San Diego is home to many things: 70 miles of beach, SeaWorld, Balboa Park, and Lo-Tide–an indie, surf-rock band composed of SD natives Morgan Turpin and David Anderson.
After their high school group, Lonely Ghost, disbanded (and during a global pandemic), Turpin (Belmont University '23) and Anderson (Chapman '23) decided to embark on their own music project as a duo: blending the West Coast's signature surf-rock vibe with meaningful lyrics and...the electric violin?
Recently, the Collective got to catch up with Turpin and Anderson to talk past projects, making music across different states, producing during a pandemic, and–you guessed it–San Diego.
From Left to Right: David Anderson and Morgan Turpin–the Lo-Tide boys. Image courtesy of Donovan Milner.
Q: Let's start by telling me how Lo-Tide got started.
ANDERSON: We were in a band together in high school, Lonely Ghost, it had kind of a darker, more rock sound than what we do now. We started making our current music once quarantine started, ‘cause we all went to college and we were all the same grade...so we kind of disbanded. Morgan and I were the closest in that whole band, cuz we're already running cross-country and doing sports together and just hung out all of the time. And so, once quarantine hit, we were kind of like “hey, why don’t us two just start writing music.” And that’s what started it all.
Q: So, you went from playing in a band to performing as a duo. How has that been different for you in terms of performing live?
ANDERSON: When it’s just to two of us, with the acoustic stuff and just two harmonies, it’s a lot more intimate with the audience. You probably have to listen a bit more to hear us. There’s a lot less going on so it’s easier to focus on the little parts that are going on. So it’s definitely a closer relationship to the audience.
TURPIN: I feel like we almost took more time to prepare for the acoustic sets too. Because, there’s only two of us singing and if we don’t nail it, it’s gonna sound bad and be really obvious.
Q: How were you able to collaborate on music despite going to different colleges?
ANDERSON: Well, it took a while for us to get the whole thing done–probably a year. Morgan is in Nashville, I’m at Chapman, so we had to just send each other parts on a Logic file and be like, “hey, this is what I added” and “this is what I think we need to do next.” Then we’d FaceTime maybe once a week, or once every other week, and just try to put the pieces together really slowly. It was a lot easier to get it all finalized and record together when we both moved back to San Diego for the summer. So, it was a pretty slow process but definitely worth it.
Q: So, how would you describe your sound?
ANDERSON: Yeah a lot of people say that our sound is very beachy, very SoCal. The last person we talked to said it was kind of like the Beach Boys. We never really intended that, but obviously, it came off as more SoCal.
TURPIN: I don't think I understood the impact of geography on different music genres until I went to school in Nashville and I was like, “where are all the beach rock bands?!” It was crazy. I was like, “why does everyone have like, one guitar and a cowboy hat?”
Q: I don’t see a lot of surf rock bands incorporating the violin. How did that come about? Do you have any influences on your music?
ANDERSON: For violin, I've been playing since 5th grade. Everybody in 5th grade chooses an instrument and I choose the violin and kind of stuck with it. And electric violin. I got just because I was going to be in Lonely Ghost, and so I got the violin to try to incorporate it and try to fit in with that darker rock vibe. I'm actually a violin performance major, so that's my focus: more classical stuff.
TURPIN: We draw a lot of influences from alternative rock, and then it kind of turned into what we could make with just the two of us together. We talked about our writing process before, and our first EP that we put out was just ukulele, violin, and then two vocals. And I think that kind of created the foundation for what our sound will become. I don't think that it's finalized–definitely not, and it may never be finalized–but starting from that was super interesting. And we’ve never written music together before until we started this project, and so to just break the ice, we stripped everything down and I picked up the smallest instrument I could play–the ukulele–and David had his violin, and we started playing super silly songs just to get in the flow of things. We’ve just been growing and evolving from that, and moving into more evolved themes through both our songwriting and instrumentals.
Q: What do you mean by “more evolved themes?”
TURPIN: Well, the first EP we made was four songs, and we called Knickerbocker Road because we used to go to Big Bear to do a one-week cross country camp every year in high school, and we had a coach that always had us meet there. So, it has a little bit of sentimental value to us. But all of those songs were easy to understand, surface-level songs. Like, one of the most popular songs that we have is called “Don't Fuck With Pugs.” Literally. The entire song is telling you not to mess with our pug–like a dog.
Q: So, you would say “Where My Heart Is” is a bit more meaningful and deep than your other works?
TURPIN: Our latest song, “Where My Heart Is,” is about leaving home and not feeling like you’re in the right place. I go to school in Nashville and it's culturally very different from the west coast. I definitely felt that when I got there. I didn't feel like I was talking to people the same way as I do here or able to connect with them, which is an obstacle that I had to go through. I'm sure David did too: just going to college and meeting new people. So, you can interpret it in that way but you can also interpret it as leaving your family or leaving a loved one behind. It's a more in-depth theme that people can relate to.
Q: Last question. If you could pinpoint, geographically, where each of your respective hearts is where would they be?
TURPIN: San Diego, but also France because that’s where my family lives. I don’t get to see them a lot so whenever I do it rejuvenates me in a way.
ANDERSON: Our manager Lexi’s house. *laughs* But actually I would say San Diego. Orange is fun like going to Chapman and school and my friends are here, but I would say that–right now–my heart is in San Diego. It’s just such an amazing place. I love it so much.