Brooklyn-based five-piece band The Rad Trads and San Diego based non-profit, One More Wave is proud to release a new video collaboration.
The video features footage shot by One More Wave and tells the story of the organization’s work to save veteran lives by providing disabled veterans with custom surfboards and a community to get them back in the water. The film is set to The Rad Trads song “Spanish Radio” off their most recent LP, See You Again (Wombat Squad Records).
The video release will be preceded by a release of a recorded Zoom interview with The Rad Trads’ Michael Fatum (trumpet/vocals) and One More Wave’s founder and managing director, Alex West.
It’s an unlikely collaboration, given none of the band members are surfers nor veterans, but Fatum made the connection while watching surfers on the Oregon coast this past summer. “Every time we play Spanish Radio live, I feel this incredible rush,” Fatum explains. “As the song builds, the horns begin to swell and growl, Mike Harlen exclaims ‘Tell Me What’s Left of Love!,” and you can’t help but feel so in the moment –– that nothing else could possibly matter. As I watched these amazing surfers riding high in front of me, I kept hearing the song over and over again in my head and I realized the euphoric feeling was exactly the same –– we’re both just catching a wave.”
Fatum began watching surfing videos, encountered One More Wave, and instantly became drawn to their story and mission. After connecting with Alex, the two decided to collaborate on a video together.
“I am so in awe of what One More Wave is doing,” Fatum continued. “At the end of the day, music for us is about bringing communities together and One More Wave is doing that in the most incredible way and providing a community for a group of people that we could not be more thankful for.”
West adds, “Music has always been a huge part of surfing. There is something special about how the energy found in the ocean can be showcased in the rhythm of music. The two complement each other as a nice escape from the hardships of life”
One More Wave seeks to save veteran lives by providing adaptive surfing equipment to disabled vets and empower them to heal through surf therapy. For many disabled veterans, off-the-shelf is off-the-table, so One More Wave has become an innovator developing all manner of surf craft capable of fueling the stoke. Their new blog, saltspeak.com, features works of art from their community and some of the top up-and-coming veteran artists on the scene.
The Rad Trads spent the majority of 2019 on a world tour, totaling over 80,000 miles, and included shows in support of Dr. Dog, Modest Mouse, Lake Street Dive, and dates in China, Europe, and across the USA from Alaska to Florida. The band will return to the road in July 2021 and announce tour dates shortly. Their follow-up to their November 2020 See You Again LP is due out in early 2022.
Spanish Radio, was written by Michael Harlen and produced and mixed by Chris Peck.
