Thee Leviathans Interview: Patrick O’Connor, Savannah O’Connor, Aric Harris The Final on Vinyl Podast

What a great time it was speaking to these amazing people! The Leviathans are an incredible surf instrumental group, and I had a great conversation with three of the band members.

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

Transcript

Speaker 0:02

Hi everybody, this is Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck for The Final on vinyl podcast. And uh Focus actually is my surf music and art site that I'll be posting a review and uh interview on for the new The Leviathons album. Uh it's called Enter the Dusky Realm Dusky Realm. And I have three of the members on board Patrick O'Connor, lead guitar player, Savannah O'Connor, keyboards, and Eric Harris, who plays bass. Welcome aboard, folks. Hello.

Speaker 4 0:33

Delighted to be here.

Speaker 0:35

Thanks for coming. I appreciate it. Wouldn't miss it. I really enjoyed go ahead.

Speaker 3 0:42

Oh, I thought we wouldn't miss it.

Speaker 0:45

Well, I really enjoyed the album. Um you know, as far as I'm concerned, like I said in my review, this is like for me the album of the year. It's gonna be hard to top. And it's uh, you know, I hate to uh use uh a worn-out term like highly anticipated, but it has been. And um you folks really put it together with a very strong release here. And of course we got a a taste of that with a couple of tracks over the last few months, which was uh was it Unholy Mackerel?

Speaker 3 1:19

And or the Spy Magician was the other one.

Speaker 1:23

Ander the spy magician, right, right, right.

Speaker 3 1:26

Well, we are humbled by by your praise.

Speaker 1:31

Well, I'm glad you liked that. Uh it's well deserved. And uh just uh a few questions straight away. Um how did you come up with the name the Leviathons?

Speaker 3 1:42

Uh well, I I wanted to do something that was sort of cryptid themed, and unfortunately the cryptids was already taken. And uh so I I sort of dug back through my catalog, my surf music stuff that I've worked on, you know, with Destination Earth and the Madeira. And there's a band already called the Undercurrents, which would have been a great name, but they're a tri a Madeira tribute band. So then I went with Leviathan, which was um one of my songs on the last Madeira studio album. And so I thought the Leviathans kind of made sense as a continuation.

Speaker 2:14

Okay. I see. And you've all been uh you know on the scene many years in the different groups and uh the band you just mentioned, I remember covering them in the past. And you you remembered me after all those years. I mean, I was out of the scene for God, that trick, you know, twenty twenty years, and I I came back and got all my reviews up, and I'm so grateful that you remembered me.

Speaker 3 2:40

I honestly I uh I remember a review you did for Destination Airs, and that must have been like 2001, maybe something like that. And it was the one that really stuck with me, you know.

Speaker 2:51

I'll be married. Well, that's that's good to hear. So uh Eric, thank you for joining as well. Um I understand you have been around a long time and you said you work from everything from musical pit orchestras and symphonies and jazz ensembles and Hawaiian bands, so you have quite a varied background as well.

Speaker 2 3:16

Yeah, pretty much if you just like give me your point of interaction and it's like, okay, I'll play it. Um, you know, um I really I I enjoy playing. I enjoy playing like various different kinds of music. Um and you know, um it comes from a comes from a classical background and you know, um, you know, uh just really you know being able to get in there and and um you know write, you know, put together baselines that are, you know, um that are both, you know, uh sustain the rhythm and they they um you know help to drive the the composition, but also to help add like another layer uh of um you know um color to it to the palette.

Speaker 4:08

I see.

Speaker 3 4:09

I think we have a lot of layers in the music. I think the the juxtaposition of the guitars and the keyboards really kind of creates that. Yes.

Speaker 4 4:18

But I'm I'm digging the I'm digging the dancy bass lines too.

Speaker 4:22

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I I noticed the play back and forth between the guitar and the keyboards. That was really noticeable straight on through the whole album. And there's times where the bass comes right out front is just pounding away, and it's like, whoa, I like that. You know, I mean it's just production values are so important, and obviously you paid a lot of attention to that because there isn't competition going on there with the instrumentation and the levels. Everything really stands out.

Speaker 3 4:55

And I I'm really happy to hear that. I'm really happy to hear that because actually I we recorded most of this ourselves in our own um home studio.

Speaker 1 5:05

So is that right? Okay.

Speaker 3 5:07

Yeah, you know, whereas the Madeira always had sort of more of a you know real studio experience, and we were kind of doing it all ourselves.

Speaker 4 5:14

So we do have a real studio. Mystery Rift Studios recorded dozens of albums. It's a very professional setup, and he's just being self-conscious.

Speaker 3 5:26

I guess the you know, it's just different, you know, when you go into a studio and like you have to record everything in like two or three days and have it done, versus being able to spend as much time as you want on it, you know, having maybe having limited more limited um equipment, but being able to spend more time to get the tweaks you want, you know.

Speaker 5:45

Well, obviously that paid off, you know, taking your time and uh having that pressure over your head. That's nice.

Speaker 3 5:51

Yeah, yeah. I mean the uh the first Madeira album we recorded, I think we did 17 songs in three days, and all all live in the room, you know. And uh the engineers were like pulling their hair out, like they hated working like that. These are guys that would record like one thing, like one track of an instrument, you know, to a click track and spend months on each song, you know. So the way we worked was just completely alien to them, you know.

Speaker 6:17

Yeah, you y'all must have been drinking a lot of coffee or something. Wow. Oh, yeah, we were, yeah.

Speaker 3 6:24

But uh but for this, so it was less of a, you know, I wanted to get that live-in-the-room feel, but still be able to add layers and do things that we hadn't really had as much chance to do in those other bands. Right.

Speaker 6:38

Now the artwork I thought was interesting. I don't know if you could relate to the references I made, like the Jetsons and Samurai Jack. I just I couldn't help it when I looked at it.

Speaker 3 6:48

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In fact, is is great at that, and yeah, I'm sure he'll tell you a lot more about that. But our other band actually has a Jetsons-themed album out right now, the Shakeups does.

Speaker 1 7:00

Oh, there you go.

Speaker 2 7:02

And and yeah, and you're you're you actually caught it right on the head because I as I was going through and putting things together, I was coming up with a whole like backstory for the whole piece, a la you know, Samurai Jack. I mean, it was very much like with one of my you know um big uh visual like influences is that is that style of animation. And um Yimmy Tartakovsky is uh certainly one of my all-time faves, like whether it's you know um Samurai Jack or Primal or uh or or even the Clone Wars, it's like you know, right up there and we definitely the Jetsons as well because that that plays into it. I think um I gave it I I showed it to somebody and said that's that has epoch or uh uh uh vibe. I'm like, yeah, that's that's probably that's probably true, you know. Where we're gonna come from.

Speaker 7:55

Well, I think Samurai Jack is probably the greatest cartoon ever made, honestly. I mean it has been great. I watched it uh my my son uh watched I watched it with him through the whole thing as he grew up. And then we had to wait, I don't know, was it like 10 or 15 years before they made the final one and we watched that and just stunning color and imagery and I mean and the Jetsons, if you think about that, how long ago that was, how good that was.

Speaker 3 8:24

Oh yeah. Got that mid-century modern thing going on.

Speaker 8:30

So as far as influences in music, I'm sure there's a lot that comes into play here. But you know, going in, I'm sure you had the concept of, well, this is gotta be surf rock instrumental with a sci-fi flair and maybe a little horror or mystery in there. Um what were the influences that you pulled to to come up with all these tracks?

Speaker 3 8:54

Oh gosh. You know, I mean, uh a lot of it, to be honest with you, I had kind of been squirreling songs away for a potential um Madeira studio album that just never ended up happening, and I was like, well, these songs are strong enough that they don't need to be Madeira songs, they can be something else, you know. And so I kind of so yeah, so I had um, you know, I've always had sort of a pronounced ventures influence. I got into the intro scene in the 90s, you know, when the third wave was happening, and you know, as a lot of people did, and that's when I met Yvonne, you know, Yvonne Pongrasser from the Madeira. And uh, you know, we just low straight jackets and manor Astro Van and all those bands, you know. So I think it pulled from a lot of places. And then also like the Madeira really brought out my love of the shadows and getting those shadows, sort of Hank Marvin type melodies. And so that was a lot of fun to be able to explore that. And and you know, when we had started that band, we decided that like like I like Yvonne said, you know, you can play lead on your songs if you want to. And I and I said, no, that's all right, because I want us to have a unified sound. I don't want it to be like we're playing one of my songs and now we sound totally different, you know what I mean? So we for this it's kind of an all-one thing, and I get to finally do some lead playing in the in the band.

Speaker 4 10:09

But that also means that that means uh when we took the songs that had been intended for the Madeira and decided to do something with them, then we were in the basement, sort of going like, okay, well, we didn't even know if we'd have a rhythm guitar at that stage. It was just Patrick and I in the basement um messing around with them. And it was like, well, I mean, Ivan is a really distinctive guitar player and and the way that he plays. And okay, so we're not gonna do that. What else what else can we do? Like, how do we fill it out? Well, how do we make it different? Like what what can we do to make it our own and make it something else? And I like Lulu's and and other sort of more key heavy atmospheric sort of surfing music. And I I that's where I brought in kind of the spooky um, you know, the spooky layers of keys to kind of be something else and and distinguish it. Exactly. And and then then the mythology and the uh all of the we happen to be doing a rewatch of of all of the old X-Files episodes.

Speaker 3 11:19

Oh yeah, so the the du the uh enter the dusky realm. The dusky realm is a is a fictional knockoff show of the Twilight Zone that they mentioned in the X-Files. Oh really?

Speaker 4 11:32

There's a really funny episode about uh uh they they call it the they argue about whether it's the mandala effect or the Majela effect. Uh it's um an episode in which everybody's talking about false collective memories. And uh Mulder swears that he saw this wonderful episode of of the Twilight Zone that doesn't exist anywhere.

Speaker 3 11:56

And uh because it was an episode of the Dusky Realm.

Speaker 4 11:59

It was the episode of a knockoff show called The Dusky Realm, and that ended up being the answer, but he was convinced that it had something to do with uh some vast conspiracy and you know, so on and so forth.

Speaker 12:11

Interesting because um on out of city limits, I don't know if you remember, but I I thought of the show The Outer Limits, and I mentioned that it was a knockoff of the Twilight Zone. Right, exactly. Exactly And we were we were amused by that.

Speaker 4 12:36

Um in in that subject matter at that moment.

Speaker 3 12:41

It was a confluence of different events, I think.

Speaker 4 12:44

And so that's sort of where all of it was patched.

Speaker 12:49

Well, you know, with instrumental music, it it puts you in a place where it engages you in different ways. And first mentally, you know, switches go off of my head. Oh god, I just thought of that show and I thought of that, you know, that series or uh you know you know, all these different things pop into my head. And you know, I go back a little ways myself. So uh, you know, that's why those things came to me so quickly. And you know, if your music can paint that kind of picture and engage a listener like that, you know, you really you really accomplish something there. And uh, you know, hopefully all the people that listen will catch on to all that too, you know.

Speaker 3 13:30

Yeah, that's what it's all about. I mean, that's the great thing about instrumental music is you know you can kind of put your own meaning to it. It it's so what so wide open compared to virtually any other sort of music. Right.

Speaker 13:44

I agree.

Speaker 4 13:45

But I'm I'm so glad that you listened to it and you you've got you've got the same the same sort of vibe out of it.

Speaker 3 13:53

I I'm actually I'm relieved that somebody got it, you know what I mean, because we haven't released the actual album yet. It's coming very shortly, so we are one of the first first to sort of give your feedback on it. So it's really great to hear. I was one of the first.

Speaker 14:09

Thank you.

Speaker 3 14:14

As these guys will tell you, I changed the titles of songs numerous times while we work on them because it you know it keeps turning out a different way.

Speaker 4 14:22

You know how hard that makes learning an instrumental stock?

Speaker 14:27

Keep changing the name, right? Okay. Erase that. Let's start again.

Speaker 3 14:33

No, it used to be called unholy mackerel. Now it's called it.

Speaker 4 14:37

It's not like you can use you know the chorus lyrics as a indicator.

Speaker 14:41

Exactly. Right. A little more thinking is involved. So is it due June 26th, or is that just for the vinyl?

Speaker 3 14:50

I'm sorry, what was that?

Speaker 14:52

Is the album is it due June 26th, or is that just for the vinyl release?

Speaker 3 14:56

Uh we were kind of uh our pre-order is actually going live pretty much as we speak. Um but the uh the official release date I think is like July 1st. So but there'll be a little swippiness in there, but it will be it will be out right in there in that window.

Speaker 15:13

All right, so I should change it to July 1st rather than June 26th. Okay, gotcha.

Speaker 3 15:19

Well that way, you know, people will be pleasantly surprised if they receive their copy early, right?

Speaker 15:24

Yeah. Right, exactly. So do all you folks actually do this for a living in all your different uh bands, or is this something that you work on at night and have day jobs?

Speaker 3 15:37

No, no, we all have day jobs. This is this is just a hobby that hopefully pays for itself.

Speaker 4 15:43

A passion project, I prefer to say.

Speaker 3 15:45

Yeah, a passion project.

Speaker 15:46

That makes sense. Well, I I have noticed, you know, the surf genre is so much different than all the rest, obviously. And there's a different attitude with artists because um, you know, the the culture is laid back, fun in the sun, the waves in the ocean, and all that. And that kind of prevails overall with the whole uh community, I think, because nobody seems like they're too much in a hurry to get a review of their album, even though I'm putting it out there that come on, I'll do that, and I'll put it up and I'll promote it for you. But it's like people aren't even asking me. And it's like I'm kind of surprised at that. Because back in the day when when we first connected, um Patrick, I was getting CDs by the pile back back then in the in the 90s. Things have changed so much.

Speaker 3 16:35

And yeah, I mean musicians are like the perennial underrated, the underdog, you know, like we've never had that day in the sun, so to speak, you know, since since the early 60s, it's just been kind of that thing riding a little beneath the surface, and I think there's just such a strong community because of that, too. You know, they it's not about you know people vying for a spot on the playlist or whatever, it's about community, you know, like you said.

Speaker 17:00

Right. And it seems like everybody wants to help each other out, you know.

Speaker 3 17:05

Exactly.

Speaker 17:06

You know, you know, you got Hunter on Storm Surge Reverb. I mean, we talked before, and it's like we're all working together for the same thing. We just want to get the word out about the music. And, you know, the attitude is that, well, it's your choice, you listen or you don't. We know we're not going to be get get rich here. We're doing it because we love the music, and simple as that, right?

Speaker 3 17:26

It comes from a very pure place compared to you know most industry types of music that come out.

Speaker 17:32

You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 17:34

That's fine. Everybody's doing it for the love of it.

Speaker 17:37

Right. So, Eric, do you have anything uh you you'd like to add? Uh kind of quiet there.

Speaker 2 17:45

Oh no, yeah, um, you know, uh I mean Patrick and Savannah have both been, you know, they're the um uh they've been going over it pretty well. I mean, I I agree with a lot of what they're saying. Um, you know, uh so yeah, I might I guess, you know, as as a bass player to like to quote Derek Smalls, I just kind of try to play play the part of the lukewarm water. Um, you know. Um so um I try to I try to bring out that little bit of spinal tap in all of us, um at least as long as the drummer doesn't explode. Um so I am building a stone henge uh just to it'll it'll go to 11. But yeah, you know, I I guess you know for my part, you know, being a a relative um uh you know, since this is my first foray into into surf uh into the surf rock, and you know, um I m a lot of the stuff that I wind up liking is stuff like Daikai, um, and certainly Manor Afterman and some of the more um avant-garde and maybe off the beaten path kinds of instrumental um uh groups. Um so and it that's kind of like one of the really great things about the Leviathans is that it is um it's it does quite a bit to connect to like the the the um the the genre itself, but it's it's um also doesn't take itself so seriously that it it doesn't w it's not willing to explore like you know other avenues or uh you know uh go take you know kind of like left turns here and there just for you know to to see how things work. And I think that makes it a very um collaborative and open environment to work with. And uh as a musician, it's like I couldn't I couldn't ask for um anything more.

Speaker 3 19:43

It's a nice, nice middle ground between sort of serious work and fun, you know. Like it's you know, we we have a lot of fun with it. We're also serious about the music, you know. Right. And there's a lot of yeah.

Speaker 4 19:55

But I I want people to think of it like it's like a Worschak test, you know, it's just um you listen to it and let your mind wander and it's cinematic and and just sort of see what mysteries you discover and and we hope that we hope that brings you joy.

Speaker 3 20:16

I love that painting you made, but why is it a picture of my parents fighting?

Speaker 1 20:23

What was that about?

Speaker 4 20:30

Joke about a Worshack test.

Speaker 20:31

Warshak test, yeah. Oh, okay. I I'm not following you on that, sorry.

Speaker 4 20:37

The ink blot test, yeah. Psychologists show you. You know, you give you see the inkblot and then you're supposed to say it's a big thing.

Speaker 1 20:44

Oh, right. What is that? Is it a bat or a butterfly or a bird?

Speaker 4 20:47

Yeah.

Speaker 1 20:48

Right.

Speaker 4 20:48

I sort of think of this music as a sonic equivalent of of an inkblot test. You listen to it and where where your heart wants to go is where it's where it takes you.

Speaker 3 21:00

And the titles kind of come in there too, because there's a little bit of a prompt maybe. But you know, people aren't necessarily looking at the titles while they're listening to it either.

Speaker 21:09

So Well, you kick it off from beneath, isn't that where the Leviathons merge from? From beneath. From beneath it devours. Yeah. Well, it's been great talking to you folks, and uh congratulations on a fantastic album. It's been my pleasure to listen and and talk about it and write about it and talk to you folks, and I'll put it all together in a little package and get it out there so other people can hear what you have to say about it and listen to the music.

Speaker 3 21:44

And we really appreciate it, Keith.

Speaker 21:49

Absolutely very much.

Speaker 3 21:50

We also want to we should thank uh Double Crown Records and Taboo Recordings also for helping us out releasing it.

Speaker 21:57

Yes. Yes, two very good organizations. And and hopefully you'll be able to get me the vinyl. I'll get you up on the vinyl site too. Absolutely. Yeah. That'd be that'd be great. We'll make it out. All right, folks.

Speaker 1 22:09

Thank you.

Speaker 22:10

Long live the reverb. Thank you, Patrick O'Connor, Savon O'Connor, and Eric Harris of the Leviathons. Enter the Dusky Realm is out July 1st. So remember that, folks. Thank you all. Thank you. Take care. Bye bye. Take care.