“Escape from Space Mountain” is a 3 minute single made as a fun tribute to the first synced audio soundtrack on Disneyland’s “Space Mountain” ride for which Dick Dale, King of the Surf Guitar” played. We celebrate his unique sound on this 60th anniversary of his first Surf record.
“Sometimes you do things because they are creatively challenging and a fun process to experience. This is one of those times. We did this for fun, not to get rich, believe me.
Eddie Sotto, Dick Dale, and composer, musican Aarin Richard in the Studio at WDI. ©Disney
After producing the first on-board audio soundtrack for Disneyland’s “Space Mountain”, ( Disneyland’s indoor rollercoaster in the dark,) with composer Aarin Richard back in 1996, I got the itch to reimagine that haunting melody again, not as a timed ride soundtrack, but as a full on “Rock n’ Roll” record with “surf punk” guitarist Laramie Dean’s aggressive approach. Why? Because Dick Dale,”King of the Surf Guitar” provided his signature “chainsaw” guitar licks to the original and we wanted to pay homage to that raw sound and go further. Laramie Dean, a protege of Dick Dale who headlined and toured with him, seemed the right choice to take a fun crack at it. It was also the 60th anniversary of the surf sound this year, it just seemed right! So we spent two years toying with it, recording when the studio was open, or when the right talent was available, like “Blondie’s” amazing drummer Clem Burke. Even getting the bass player Roger Freeland from the famously defunct Tomorrowland band, “Halyx” to sit in as part of our SciFi story. Jimmy Dale, Dick’s son even stopped by to play his signature “Miserlou” riff to make this a true tribute. Jimmy is part of Laramie’s touring band that performed it live only two miles from the ride itself!
Laramie Dean, Trevor Lucca, Jimmy Dale and Dave Klein shred “Escape from Space Mountain” LIVE at the Doll Hut, Anaheim
So with great pleasure, we can finally say we’ve completed what we call “Escape from Space Mountain”, a SciFi homage to the 1996 original! Now on iTunes and Apple Music, coming soon to Vinyl. What did I do? Reprise my role as “Mission Control” from the original with the phrase “We have Ignition!” and now, thanks to Laramie Dean….we finally do!”
- Eddie Sotto
That was Sotto at the Doll Hut reprising his signature “We have Ignition!” to get the song going. Here are some revealing interviews with the band members and clips from our first live performance only 2 miles from Space Mountain! ©Sottostudios