa Cruz four-piece psychedelic surf outfit, Trestles, but don’t let that fool you. Some of these songs hail from the time of their 2022 debut, Halfway Up the Hill.
“There are songs as old as that,” confirms lead singer and guitar player Hunter Kelly. “And then there are songs that were written a week before they were recorded. It was an ongoing project. Not all the songs were written in the studio and a lot were scrapped along the way.”
To celebrate their long-awaited sophomore full-length, Trestles is throwing a record release show at the Catalyst on Saturday, Sept. 27 with friends Career Woman and Ladders. For the latter of the two bands, this will be a reunion show since Ladders’ indefinite hiatus in 2023.
“We desperately begged them,” laughs Trestles drummer Malena Clark. She says that, coincidentally, all of the members of Ladders were planning to be in town the weekend of the show. The two bands essentially “grew up” in the local scene together and often played shows with one another around town.
“It only felt right,” she says. “This is one of our biggest shows in town so it feels right doing it with the people we started with.”
On the day of the show, Collective Santa Cruz is hosting a pre-listening party at Humble Sea—where patrons can also purchase one of four different vinyl record variants of Salt—along with an after party (details on Collective’s Instagram).
Formed in 2020, Trestles fits into a Santa Cruz music scene dubbed “Santa Cruz surf punk” by Grammy-winning music producer Jim Wirt of Santa Cruz Recording Studios, who recorded and produced Salt. Along with Trestles and Ladders, other bands include Sluttony (now located in Los Angeles), Career Woman, Hearsing and several others that hit the ground running playing live shows shortly after the Covid-19 lockdowns lifted.
Earlier this year, Sean Rusev wrote a cover story for GT about the frantic nature of survival for these bands in a rapidly changing, ever-expensive beach town that heavily featured Trestles and their back story. So for those who haven’t read it, bookmark this article, go check it out, then come back. … OK, got the history? Good. And we continue…
After the release of Halfway Up the Hill, Trestles wanted to keep the momentum going, knowing they would be back in the studio to record another full-length. So last February they dropped the Postcard EP as a way to remind fans they aren’t going anywhere.
However, it also served as a great segue between Halfway and Salt, maintaining the fun, upbeat feeling of the former while introducing fans to a bit of the band’s darker side with songs like “The Beach Betrayed Me.”
“[Salt] is a darker album than before,” Kelly says. “Think of it like a book: the plot and setting have stayed the same—we get to live in California and beach town life is good—but it’s a little more cynical lyrically and takes a look at the negative side of having fun all the time.”
The newest single, “Babylon,” or the unreleased “Get a Grip” are examples of these more mature, darker songs in the band’s repertoire. Don’t get it twisted: Salt is still a fast-paced, catchy album from start to finish that’s as infectiously addicting as a fresh bag of chips. It’s impossible to just listen to one track, or even the album in its entirety, only one time.
“Hunter did a really good job on the lyrics for ‘Babylon,’” says bassist Sophia Wall. “It’s groovy but I also think it’s in the direction we’re going toward.”
“Defintely,” agrees Clark. “We also have more punk songs. ‘Get A Grip’ is really fast, hard and fun to play live. I have a great time with that one!”
But for rhythm guitar player Jackson Jones, it’s with the older songs that he finds more satisfaction. Like the album’s third single, “Esplanade.”
“Hunter had that riff and I thought, ‘Oh, we have to do something with that,’” he explains. “But It took years to finish and every couple of months we wrote new parts for it. We were going to debut it at a Catalyst show years ago but it had a weird jam at the end we ended up scrapping.”
For now, Trestles is gearing up to complete the end of their album release tour with a few select dates after they rock the Catalyst. They say they’ll most likely announce a few more sprinkled in, and after a nice holiday break, they’ll be ready to roll up their sleeves once more.
“It’s time to start working again,” Clark says.
Trestles is playing three shows Saturday, Sept. 27: 11am–5pm at Humble Sea Brewing Co. (820 Swift St.); 8–11pm at the Catalyst with openers Ladders and Career Woman (1011 Pacific Ave.; $28.88); and 11pm at Santa Cruz Recording (1305 Fair Ave.).
