SURFACES

BY: Alexis Eichelberger

The latest TikTok-made superstars are two young men from Washington and Texas who perform under the stage name Surfaces.

If you’ve caught yourself endlessly scrolling through the short video sharing app lately (we know we have), you’ve probably heard the light-as-air melody of “Sunday Best.” It’s the perfect summer song, with carefree lyrics and a breezy vintage R&B sound. Its popularity as a backtrack to recorded dance routines, art montages and lucky instances rocketed the track up the Billboard charts in recent weeks. It now sits at number 29 on the Hot 100.

But before there was “Sunday Best,” there was Colin Padelecki. The founding member of Surfaces was attending Texas A&M University in 2017 when Forrest Frank discovered his self-made music online. Frank invited Padalecki to join him in Seattle for a recording session aboard a houseboat and the rest is history. The pair released its first album as Surfaces, titled Surf, in December of that year.

The pair released two additional albums since then, including Horizons, which dropped in February of this year. Surfaces’ sophomore album Where the Light Is was released in January 2019 and reached number 112 on the Billboard 200. The tracklist includes “Sunday Best.”

The music of Surfaces pays tribute to the vintage sounds of the past that seem to have inspired the guys’ unique sound. The chorus of “Take It Easy” gives a subtle melodic nod to the 1972 track of the same name by The Eagles. Surfaces’ second most popular track on Spotify, “24 / 7 / 265,” samples the bossa nova classic “The Girl From Ipanema,” which was initially recorded by the Brazilian artist Astrud Gilberto in 1963.

Throughout three albums, Surfaces cultivate a cohesive, beachy vibe that permeates each track. Soft guitar and a delicate steel drum sound twinkle beneath the two vocalists’ hip-hop adjacent singing. The songs are effortless listens and are the perfect addition to any summer playlist.

Surfaces’ plans for the rest of 2020 include a performance at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. The festival was to take place in June; the pandemic pushed it to Sept. 24-27.