BOUNCE THE OCEAN"BOUNCE THE OCEAN"
(Private, 1991)
"Dry Your Eyes"
One of the drawbacks when blogging about lesser-known artists from the early '90s is that, since their careers (at least that stage of them) were over and their CDs were already landing in the bargain bin years before the Internet came of age, information on them can sometimes be hard to come by. That's why I was a bit worried about writing this entry, since I knew virtually nothing about pop duo Bounce The Ocean. But then, just as I was about to give up my search after finding only a few scant references to them on the web, I spotted a glimmer of hope: a message post under a listing of their self-titled CD, claiming to be from Hawk Bjorn, one half of the group. With no way to know for sure if it was really him, or if the email address was even valid anymore (as the post wasn't date-stamped), I decided to take a chance and send an email anyway. As it turns out, I had "struck gold" and got all sorts of information about them from a very friendly and personable guy with a good sense of humor.
Hawk Bjorn (a born-and-bred Swede, as if you couldn't tell by the name) and John Utter (a Washingtonian, also of Scandinavian heritage) became friends at college in Washington and recorded a demo tape, which soon caught the attention of a Hollywood producer who wanted to use their songs in a Patrick Dempsey movie called "Some Girls" (which appears to finally be gettting a DVD release next month ... gotta rent it so I can hear their songs on something other than my CD or MP3 player!). A short time later, after more writing and recording, they christened themselves "Bounce The Ocean", in reference to finding themselves with too many sound layers in a song, ultimately choosing to get rid of the seashore element (the song in question was never released commercially).
Produced by Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and Michael Omartian (who's worked with Quincy Jones) with help from Glen Ballard (another Alanis Morissette connection), their self-titled album "Bounce The Ocean" yielded a Billboard-charting single in "Throw It All Away" and a modest radio hit in "Wasting My Time", but went largely unnoticed despite selling over a quarter-million copies. As with all my other featured albums, I consider its obscurity an injustice, as their songs have aged rather gracefully and don't sound anywhere near 16 years old. I tend to think of Bounce The Ocean as a kind of "sonic ancestor" of Savage Garden: more acoustic than synth-driven, and without the higher energy dance-pop numbers, but their songs seem to have the same kind of soothing "aura" about them.
Hawk Bjorn continues to make music, and his voice hasn't lost a bit of its unique appeal over the years, as the songs on his MySpace page will attest. If you like the song posted here, and his solo stuff, then go look for their "Bounce The Ocean" album ... it can be easily found, and for a fraction of what I think you'll eventually find it's worth.
I actually found Hawk's My Space page recently. I was in a music video that they shot in Washington in the early 90's. But, was never able to find the video anywhere. I wrote to Hawk, and hope to hear back.
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