Extreme Soundtracks Vol. 1: Landon McNamara

Extreme Soundtracks is a new column profiling professional extreme sports athletes and the role music has played in their life.
Created by twin sisters Stefanie and Suzanne Sanchez.

TP: Landon, thanks so much sitting down with The Pier today! Your life is remarkable, and with music and surfing being the epicenter of your every day, which came first: music or riding waves?

LM: No worries! I’m sure I heard music before I surfed, though I surfed much before I started making music or playing an instrument. I always loved to sing songs as a young kid. My father was a professional surfer and no instruments were played in my household, so I was on a surfboard much before I ever played an instrument

TP: Your music is amazing btw! You write all your own music?

LM: Thank you, yes, I write all my own music, usually completely on my own. A couple times have been collaborative songs with friends where we bounce ideas off each other. When you really get down to it, all writing is collaborative. We take inspiration from others before us a lot of the time, catch a feeling and put it in to our own message. I’m constantly collaborating on writing in life.

On the Making of “Wild Trip”

TP: Your reggae vibe is so positive and hypnotic! I love that song “Wild Trip” with DENM. The video is amazing showing the waves going off, and your writing process. Has the ocean inspired your writing? Has riding 30 -50-foot waves influenced your music?

LM: Thank u for the kind words, yea Wild Trip is a feel-good jam for sure. DENM and I had a wild time that week. The video is from the time we all shared, he came to Oahu and stayed in my home studio with the intention of creating one song, maybe more, ended up collaborating on a full EP along with another good friend, Jesse. That’s what happens when you get like-minded people in a room together focused on the same mission, and talent drives talent in a competitive and collaborative way it’s cool when that drive happens… it was a fun time of connection & creation.

“The ocean has inspired my music, it’s inspired my entire life from the day I was born, I really praise the ocean, it has provided me and my family with so much and I am so grateful.”

Landon McNamara surfing in Hawaii — Photo Courtesy of Landon McNamara

TP: Scariest moment surfing?

LM: Scariest moment in surfing… I’ve had a lot of scary moments. When I think of some of the situations I’ve been in, I start to trip out. Haha, it’s amazing that I’m alive with the risk of sounding not so humble. I am a warrior. I’ve been doing it from a young age, 13 is when I first ventured into what I’d consider very serious surf, so between that time and now there are many battles. I have about 10 give or take that hold up equal as to how I felt in those moments, where I knew I didn’t have much more to give and had to surrender yet fight at the same time. In the ocean you can feel the power of God in a raw and real way.

TP: Anything else you would like to share feel free! Maybe something you advocate for?

LM: I’d like to share Love. What I’d like to advocate? I’d like to advocate we start with loving ourselves, we cannot transmit something we don’t have. Let’s love ourselves let’s love each other, if you gotta fight, make sure it’s for Love haha.