By Dustin Lothspeich

“It deals with the two great mysteries of creation — life and death. I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even … horrify you.”

Edward Van Sloan uttered those words before the curtain rose in the 1931 cinematic masterpiece Frankenstein – a warning to queasy audience members to leave while they still had the chance. Thankfully, even though Boris Karloff’s monstrous mug from that film adorns the cover of the upcoming debut self-titled 7” by The Grave Walks, the music itself is much less terrifying – albeit still haunting.

Set to be released on Halloween, the two-song single brings together a pair of indie rock’s finest songwriters: Devilishly campy troubadour Dan Sartain and Jacob Turnbloom, frontman of the sardonically and melodically rich ‘60s surf pop revivalists Mrs. Magician. It’s a curious union – Sartain’s style ranges from folk and rockabilly to all-out ‘70s punk while Turnbloom delves into a more experimental lo-fi indie rock realm with his band, and as a solo artist. But after both musicians ended up on tour together, they eventually became good friends.

“I haven’t personally known him for that long but I’ve been a fan of his music for a long time,” Turnbloom admitted. “We honestly didn’t talk that much on tour — we started emailing back and forth due to our mutual love for B movies, horror films, and unknown actors. In fact, Dan has a really cool idea to start a magazine someday — kind of like The Enquirerbut with all B-list actors, like: ‘You’ll never believe what Felissa Rose wore at Chili’s today!”

Horror films, tabloids and friendship aside, The Grave Walks can actually trace their beginnings back to Swami Records – a San Diego independent record label founded in 2000 and run by hometown rock icon John Reis (Rocket From the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, and The Night Marchers). Both Mrs. Magician and Sartain have released studio albums on Swami, most notably the critically acclaimed 2010 full-length Dan Sartain Lives and Magician’s San Diego Music Award-winning 2013 debut masterpiece Strange Heaven. When The Night Marchers went on tour last year, they called on both of ‘em to join in.  It was the first time they had met each other and shortly after it wrapped, Turnbloom reached out to Sartain about a track he had recorded at home.

“I wrote ‘She’s a Suicide’ quickly one afternoon and just sent it to Dan because I wanted to hear how the song would sound with his voice,” Turnbloom explained. “The original version, I’m singing it and it just sounded too normal — it was lacking something.”

Lacking what, we’ll never know exactly. As it’s now recorded,“She’s a Suicide” bounces along with a sprightly surf beat, while raunchy electric guitar stabs and spooky organ lines prop up Sartain’s bewitching vocals. When the accompanying B-side, “Teresa, I Love You,” sashays into place, it’s a delightful departure. Drums are replaced by tic-tac percussive smacks; Sartain’s alluring croon transforms into a wobbly howl over lyrics like, “Well let me take you to the coast / Let me be your gracious host / Let me show you brand new things / We’ll find the ghost of Jimmy Dean.”

“On [“Teresa, I Love You”], Dan wrote a wonderfully dark love song,” Turnbloom said. “He sent that track back to me and I honestly didn’t really know what to add at first because the original track of just his acoustic guitar and vocals sounded cool to me. It was really bare and had a kind of Everly Brothers vibe … so I stepped in and f—ed it up [laughs]. I really love how it came out. I can picture Dan singing it strolling through a graveyard, drunk on some tropical concoction I’d probably order on a Tiki Tuesday at Bar Pink.”

The Grave Walks works as the name of the project, but the phrase also conjures the atmosphere of the record as a whole: Foggy marshes, blood moons, creaky backwoods shacks and lurching monsters make their way out through the soul of dusty, warbling tape cassette recorders. In other words, it turned out exactly how Turnbloom imagined.

“Both songs are simple, messy and raw. I did the extra instrumentation in a closet at my apartment, and I recorded ‘She’s a Suicide’ in my parents’ garage. I don’t know where Dan recorded the body of ‘Teresa, I Love You’ but I’m assuming he just did it all at home in Birmingham, Alabama. Once I had both tracks, I just starting messing with EQs and different reverbs to make it sound somewhat murky and eerie … it’s junky and kinda strange — not unlike Dan and myself.”

The true DIY, home-recorded 7” gets its official physical release on Halloween at M-Theory Records in Mission Hills. Pressed in an extremely limited 300-copy run by Washington D.C.-based independent label Windian Records, 150 will be available on transparent green vinyl and 150 will be on opaque white wax (which are also currently up for pre-order now at the label’s website). Fittingly, the records will also have a quote from Karloff hand-etched near the center label, which reads, “The monster was the best friend I ever had.”

Unfortunately, The Grave Walks’ forthcoming single might be the only memento from the duo for the foreseeable future. According to Turnbloom, “It would be cool to keep making songs [with Sartain], but it will just happen when it happens.” Hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later. The prospect of being left with only two songs from such an intriguing collaboration is the true horror here – a waking nightmare that may haunt us forevermore.

—Dustin Lothspeich is a music writer in San Diego. Contact him at[email protected].