Interview with Susan SurfTone: Modern Guitar Hero
I was about ten years old alone in my backyard in Hudson, New York. I had a rock in my hand and I was eyeing a rusted coffee can hanging on the top pole step on a telephone pole in the back yard. I wanted to take a shot at knocking the can down but it seemed impossible. I am the only child of a professional baseball pitcher (Brooklyn Dodgers, minor leagues) so I knew how to throw but still a hit was unlikely. I almost talked myself out of trying but there was no one around to see if I missed so I let the rock fly. I watched it as it headed toward the can right on target. Down the can went and I learned the biggest lesson of my life. Nothing is going to happen unless you throw that rock. -Susan SurfTone, biography
Susan SurfTone has true grit. She is part artist, part historian in her ability to conjure the best of the rock idiom through her guitar and archive her ever-expanding body of work on her website. Where it has become harder to understand the mechanics of musicianship in the ephemeral barrage of digital media noise, Susan SurfTone’s legacy is tactile, with deep roots in the evolution of rock. Her origin story inspires but it is her ongoing hard work that makes her a formidable guitar hero today.
Susan Yasinski cites a host of influences, starting with Elvis and, soon after, The Beatles. She started practicing guitar at age seven. More location-specific among her influences is The Myddle Class from New Jersey who played upstate New York. She mentioned after the interview that they were on “heavy rotation on WTRY” and the “guitar, keys, and a great vocalist” were a “big influence on me.”
SurfTone goes on to share a great kernel of rock history that “The Velvet Underground played their first gig opening up for the Myddle Class at a high school dance. The Myddle Class has a very twisted story, and their material never made it into the reissue market.” (And now follows this music nerd’s next rabbit hole into the origins of Garage).
Many of Susan SurfTone’s personal stories outline a confluence of musical styles, much like her own music. Even with an impressive post-secondary education, she cites the greats of rock as her way of returning to school. In 1994, she founded Susan & The SurfTones and stepped away from a law degree and FBI counterintelligence position in New York. As she explains in her biography, passing CBGB was a greater calling, and it became increasingly harder to thrive as a queer woman. And it cannot get more rock and roll than that — when CBGB holds more clout than a law degree and an FBI badge.
Talking to Susan SurfTone is like opening the door to the lineage of rock and its power to connect us. Her music has opened gateways for me to the past and present of surf rock. At the time of this interview, Susan SurfTone — now a solo artist — has recently released a handful of albums and has another on the way for 2025. She is more of a crucial role model than ever for women and any artist finding their path with the demise of truth and any semblance of equality in North America.
I was giddily honoured to talk with Susan Surftone over the holidays by email and learn so much about her life and the living history of rock. We need stories like Susan SurfTone’s to save us from the noise of streaming, AI and general enshitification. The world is a much richer place with Susan SurfTone in it.
JLM: Touching on your early musical career, you cite The Beatles as a big influence and their own early years in Hamburg as a dream you would fulfil when you toured there in 2001. It is such a blessing that such a gorgeous recording of Live at Klupfel in Nuremburg was recently unearthed. Do you remember playing this set? Also, tell us a little about your time in Germany and signing to Gee-Dee Music.
SS: Yes, I have a very clear memory of playing the Klupfel set. We had a good following in Nuremberg, and the venue was packed. We were about three weeks into the four-week tour, so we had been playing almost every night. That makes a band very tight. The venue was very supportive and liked us. We had been there the year before, and the gig went well. The sound guys were nice and interested in doing a good job. The set was fun for us and the crowd, and we just took off.
After the show, one of the soundmen handed me a CDR and told me after the first two songs, they started recording. We had no idea the gig was being recorded. I thanked him and listened to the recording when we got back home. It was good, but it was a board mix. The sound needed to be cleaned up and that would take time and money. I had just moved to the west coast from Albany, NY so things were in flux, and the recording just got tucked away. In the intervening years, advances in home recording, mixing, and mastering made it much easier to clean up the raw Klupfel board mix recording, and I knew how to do it myself. I started to work on it just to see if I could do it. I emailed Kim13 a lot during the process. Kim13, from 1313 Mockingbird Lane, joined the SurfTones as the keyboardist, was on tour, and is the keyboardist on the Klupfel recording. Brian Goodman and Dave Anderson, both from the Rochester, NY band The Projectiles, were the drummer and bassist. Kim and I agreed the sound was good for a live board mix, and “Live At Klupfel” was released in 2024.
Germany was always fun. We did four tours from 1996 to 2001. We played in Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, France, Belgium and the Netherlands as well. Hamburg was exceptional. It was much like it had been when The Beatles were there. The film “BackBeat” was filmed there recently so that movie can give you a good idea of what Hamburg and the Reeperbahn looked like during our time there. Gee-Dee was a well-run indie label based out of Hamburg. We did three CDs for them, “Without A Word,” “Thunderbeach,” and “Bitchin.’”
JLM: Speaking of The Beatles, their emergence in North America is considered the end of the first wave of surf. As you astutely observe in an interview with The Daily Gazette, surf never goes away. I believe it is a modality that works across many genres. Do you see a conversation between early surf and The British Invasion in your music?
SS: Yes. After The Beatles played the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, there was an explosion of bands in the United States. Every town seemed to have at least one or two rock and roll bands, boys only, of course. A few American bands went on to great success. More had regional fame and some recordings. AM radio was flush with one-hit wonders, and many of these recordings had a clear surf influence. The Gestures’ “Run, Run, Run” is a great example of an American band combining British Invasion and Surf in 1964. I started to take guitar lessons in 1964. I was nine years old and listened to AM radio a lot. Apparently, I picked up a few things. The guitar came easily to me and I could soon play the songs I heard. I recall playing The Ventures’ “Diamond Head” when I was 12 and some of The Beatles’ songs from “Rubber Soul.”
JLM: It’s hard to predict where surf will go but its undercurrents remain strong. Aside from its badassery and haunting melodies, I believe surf music gets its diction directly from the ocean — its glistening, shredding, rolling. It is a language we understand even if we have never lived near the ocean because it speaks to deeper longing and the beauty of unreachable things. Why is surf so appealing to you?
SS: I like the sound of a clean guitar, and I play with a little reverb and some echo. I’ve stayed away from the heavy wet reverb often found in surf music. The Ventures and Link Wray were very influential for me. I also like to play melody and instrumental surf music allows me to do that. And yes, the music moves and can translate the natural power of the ocean into music.It’s just plain cool.
JLM: You are an incredible role model as a solo/lead guitarist and queer woman with a fascinating backstory that forefronts following your passion. I am in psychic pain every day to see the hope of equality for women, queer folk, and BIPOC under increasing attack as a result of increasing moral panic and scapegoatism. What advice would you give to aspiring women and women-identifying musicians? Has it changed at all?
SS: It hasn’t changed enough. My advice is trust your talent and your instincts. It will not be easy. There will be men who will help you. Listen to them. Others will do all they can to get in your way. Find ways around them. Learn to listen to your critics who are giving you honest and useful advice.They can help you improve. Learn to ignore the voices that are trying to make you doubt yourself. Become confident in yourself and your playing. Be willing to try new things. Madonna and David Bowie learned how to sucessfully re-invent themselves and had long sucessful careers. Read music biographies. No story is the same, and you will learn from each one of them. Listen to all kinds of music, and your music will get better. Frank Sinatra learned a lot from Billie Holiday.
JLM: You are so prolific these days with several new singles and albums from Along for the Ride, Beatle Roots III, Nobody in the Real World, Up the Coastto the newly-found Nuremberg recordings? Tell me what you are promoting right now? What is on your horizon for 2025?
SS: I’ve got two new ones for 2025. One is a collection of 12 covers, Rockabilly, Surf, and British Invasion, which I’ve always wanted to do. It’s all over the place. The other is nine new originals that delve into my newly found Viking connection. 23 and Me informed me that I have DNA from three Swedish Vikings who died in battle around 750 CE in Estonia. Look up the Salme Ship Burials. Three of the 42 men found are my genetic relatives, including the King. When I found out, I started reading Norse mythology and history and then wrote some music. I had some songs that were never released so I used those drum tracks and wrote new songs to them. It was a much different experience to write to the already recorded drum tracks as opposed to a click track. I like the results.
JLM: I love your take on “Money (That’s What I Want)” in your newly-released Along for the Ride. What are some of your favourite songs transformed into a surf song?
SS: “Money (That’s What I Want)” is a great classic. It’s an early Motown release from 1959 when Motown was Tamla. Barrett Strong was the original artist. John Lennon took it to a somewhat sinister place in 1963 with The Beatles’ recording, and the Flying Lizards took it further. I heard it as a song one would hear in a mid-1960s dance club awash in Chelsea boots and miniskirts. Del Shannon songs make great surf songs. I’ve recorded two of them, “Runaway” with Susan and The SurfTones and “Keep Searchin’ (We’ll Follow The Sun)” as Susan SurfTone.
JLM: Your body of work includes incredible originals and a rich background of covers. You are an archivist of the greats as much as archiving your recordings and airplay on your website and I am grateful for it. How important is it to you to take care of your work as an artist?
SS: It’s very important. My work is me. People who know me have often said the same thing. I also learned to organize at an early age and for that I thank my mother and I thank her for listening to WTRY AM radio way back when.
Susan SurfTone’s website: https://susansurftone.com/
YouTube: Video about Susan SurfTone’s life
Jessica Lee McMillan, © 2025
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