Meaningful Music with Positive Vibes

Forrest Frank, BBA ’17, is making a name for himself in the music industry as part of the band, Surfaces. After graduating Baylor, Frank started the band with his friend Colin Padalecki. Surfaces gained popularity in early 2020 when their song Sunday Best went viral on TikTok.

Frank and Padalecki’s collaboration began after Frank discovered Padalecki on SoundCloud and reached out to him. Their friendship and partnership began while Frank was at Baylor and Padalecki attended Texas A&M University.

Sunday Best, which remains their most-streamed song, reached No. 19 on Billboard’s Hot 100, and it has more than 700 million streams on Spotify. The song also charted in nine other countries, cracking the top 20 in Australia, Denmark, Ireland and New Zealand. Surfaces has other songs with more than 20 million streams.

Frank considers himself a self-taught musician. He grew up surrounded by music and sang in his church choir. In a 2020 interview, he and Padalecki said that Sunday Best reflects their spiritual beliefs.

“It’s just something we believe in,” Frank said. “These are things I’ve picked up through my faith, which is very real to me, but I don’t want to preach. The lyrics are an expression of my heart.”

The group has released four albums: Surf (2017), Where the Light Is (2019), Horizons (2020) and Pacifico (2021). The first two albums were released before the pair signed with a label. Tracks on their albums incorporate elements of jazz, bossa nova, doo-wop and lounge music.

“Our music is for everyone,” Frank said. “We want our songs to be heard by as many people as possible. It’s not about the money; we’re on a mission to infiltrate the popular realm and put out as much positivity as we can.”