Music: A new wave of surf

So, yeah — its heyday was short-lived. But it occasionally makes a comeback, as proven by The Dentures, a group of Hawaiian-shirt-wearing musicians based in San Luis Obispo. The group is an homage to The Ventures—the band that brought us "Walk—Don't Run" and "Hawaii Five-O."

When he joined The Dentures about 15 months ago, guitarist Steve Conrad seemed like a natural fit. Raised in Southern California, the 52- year-old Conrad was exposed to plenty of surf music. (In fact, a member of The Surfaris once lived across the street from him). And he's been jamming on guitar since he was 13.

While he has played in multiple bands—one of which featured future members of Ratt and Wang Chung—the engineer has also forged an interesting career. As a service manager at Valley Arts Guitar, he once set up guitars for famous musicians. Later he performed radiation testing on components used for deep space probes, and he was a technical director at Machine Head Studios, which produced music and sound effects for commercials. (Conrad has also performed guitar for commercials and movies.) He currently works as a design engineer at Ultra Stereo Labs, which creates and develops motion picture sound and sound equipment, in San Luis Obispo.

Conrad moved to San Luis Obispo 10 years ago to work for guitar maker Ernie Ball, which once employed fellow Denture Ron Saul. Since Conrad joined The Dentures, they have performed to a crowd of around 1,500 people at the Live Oak Music Festival, they kicked off Surf Night festivities at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, and they led a surf stomp at the Red Barn Community Music series in Los Osos.

As surfers dropped into waves beside the Pismo Pier, we recently chatted with Conrad about the band, surf guitarists and surf music in Japan.

Does anyone in the band actually have dentures?

No — although the concept is we're all over 50.

Have The Ventures ever gotten wind of you guys?

Yes, they have. When Ron wanted to form the band, he was at one of the music association shows…and every musician from the planet converges on L.A. for that show to see the new gear. Nokie Edwards was the original lead guitar player with The Ventures, and Ron went up to Nokie, and said, "Nokie, is it OK if I form a surf band called The Dentures?" And Nokie thought it was a great idea and gave him his blessing.

I know the Ventures are huge in Japan. Have you guys ever considered relocating?

Well, I think that could be prudent. They groom a whole culture over there of Ventures tribute bands, and they're quite good. There's a 14-year-old girl that plays Ventures leads just as good as Nokie Edwards. Search on YouTube, you'll see some amazing Japanese surf instrumental bands that look like they stepped off the Huntington Beach pier.

Could you tell me a little about your upbringing?

I was born in '55, so I was kind of born the same year as rock 'n' roll. My mom was a record collector and would always drag me around to the record shops, and she never stopped listening to pop music.

This Wenzel's Music store, where they actually had a recording studio, was a popular record store, where members of the Beach Boys would be coming and going, buying local records. The Chantays actually recorded 'Pipeline' at that store. I remember being there with my mom watching The Chantays go through take No. 4 of 'Pipeline' and being mystified with the sounds.

If you had to list your three favorite instrumental surf songs, what would they be?

"Penetration," for sure. "Pipeline." "Mr. Moto" kind of started it all. I'd say those three.

Did you guys actually meet the guy who wrote "Mr. Moto"?

Indeed, we performed with him (at Live Oak). Paul Johnson. At age 14, he wrote "Mr. Moto." Mr. Moto was actually a character in the old Charlie Chan movies, and he would watch those on KTLA in L.A. during the '50s. He explained to me that for the opening chord, he was trying to play an A chord, but he had it on the wrong fret. And when you go up it's this suspended chord that is the opening chord to "Mr. Moto."

Did you guys play "Mr. Moto"?

We did. (Johnson) opened it up. He's been my idol since I was 12. The first thing I did when I met him was to have him sign my 1985 "Guitar Player" magazine where he was interviewed.

Who is your favorite surf guitarist?

Well, certainly Dick Dale is right up there. But Nokie Edwards just transcends more than surf guitar. For the simplicity, Duane Eddy. Sometimes it's not so much how many notes you play, it's the tone and the approach.

Does anyone in the band surf?

I used to go to Santa Cruz as a kid, and I would surf — back in '67, '68. It's been a while. I think Ron used to surf as a kid.

Being an engineer, have you ever tried to design your own guitar?

Yeah, I even had a part in designing the Valley Arts Stratocaster when I was employed by Valley Arts in the early '80s. We were a music store that catered to a select group of people. We were right down the hill from Laurel Canyon, so on any given day we'd have people like Eddie Van Halen, Frank Zappa, the Blues Brothers, Oingo Boingo. I'd be the guy they'd ask for, and I'd work on their guitar or amplifier.