‘Spirit Of Akasha’: Surfing, Sequels And Soundtracks

Established surfing filmmaker and musician Andrew Kidman had made a sequel to the 1972 classic ‘Morning of the Earth’. He discusses marrying the images and the soundtrack while living up to the prized legacy of the original. Interview by DOUG WALLEN.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] When Albert Falzon and David Elfick made the 1972 surf film Morning of the Earth, it began a legacy that’s still unfolding before our eyes. Reissued repeatedly over the decades and finding new audiences with every generation, the Australian classic and its equally influential soundtrack (produced by G. Wayne Thomas) have just yielded a sequel of sorts in Spirit of Akasha. Directed by Andrew Kidman, who has made beautiful surf films of his own in Litmus (1996), Glass Love (2004) and the compilation Last Hope (2009), the new film follows in the poetic spirit of its predecessor while establishing its own presence with current and more diverse surfers and music.

Just as in the previous film, music is key to Akasha (named for the fifth element and “spiritual force that Earth, Air, Fire and Water descend from”). The Kidman-curated soundtrack includes MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden, Atoms for Peace, Brian Wilson, Grouplove, Pond, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy & The Cairo Gang and Dirty Three, not to mention Kidman’s own band, The Windy Hills. To coincide with the new film and soundtrack, there’s also a reissue of the Morning of the Earth soundtrack as a 2CD package, the second disc of which is a “reimagined” tribute soundtrack featuring covers of the original film’s songs by Mick Turner, The Sand Pebbles, Machine Translations, The Autumn Defence, and many others.

Filmed around the world (Australia, Hawaii, Bali, Fiji, Tahiti, Mexico and Ireland) with Kidman working under the guidance of Falzon himself, Spirit of Akasha premieres this weekend at the Sydney Opera House. The Windy Hills will help soundtrack it live, among others; the band are also releasing their new album Fall of Planet Esoteria this Friday (Jan 24) through Warner Music Australia, whose managing director Tony Harlow provided the impetus for Akasha.

Below, Kidman talks about the very tricky process of following up such a cherished artefact, as well as relishing the pure union of music and image.

What influence did Morning of the Earth have on you personally and on surf culture overall?
The influence on me … I probably saw it when I was 15 or 16. It had been out for well over 10 years by that stage. When it came out in the ’70s, I think people were stunned by its beauty and the music and the surfing in it. But they were living in that time anyway, so it wasn’t so much of a shock to them. As time went on, to watch that thing in the ’80s or ’90s or now, it’s quite an incredible document of the time. People were living in treehouses up on the North Coast and you’d seen the first scenes at Bali as well, which is quite amazing because they were the first to go up there. It’s an incredible time capsule of that period. [For me personally] it was just how beautiful the film was, I guess.

And you worked with the original director on the new film?
Yeah, I worked with Albe. Albe was pretty much the sounding board that everything went through. When we had any ideas that I wanted to work on or anything people wanted to contribute, they’d come through me and I’d run ’em all through Albe. And then if we were having any problems in the film, like if I didn’t like the way things were going or there was music that I didn’t think was a really reflection of what Morning of the Earth was, I’d talk to Albe about it. It had to get past him before it could get signed off on, which was great actually. That way we were able to really pay an honest homage to his work.

Where did all the footage come from?
Well, we spent two years filming it. We worked with eight or nine cameramen around the world, just trying to bring to life what we thought was a modern version of what Morning of the Earth was. One of the original ideas, when we were first talking about it, and we were putting the songs out to all these different musicians so they could contribute their homage back to the new project – I thought it’d be a good idea to do it with cameramen too, and editors.

Because the original film was just made by Albe, but it was sort of a lightning rod. It went out there and it influenced millions of people [including] filmmakers and cameramen. I thought it’d be great if these certain cameramen out there that I knew really understood Albe’s work could pay their own homage to it in their own artistic way. That way you’d have this really interesting collaboration of work all come back.

So that’s what we did over the two-year period. Some people filmed stuff, I filmed stuff. Some of it I brought back and edited and tweaked, and then other guys that I knew had these editing skills, I let them do the whole thing [for their sections]. So it’s a really interesting tapestry of stuff.

“The Atoms for Peace [track] got offered up by Thom [Yorke] because he’s a surfer.”

For the soundtrack, how were some of the bands secured? You’ve got some big names on there, like Brian Wilson and Atoms for Peace.
A lot of the musicians, like Andrew VynWyngarden [from MGMT] and Will Oldham, I knew that they knew Morning of the Earth because I’d spoken to them about it. I contacted a lot of those guys personally and just asked them if they wanted to be involved in it, because I knew they loved the [original] film. They’d always tell me how much they loved that movie, and they loved the [original] soundtrack too. So that was sort of a given when we got the go-ahead to do the project. I contacted all these people I knew that really understood the soundtrack to get them involved, and they all wanted to do.

And then Warner Music, on the other side, was out there looking for other people that were interested in surfing that they knew could contribute something as well. Like the Atoms for Peace [track ‘Before Your Very Eyes’], that came through Warner. It got offered up by Thom [Yorke] because he’s a surfer. He knew they were doing this project and basically offered up the record and said, “If there’s anything you’re interested in using on the record, have a listen and see if anything’s relevant.”

And the Brian Wilson track [‘In My Moondreams’], Warner Music had this conference up in Germany and at the end they played a trailer we built for the different musicians just to show them what’s going on [in the movie]. Seymour Stein [of Sire Records fame], who’s Brian Wilson’s manager, saw it and he just couldn’t believe it. He found a Warner rep and told them he had these unreleased tracks that Brian Wilson had recorded in the ’80s that he wanted to offer up to the project, which was just incredible. [Laughter] When they came in, it was like hearing lost Beach Boys recordings, really. It was amazing.

Yeah, it would be.
Yeah, it was interesting. The majority of the soundtrack was generally customised by the different bands, but the Brian Wilson and Atoms for Peace ones, they were coming to us.

Did you then have to find the right footage to fit those songs?
Yeah, that was what it was all about. Trying to work out: “Well, how do you integrate these songs?” The Atoms for Peace songs came in and I was listening to all the different tracks and trying to work out which one was best for the film. Over the two-year period we were constantly getting footage. When the Chris Robinson [Brotherhood] track [‘Starcrossed Lonely Sailor’] came in, that was just this incredible marriage with this footage I had that I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with. I dropped it on and I started looking at it and it was just amazing how it opened the whole movie up. So that was a fascinating process, just seeing how the different songs fitted with the different footage or ideas.

“I went back and customised that song to the inspiration [I felt] watching ‘Morning of the Earth’.”

The soundtrack opens with The Windy Hills’ ‘To Be Young’. Is there a story behind that song?
I’d been sitting on parts of that song for about a year. I just had it sitting there. When they came to me and asked me if I would make the film, I started thinking, ‘Well, we need to take some sort of ownership over this thing as producers, if we’re gonna make it properly. We can’t have Warner telling us, “This is how you’ve got to do it.”’ I hadn’t agreed to make the film at that point, so I went back and customised that song to the inspiration [I felt] watching Morning of the Earth. The lyrics all pertain to different moments in Morning of the Earth. Also, the opening line – “Oh, what did we know?/Oh, what could we be?” – was sort of about some of the characters in that film. They were just so young at that point in their lives. Now they’re in like their 60s, so it was just a reflection of what that film was about.

I customised the song to that and we demoed it and then I cut the song to an edit of Morning of the Earth and then said [to Warner], “This is my take on what the new film could be.” They got back to us and said they thought it was amazing and that we need to make the movie. [Laughs] If they had have thought that wasn’t the way to go, that would have been a good sounding board to know that I couldn’t make the film. So it was a good way to do it.

Did the deal for Windy Hills to release their new record on Warner come through this as well?
Yeah, definitely. At the same time, when the Akasha thing came in, we’d been working on the record for about a year. I just said to everyone in the band, “I just think it’d be a really good idea if we had our new record finished during the year, while we’re working on Akasha.” And then I put it up to Warner if they’d be interested in releasing it. We submitted the record and then Tony Harlow, the guy that runs Warner [Music Australia], got back to us and said it was a fantastic record and would make a great accompaniment to [Akasha]. We were all happy about that, because it’s a struggle to find a place to get it out there.

Releasing it so close to the soundtrack, you weren’t worried about that overshadowing it?
Uh [Thinks about it] … whatever. I mean, no one knows who we are anyway. [Laughs] The last record we put out [2012’s Friend from Another Star] got some good reviews but then it just disappeared from everybody’s view. So we just figured the best thing we could do is try to get the record out. I guess if people find the songs in Akasha strong enough, then they might look at what this new record is. I thought that had to be better than the alternative of not releasing it. We’ve done a lot of shows where there’s no one there. [Laughs]

The new one is a much better record. The band’s developed a lot as a unit. And we really got to use the studio a lot better this time, and had more time to do it.

When you do the launch at the Opera House, what should people expect?
It’s gonna be basically two sets. The opening set is gonna be a bunch of music and musicians that play in Akasha or played in Morning of the Earth. Then there’s an intermission and Windy Hills come back on and we play a small set. Then we play ‘To Be Young’ and the film starts. You actually see a live song over the opening. And then the soundtrack kicks in and Xavier [Rudd] comes on and plays live for his section. Then it cuts back into the soundtrack and then Pond are gonna close it out with a set after the credits. It should be pretty interesting.

Who was the impetus for this project?
It was Tony Harlow. He took over Warner [Music Australia] two years ago and he was looking at the catalogue. He kept seeing this thing, Morning of the Earth, and didn’t know what it was. It was always reissued. He looked into what it was and saw it was a surf film. He watched the film and he could not believe how beautiful it was, and just what a powerful statement it was.

Then he approached Chris Moss, who used to run Warner, and asked Chris if he would consider making a new one – a modern version of that movie. Chris said that that was a ridiculous idea. [Laughs] Which it kind of is. When they asked me, I was like, “No way! I don’t see how you could do it.”

“I wanted to [include] Stephanie Gilmore. There were never any women in ‘Morning of the Earth’.”

They just kept coming back. They talked to Albe about it and they just kept coming back to him and saying, “Would you think about it?” And then Albe eventually said to me, “Well, why don’t you just think about what you would do? Then put that in front of them and if they go for it, you can make the film you wanna make.” Like I said, we hit them with that song and then I had a bunch of other ideas. I wanted to make Stephanie Gilmore one of [the featured surfers]. There were never any women in Morning of the Earth. And then I wanted to feature this other guy [Kim Hyung Kwon] who was [South] Korean, who no one had ever heard of.

I just put that in front of them and said, “If you guys are serious about this and you think that these ideas are relevant, then I’ll do it.” And they got back to me and said that sounded fantastic, which I didn’t expect. I thought they’d come back and say, “Oh no, you’ve got to use this guy and this guy.” They really gave us the freedom. And it was the same with the music. I put people on the trailer like the Dirty Three and Will Oldham – more obscure musicians, really, to be putting on a mainstream soundtrack. But I had reasoning behind it because I knew that these people understood the film and that what they would give back would be good.

Were you involved in the reimagined soundtrack for Morning of the Earth as well?
Definitely. Everything went through us for that, pretty much. Windy Hills did a cover [of Tamam Shud’s ‘Sea the Swells’] and then I covered [Brian Cadd’s ‘Come With Me’] solo. I worked with a lot of musicians on the stuff. Like Mick Turner [and the Xlyouris Ensemble with Oliver Mann] did the cover of ‘Morning of the Earth’ [by G. Wayne Thomas] – he sent in some rough demos of it and I just talked to him about it and he went back and worked on it more. He came back and it was just incredible. An incredible rendition of that song. Just going back and forth with people.

That was so fun, just hearing what people were bringing back. That was probably the highlight for me, to be honest, of the whole project: hearing the songs coming in, the different interpretations.

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‘Spirit of Akasha’ makes its world premiere this Saturday (Jan 25) at the Sydney Opera House for Sydney Festival. Tickets here. It’s also coming to select theatres in late January; tickets here and here. The film’s soundtrack comes out this Friday (Jan 24) through Warner Music Australia along with the reissued ‘Morning of the Earth’ soundtrack, released as a double CD with the tribute soundtrack ‘Morning of the Earth Reimagined’.