The Drums: ‘Barack Obama inspired us to ‘…Go Surfing” – video

Watch the band's track-by-track guide to their debut album 'The Drums'

The Drums say that Barack Obama and not hitting the waves actually inspired their debut single ‘Let’s Go Surfing’.

Speaking to NME for a video track-by-track guide to their eponymous debut album – the first part of which you can watch on the right now – the band explained that it was the 2008 presidential election that fuelled the track.

“We actually wrote it on the day that Obama won the election, and everyone was so excited,” explained guitarist Jacob Graham. “We’re not very political and we don’t usually know what’s going on, but in America you couldn’t really help but know what was going on and get excited about it.”

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Frontman Jonathan Pierce added that the song took its inspiration from the relief the whole country was feeling after Republican George W Bush‘s departure from office after eight years in office.

“The whole country had suffered eight years of feeling like we were in prison or something and then Obama came through and it was impossible not to get swept up with the whole nation, so that’s when we wrote ‘Let’s Go Surfing’,” he said. “If you listen to the second verse it’s very clearly about Obama being brought into the White House and (how) things might change.

“Nothing really changed – well, a few things changed., Everything was so sensationalised and romanticised, so ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ is about unbridled freedom.”

Watch the first part of the track-by-track guide to ‘The Drums’ on the right now and then head to NME.COM/video for part two.

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