Sailing Away with Yachtley Crew

Okay, boomers, if you haven’t been hiding under a boulder, you know that yacht rock — the soft-rock subgenre of music embracing the smooth, mellow sounds of the 1970s and early ’80s — is back in a big, big way. 

With a manifest of familiar tunes from Boz Scaggs’s “Lido Shuffle,” to Ace’s “How Long,” Robbie Dupree’s “Steal Away,” the Bee Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Love,” Christopher Cross’s “Ride Like the Wind,” Toto’s “Africa,” Looking Glass’s “Brandy,” and Rupert Holmes’s “Escape (The Piña Colada Song),” the nation’s number-one yacht rock band, Yächtley Crëw, is docking at the Arlington Theatre on Saturday, August 16. I spoke to drummer Sailor Hawkins (aka Rob Jones) ahead of the band’s visit. 

Tell me a little bit about the band’s origin story, how you guys got started.

The bass player (Baba Buoy) and I have been friends for years, and we thought it would be a fun little project. We’ve done different projects together and separately over the years, and we thought it would be fun to start a band that would play, essentially, what was, at the time, guilty pleasure music. People weren’t really necessarily high on Christopher Cross and Ambrosia songs. Maybe our parents and grandparents were, but we thought it would be fun and something different. … in a fun way to play this material that just seemed like an oversight to a lot of people. We all knew it and enjoyed it growing up, but it ultimately became like a guilty pleasure … So, we thought it would be fun.

Then it was a resurgence of this music that just kind of happened to coincide with yacht-rock radio. 

And what we thought would be three or four shows forever turned into three or four shows a week. And the more the ball was rolling down the hill, the bigger it was getting … kind of snowballing. That led us to getting signed by Jimmy Buffett to his record label, and putting a record out. And Jimmy passed and we were recorded by another label that wanted to carry us. And we made a Christmas record last year. And we just finished our new record that’s coming out in just about a month and a half.

And now you’re doing a song written by Diane Warren (a Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Famer who has written for Elton John, Tina Turner, Barbra Streisand, Lady Gaga)? That’s insane.

I mean, honestly, anything that has happened in this band, if you were to tell me anything that happened — if you were to tell me we were going to play 10 shows starting this band, I would have said, “You’re crazy.” 

And none of you guys, when you started in 2017, were making a living as musicians.

We weren’t doing it full-time. Everybody that’s in the band had a job, but kind of lost that job because of the schedule. This touring schedule is pretty demanding. We’re doing about 150 shows a year, so it’s kind of hard to hold down a job when you’re not even home. … And now, you know, we all have dad bods. We’re not starving.

The yacht-rock phenomenon is so interesting. Do you have any theories about why it’s become such a phenomenon?

It’s feel-good music for a generation of people that wanted to have a good fun reason to come out — a woman actually told me this when we first started the band. … She’s probably in her late forties. And she said, “Thank you so much for the band, you guys. You have no idea what it does for people like us. I’m a mom of five kids, I come out and I have so much fun, and I don’t feel like I’m competing with these 20-year-olds that are dressed all like they’re going to a Vegas nightclub for the night.” People get dressed up for our shows, and they get into it. They put on nautical attire, hats. I get people show up wearing life vests. … She said, “You make us feel good.”

… But our audience is starting to get younger too; a lot of people are starting to recognize us. I have an 18-year-old daughter, and shortly after we started the band in 2017 … she was looking at TikTok, and said, “Dad, do you know this song?” And it was ‘The Piña Colada Song.’ And I’m like, “Yeah, honey, we play that in our show.”

Every kid that does any kind of music probably has some sort of fantasies about being a rock star. What surprised you the most about that?

I mean, everything, honestly, every next step that happens in this band is a surprise, because there was initially no goal. The only goal was to get together, put a band together, and play some shows, maybe a handful of shows…. The first place sold out. It was like more than 300 people there on our first show, and it was a bar and grill in Dana Point. Then, the next show we did in Ventura was just packed. It was a line around the block. … And then we ended up getting a residency at the Viper Room in Los Angeles. We did that for 15 months, and it sold out. Every single show sold out for 15 months straight. 

And through that you got a manager, Andy Gould, who was a “tea boy” for the Beatles.  

He discovered and managed artists like Rob Zombie, Linkin Park, Guns N’ Roses. He managed a lot of bands along the way, and he stumbled across us one night because he saw a line around the block of the Viper. 

… That aligned us with a booking agent, and then that aligned us with a record company talking to us, and that aligned us with our producer, Chris Lord-Alge … I think he’s got six or seven Grammys and Record of the Year recording Green Day. 

… Then we got a residency in Las Vegas, and we’re in our fourth year … Even when Jimmy Buffett died, we thought, ‘Well, that was a fun ride.’ … And then all of a sudden, another label said, ‘We want to talk to you guys about recording.’ So, it’s just, one thing after the next was just positive, positive, positive. 

So, everything has been completely organic.

Yeah, nobody was forced to eat their vegetables, you know? Truly, it’s a great story, and there’s no bullshit in the middle of it. It’s really just all organic and really happening. None of us could be more blessed with being able to do what we do for a living and the way it’s happened.

Is there anything else you want to tell people in Santa Barbara before the show?

We’re a Southern California band. It is essentially a hometown show for us, and we’re excited to get back into town, and, you know, knock the socks off people. I just want people to have such a good time. And that’s really what it’s all about. 

Yächtley Crëw plays on Saturday, August 16 at 8:30 p.m. at the Arlington Theatre. For tickets and information, click here.