It was sometime when Jason Hamad was traveling the West in his campervan when he thought of the idea for No Surf House.
He had, in 2011, traded a career in politics in New York City for the life of an itinerant music journalist, and spent most of his mid-thirties writing up interviews with LA bands while camping Joshua Tree. And the more musicians he met, the more his love of such community pushed him in a new direction.
"I found out just what a big deal housing was for musicians," Hamad, 43, recalled to Scene. "Where they stayed when they were touring, and how much that could cost them."
Fast forward ten years, and Hamad realized that, with the pandemic's strangling effect on artists, the idea of building a boarding house for on-the-road musicians wasn't just helpful, it was one the scene desperately needed.
"I've heard it described as the Wild West out there," he said, describing the industry. "Especially for people who are not backed up by a big corporate machine, a label, all that. But for the independent musicians who are out there, it can be tough just finding a place to stay."
No Surf, named after the famous 1978 track by the Euclid Beach Band, crystallized as a nonprofit shortly after the first brunt of the pandemic subsidized and local venues returned to hosting touring bands again. Since November, Hamad and his partners, (and high school classmates) Alan Pendergrass and Jane McMullen, have been house-hunting for the No Surf House, the eponymous place where artists can crash for the cost of an IPA.
Low-cost lodging for artists, as an alternative to creeping hotel costs and Airbnb restrictions, may be sorely needed in Cleveland after all. In September, Sean Watterson, the owner of the Happy Dog, helped kick off the Greater Cleveland Music Census, a city-wide survey that aims to prioritize the needs of local musicians. (Where they sleep after gigs was one concern.)
And musicians spoke. As of Tuesday, Watterson tallied 2,774 respondents, placing Cleveland above all other cities that've taken similar surveys.
Jason Hamad
Jason Hamad on his house hunt for No Surf in November. He plans to host short term rooms for gigging musicians for around $60 a night.
Which means that Hamad's house will be opening its doors at an opportune time. "We definitely feel like the census will give us a lot of information that we can then use to advocate on behalf of the musicians that we help," he said.
A friend of Hamad's since the two bonded over Americana at Hudson High, Pendergrass was sold last year on the philanthropic bent of his old friend's idea. The year before, in October, his wife Kelly succumbed to cancer, and he was in search of a cause to put his energy.
No Surf seemed near ideal. Pendergrass, a 43-year-old father and pharmacist living in Hudson, joined as its treasurer. He put in, he said, a "quarter of a million dollars" from a donor-assisted fund to help purchase the property.
"Certainly when it comes to charitable endeavors, there's an endless list, right?" Pendergrass told Scene. "There's everything from world hunger to malaria in Africa. The Northeast Ohio music scene isn't exactly malaria in Africa, but it's something that's very local. It's something that we're passionate about."
In December, after househunting for a month, the team found their boarding house: a three-story duplex in Brooklyn, chosen for its proximity to legacy venues in Lakewood and the West Side, like Mahall's and the Happy Dog.
Banking on closing in January, Hamad said they'll put some $50,000 into renovating the fixer-upper, putting a bathroom on the second floor, adding a room for the house overseer—Hamad himself. Overall, No Surf will have four beds for its 'Home on the Road' guests, those who will fork over a tenth of what their Cleveland gigs guarantee them. (About $60 a night, Hamad estimated.)
And for artists who feel truly at home at No Surf, Hamad plans to open up rooms on the first and second floors for long-term housemates, primarily working artists early in their career. The charity extends there, too: a month's rent will run them, he said, no more than $100.
"The idea is to give them a chance to invest in their own career," Hamad said, "instead of investing in their landlord's retirement."
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