TikiTronic makes songs from the 80’s sound even more like the 80’s! –Ray Wyland
Captain Coconut – Moog, drum pads
Freddy Canoe – Vocals, guitar, balafon, Theremin
Home base: San Diego / Los Angeles
What’s the Tiki scene like in San Diego?
Andy/Captain Coconut – It’s exciting! It’s growing every day in membership, places to go, and things to do. The local SD Ohana group is expanding with multiple meet-ups each month at the Bali Hai, False Idol, Grass Skirt, Kindred, Cat Eye Club, music venues, and other events. Any excuse to socialize with good peeps and beverages. A really fun group!
Rick/Freddy Canoe – Living in LA gives you plenty of Tiki options and new Tiki bars seem to be popping up daily. The annual Tiki Social at Roxanne’s in Long Beach is a fun event that gets a lot great vendors, musicians, and all-around Tiki enthusiast together. Can’t beat the free rum sampling!
What brought you into the “Tiki lifestyle” and how long has it been a part of your life?
Andy – I’m a converted punk rocker (seems there are quite a few of us). Went to my first Tiki event 5 years ago in Palm Springs and haven’t looked back. So I guess you can say I’m still newbie status in these circles.
Rick – I guess I had been in one too many grunge indie bands when my friend Rodney clubbed me over the cranium with Sven Kirsten’s book Tiki Modern. That was in 2009 and with the help of the website Critiki, I paddled my newly crafted canoe towards the Tiki world and have never looked back.
What is TikiTronic all about?
Andy – Rick (Freddy Canoe) and I met twenty years ago back when I was running a commercial recording studio. He came in and recorded with a band with members that I knew from high school. We immediately hit it off and have been recording sporadically since then, but we’ve never formed a real band until we attended Tiki Caliente in Palm Springs together in 2015 and came up with the idea and instruments to be used. Our first gig was two months later at an outdoor street festival in Pacific Beach in July 2015.
Rick – Like Captain Coconut mentioned, we have enjoyed working on musical projects together for years. Andy is a blast to work with because of his humor and experimental approaches to music, so when the Tiki band idea came up I didn’t think twice. Andy came up with the name two minutes later. Names are almost more important than the content itself. Like Sharknado, did you care if it was good? Back to answering the question: TikiTronic is about two guys making music with a twist and wanting the audience to have as much fun as we are.
What is the coolest show you ever played?
Andy – We just came off an amazing show at Don the Beachcomber with Jason Lee & the Black Tides backed by an orchestra. Truly an amazing night and crowd.
Rick – Definitely Don the Beachcomber was a top one.
Do you have any crazy stories to share?
Andy – Tonga Hut Palm Springs is always an adventure with random bachelorette parties coming in. Highly unpredictable and some really funny moments. Every now and then, I go live on Facebook while playing with one hand, just to capture some of the shenanigans and share it with the world.
Rick – At one show at Tonga Hut Palm Springs, they made sure Andy was feeling good with their Three Dots and a Dash cocktail. Captain Coconut became so hammered he was swaying as if at sea. He used his head and one hand at times to prop himself against a wall while the other hand perform on his Moog perfectly.
Have you been part of any past musical projects?
Andy – I was a drummer for years in bands like Medieval Knieval and Trash 80. Switched to synthesizers and played in fun bands like Airport 81, bipolarbear, Gamma Gamma, and Alpha Channel. I used to geek out in those bands, programming beats and sequences on Nintendo Game Boys and Commodore 64s. Ask me about BASIC language!
Rick -In 2009, I lived in Germany and started the band The Tiki Kings with musicians Rodney Richards and Simon Brunner. We traveled around performing our original surf music as Tiki masked savages. The show included theatrical costumes, dancers, a captive anthropologist, and an exploding volcano. A few times our tall masks would get entangled with light rigging above the stage. Luckily, we survived electrocution. Prior to this band, I played ukulele in The Rum Stumblers (’50s/Hawaiian music) and played guitar and sang original songs in Low Flying Moses/LFM.
What is your favorite Tiki drink?
Andy – I like a good Zombie, as long as it’s not a double (I’m looking at you, Josh at Tonga Hut Palm Springs!). Best Mai Tai for me goes to Don the Beachcomber, or perhaps Tahiti Nui in Kauai.
Rick – I’d have to say Puka Punch at Smuggler’s Cove. Brandon at The Reef in Palm Springs makes one of his own concoctions called Grave Digger that may soon take the lead!
What is your favorite Tiki bar? Why?
Andy – For the vibe: False Idol. For the drinks and people: I love Cat Eye Club. Those drinks are always on point. Love the staff, vibe, and drinks at The Reef Palm Springs.
Rick – Smuggler’s Cove. I haven’t yet been to False Idol, but I hear it’s right up there.
What does the future hold for TikiTronic?
Andy – It just keeps getting better. We are humbled that people dig us and come to our shows. Rick and I have been at it with different projects for a long time, so it’s really refreshing to play for two-three hours at venues and be appreciated. The people who come to our shows are very supportive and fun. I think in the future we’ll play even more shows, expand geographically where we play and come up with more fun tunes to put our signature on, and write more originals. It’s just two of us: we fit in a regular-sized Prius! The sky is the limit, really. As long as people coming to our shows are having fun, we are too!
Rick – TikiTronic future is—more songs! More venues! And to eventually join up with our south-of-the-border brothers Los Master Plus and tour (I actually did reach out to them and to my surprise they liked our stuff!). We are very lucky to have support from a lot of Tiki friends who come out to our shows. I especially like it when they throw out song ideas for us to try.
Anything else you would like to add?
Andy – I think it’s the equipment we use that makes it so unique. In my rig is a 1975 Moog Micromoog, a late ’70s Syndrum drum module, and two Electro Harmonix space drum pedals from 1980. Rick plays amazing surf guitar, Theremin, and an African balafon, which he customized and carved the keys themselves to play actual notes and scales. Plus his voice is Nashville gold!
Rick – I don’t know about “Nashville gold,” but how about like Solvang wine? Our instrument arsenal is somewhat unique. Andy has been on a Moog since the early ’90s and has mastered his way around that box of wires and keys. The balafon I play is a West African instrument, which is normally tuned to various regional languages. Fortunately, ours is tuned to TikiTronic
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