Santa Barbara Tennis Club: The name of the new punk band is quite misleading | Features

“We’re a rock’n’roll band. Our biggest influence is being under the influence. Songs you need to have a few too many pints with your mates in the pub.”

Joe Soap, bassist and singer for the Santa Barbara Tennis Club, clears up the whole music description thing in an email from unknown sources to No Echo, although something in his choice of words gives clues to the band’s origins.

“You Americans keep telling us that we sound like IDLES just because that’s the only band they’ve heard from the UK in the last 20 years. I’d actually be happier with Sham 69 or any other Oi! band, that at least feels a little more like a musical kinship to me. KAMs [ed. note: band’s label KILL ALL MUSIC] for us Amyl & the Sniffers and Spiritual Cramp, Bad Nerves, but we listened to a lot of Prison Affair, Lysol, Flesh Creep, Dog Date and stuff like that.”

Wherever They are from, Joe and Santa Barbara Tennis Club recently released Out to the pasturea 3-song EP that followed two previous singles that also came out in the summer:

“It’s about how we all felt before we ran off to California,” Joe wrote. “I’m not the most caffeinated tea in the sack and I was just fidgeting around and making subpar decisions. We have another single coming soon that’s equally as badass.

“They say you should write about what you know, and we know that what we know is crap. Stealing, dealing, disappointing mom. Then we’ll finish the album and maybe start to develop thematically after we’ve had a little sun. Probably not.”

Now that Out to the pasture is available on streaming platforms, the Santa Barbara Tennis Club is enjoying the Southern California vibe in between band duties. “We’re having a great summer. Like I said, we’re finishing the record first. We’ve got a buddy in the desert who’s really helping us out there (thanks again, Thom!). We’re sweating our asses off out here, not used to all this sun.”

“And we do our DIY tour of the southwestern United States every now and then. Come see us, buy a shirt and scrounge us a cigarette. If that goes well, there will be many more shows, breakups with some buddies, world domination. If all that goes wrong, there will probably be a half-hearted robbery and then jail or deportation or something.”

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The music of the Santa Barbara Tennis Club is available through Kill all music.

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