Music

Tennis

Jonathan Fisher | Sunday 5 September, 2010 19:26

Tennis’s story appears too perfect to be true. Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley set their disposable income aside for six months until they had enough to buy a yacht and sustain themselves on a private adventure. They climbed aboard their ‘Swift Ranger’ and sailed on a rough course along the east coast of the Americas, taking in destinations which would come to provide emotional source material for their music. “One day we were in a bar in the Florida Keys and ‘Baby It’s You’ by the Shirelles came on. We’d never heard it before, but we loved the wall-of-sound thing, and decided right then that we’d try to create that when we got back.” Having sold their instruments to help fund the voyage, they went about reacquiring enough to flesh out their dreams. Each song that came out of the voyage was named after a different stop-off point – ‘Marathon’ (Florida), ‘Baltimore’ and ‘South Carolina’ make up their first seven-inch, paddling in perfect surf-pop melodies with shimmering backing vocals and sharp focus. On meeting dry land again, our two lovers were wed and on listening to these tracks, it’s obvious why.

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