You can’t judge a book by a cover, but when a band with a name like Surrender Hill comes along, you’re gonna trust that they have a good sense of wordplay and can write a damn song. (The band’s name comes from Salmon’s home country of South Africa, the site of the conclusion of the Anglo-Boer War.) Surrender Hill is the product of duo Robin Dean Salmon (of the punk band called See No Evil) and Afton Seekins, who’s migrated from Alaska to New York and back to Arizona.
On “Broken Down Car,” Salmon and Seekins contemplate a lifetime of regrets with a gentle rock beat and inviting harmonies. As Robin Dean Salmon tells us below, the song ended up becoming a prophecy foretold.
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| Photo Credit: Alba Elena |
What prompted you to write this song? Was it something specific that inspired it?
I wrote this song in 2007. I was in Nashville recording a solo album called Come on Home and wrote this song while making the album. I added an acoustic version of it to the end of the album. Although my life was going pretty smoothly at the time, I think the song was sort of a prophecy. I went off the rails so to speak in 2009 which ultimately landed me in Arizona where all the good started come back to me. I thought it would be good for Afton to sing this song as reminder… HA HA!!
If you had to describe your music using only five adjectives or a phrase, what would you say about it?
Surrender Hill’s music is honest, passionate, melodic, gritty, and our life and our music are pretty much rolled into one.
How do you think your time in Arizona and North Georgia together (as well as places you lived individually: Alaska, New York City, Texas, South Africa) impacted the music you make?
I think all of the places we lived impact our music a hell of a lot. Not only do we write many songs when we revisit those places, but the themes run throughout the songs. New York City is the only place that we haven’t been to together. Both Afton and I lived in NYC for about 10 years each but 15 years apart. The Texas sound runs heavy with us, as does the desert and grit of Arizona. The frontier life of Alaska and South Africa drive many of the themes.
A Whole Lot Of Freedom will be out via independent release on April 3rd
Learn more about Surrender Hill here!