Rob Mehl: Beach Boy

Aloha, Rob! Tell me about growing up in Southern California in the late 50’s…

California for me was "beach innocence". For the first few years of my life we lived in Oceanside, a block from the beach. The beach was my world and I was always in the water. Life was like "Leave it to Beaver" on the beach. It was great. When I was three, we moved a few miles south to Leucadia and a few more blocks away from the beach, near highway 101. There was no freeway yet (the 5 didn’t show up until the late sixties) so I could still walk to the beach.


Then your family moved to Hawaii?

When I was eight, we moved to Waikiki. This was pre-statehood. I went to Iolani Boys School, a private school across the street from the Ala Wai canal. My back lanai was probably twenty-five yards or so from the water and I had all summer to walk up and down the beach. Back then, the Outrigger Canoe Club was where Duke's (“Duke's on Sunday”!) is now. It wasn't long until a couple of the Waikiki beach boys were paddling me out into the waves. 


What are your first recollections of music back then?

Kuhio Beach Park and Kapiolani Park in Waikiki was where the Kodak hula show was. People like Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, and Arthur Godfrey would play there. My dad worked for KPOI radio in Waikiki (in a basement suite of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel), then another station where he had a remote show from The Treehouse, at the entrance to the marketplace with J. Akuhead Pupule.  Duke’s restaurant was pretty much right behind The Treehouse and eventually uncle Don Ho made his home there. Dad would sneak me in sometimes and I got to see Alfred Apaka, Mahi Beamer, Marty Robbins and others. Amazing! Dad was a jazz and standards dj ... so Thelonius Monk, Dave Brubeck, Toots Thielman, Howard Roberts, and Louie Armstrong, along with Frank Sinatra, Jack Jones, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, John Gary and others were always playing in our living room. I could only listen to my music in my room, but I liked it all. And dad kept adding to my record collection... it was cool! When we came back to California in the early sixties all I wanted to do was surf ... so moving back to Encinitas, which was fully entrenched in the surf culture, was a-ok-fine with me! The Surfaris, Chantays, Ronny and the Daytonas, Dick Dale, the Ventures all were such an inspiration…but not to play music, to surf! Then came the Beach Boys, the Sunrays, Jan and Dean, the Hondells and on and on. Musically, while I loved all these guys, it was still the old Waikiki Beach Boy music I loved the most.


What made you go from listening to music to making music?

Some of the early Beatles, Beach Boys, Kingston Trio and Brothers Four, as well as some Dylan and Donovan Leitch, reminded me of the old Waikiki music ... Middle to late sixties. THAT'S when I started getting poetic stories in my head. I didn't play guitar, and wasn't really interested yet, but I wrote all the time, mostly just poetry.


Reading books also had a big influence on your early songwriting, right?

Since I had wanderlust, but couldn't travel on my own (yet!) reading was my escape ... It was like seeing the world right from my own house or backyard or beach. Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, Walt Whitman, William Butler Yeats, Carl Sanburg, Robert Frost and others back then. Also C.S. Lewis, Clive Cussler, Frank Perretti. It still NEEDS to be a big influence ... "words in, words out!"


Tell me about your first guitar…

It was a Yamaha I bought in Japan, while on leave from Vietnam... it was cheap and it had strings. I had a Neil Young “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" eight-track and a chord book for that album and as we steamed back to the Gulf of Tonkin from Yokosuka, Japan I began to teach myself how to play those songs. Then, I started applying the chords I'd learned to melodies I had in my head for my own music. It still wasn't as much about the music as it was putting my stories to music.


You’re a “Beach Boy” heart and soul. What are some of your favorite beaches and why?

Waikiki Beach is magic, that's all there is to it! It's not the prettiest beach I've ever been to, it's certainly the most crowded beach I've ever been to, but there's something about it. Whenever I go back for a visit the first thing I do is walk up and down that beach ... I look for old friends, and in my head, I'm back in 1958 and it's paradise! It’s the sand, it's the waves, it's the beach boys, it's the aloha.

Honolua Bay on Maui... I love it and it will always be my favorite surf spot in the world! It's in trouble now, too ... look it up!

Tofo in Mozambique ... The sand squeaks, there are Whale Sharks 30-40 yards off the beach, and the waves are amazing, and there's hardly anyone there!

Chiquita Island in Subic Bay, Philippines ... Ahh, the memories. Walking alone around the whole island, watching shark feeding-frenzies at the reef's edge. And the quiet!

Any beach on Ngeruktabel Island in Palau ... Many of the Palauan Islands are "rock islands", so there is no beach, but the ones that do have sand are breathtakingly beautiful ... and empty!

Punta Abreojos on Baja Sur ... The first warm-water surf spot past Guerrero Negro. Long, long rights and uncrowded.

Sunset Beach, O'ahu ... Well, maybe not so much the beach, but what waits when you paddle out! ;)

Swanzy Beach, O'ahu ... Uncrowded, quiet and nice sand, great waves, but a long paddle out!

Threes, O'ahu ... A surf spot, not a beach ... When it lines up it's the longest ride in town.

Big Rights, O'ahu ... Same as above!

Ahhh, so many beaches, so little time! ;)

How much time do you spend on the road now?

I try to tour once a month. Jerry Gontang (Stars On The Water) told me, “You can't make any money if you stay home.” 'Nuff said!

What are some of your favorite things to do when you’re not out playing….Do you still get to surf?

Hang with my family... it doesn't get any better than that! Fam first ... everything else next. But, next comes surfing and chilling with good friends!


How do you feel about House concerts?

House concerts and music festivals are all I really do (although, when I'm not on the road I do play a Hawaiian sushi family restaurant here locally on Friday nights!) Kelly and I and so many others of us see eye to eye in this regard ... many of us really are into the stories more than jammin' for the party, so the house concert venue is the bomb!

The name of this blog is Beaches, Bands & BARS. Where do you like to hang?

Either at home drinking the sweet nectar of my honey's love! (Was that too risque?), at the Marine Room in Laguna with a glass of port, or at Anthony's Fish Grotto in the harbor with a moscato.


How do you feel about the term, “Trop Rock”? 

"A rose by any other name ..."! At first I thought it pigeonholed me, but I think that's only something we do to ourselves. To me the term "trop rock" can mean a Buffett-cover band to someone who wants to sing about margaritas and springbreak girls and everything in between. Sam Rainwater said it first (I think!), in terms of a common denominator ... "It's all about the backdrop!" To which I added, "the beachfront". It's the music of people who like the beach. In fact, that may be the only thing we have in common! I'm afraid I don't normally call my music "trop rock", though it is. I usually call my music either "my music" or "beach music". I do think, though, that the term "trop rock" is as broad a term as "singer/songwriter" ... especially if you're a "troprock singer/songwriter" like I am! 


I know asking a songwriter what his/her favorite song is, is like asking a parent, "Who is your favorite child?" But do you have a couple of your songs that stand out for any particular reasons - because of the lyrics, the writing process, a recording session or maybe a particular crowd response?

I've been told by some surf instrumental legends from the sixties that "Slow Down Summer" is a classic oldies-type song ... One of them said, "Robbie, songs are supposed to become oldies classics ... but you just wrote a new oldies classic!" What an honor! I love writing songs that give props to my friends ... though John Frinzi says I'm just a shameless name-dropper! Songs that I've written specifically to dedicate to friends, or songs that friends have specifically said, "that's MY song" ... those mean a lot! And "Poet's Son" I wrote for my folks.


Anything else we should know about Rob Mehl?

I think we're blessed so we can be a blessing. I think we need to choose our words carefully, appreciate every second that's given to us, and be kind to everyone. I think we need to be aware of things we can't recover: the stone after it's thrown, the word after it's said, the chance after it’s passed, and the time after it's gone. I think we need to realize that in the end it'll be the things that we didn't do more than the things we did that we'll regret. I think we need to remember where we've been so we can appreciate where we are, while at the same time I believe we should leave the past behind and press on toward the high call of what's ahead. And lastly, my head hurts, my feet stink, but I do love Jesus! Not preachin' ... just sayin'! ;)


Maholo, Rob! Always a pleasure....