What do you do when you combine an American Southern Soul Rock musician and surfer from Florida, with South African professional surfer, Beyrick De Vries’ (Beyrick is on track to be the first surfer ever to represent the Netherlands at the 2024 Olympics). Well it appears you get the above edit, hit play to rock, roll and rotate.
• JJ Grey •
“The nearest thing I’ve ever done to playing music, besides playing music, is surfing. The wave is the rhythm and what happens on it is all the twists and turns of melody.”
From the days of playing greasy local juke joints to headlining major festivals, JJ Grey remains an unfettered, blissful performer, singing with a blue-collared spirit over the bone-deep grooves of his compositions. His presence before an audience is something startling and immediate, at times a funk rave-up, other times sort of a mass-absolution for the mortal weaknesses that make him and his audience human. When you see JJ Grey and his band Mofro live—and you truly, absolutely must—the man is fearless. On stage, Grey delivers his songs with compassion and a relentless honesty. Grey and his current Mofro lineup offer grace and groove in equal measure.
• Beyrick Thulani De Vries •
Surfing and music share an open-hearted, creative, improvisational artistry and ethos. It’s a natural, authentic relationship. We had this epic opportunity to do something unique, get creative and collaborate with JJ, integrating his music video with Beyrick’s surf edit. “I’ve always felt that surfing is like visual music. The surfer being the musician, the surfboard the instrument, and the wave the genre. After 79 days of surfing being banned in South Africa, and being cooped up inside my house, I was literally going “99 Shades of Crazy”… to say the least. I was invited on a surf trip with Mikey February whilst he was filming the first episode of his series “Sonic Souvenirs”. Naturally JJ’s song fit perfectly with the way I was feeling, and the way I was expressing myself during that surf session. Getting the crazies out, getting a little silly on the waves, and being super stoked to be able to get in the water again after so long, and just let loose!”
