Our playlist for a road trip down the Pacific Coast Highway
Dee and Christoph shaped our playlist for a road trip down the Pacific Coast Highway around one rule: every track should belong to a place. The selection moves from Bay Area fog and rehearsal rooms through Big Sur’s open roads to Los Angeles, combining Think13 studio songs, favourite live cuts and pieces chosen for the scenery. It is a listening route rather than a ranked compilation.
San Francisco to Santa Monica is roughly 650 kilometres, but the coast makes that distance a three-day journey. Fuel, food and a radio interview belong between the formal listening sessions. Australians notice the change immediately: traffic keeps right in California, unlike the left-hand flow at home. Signs use miles rather than kilometres, while fuel is sold by the US gallon, so range calculations need conversion to litres per 100 kilometres.
Think13’s recordings, live performances and radio appearances provide the spine, while the VAGABOOM youth program adds the sound of young people learning together in rehearsal and on stage. Collaborations with Bay Area players widen the palette without pulling the trip away from its home region. Quiet tracks matter too, allowing an album song to unfold rather than treating every release as background for the wheel.
Australian listeners bring different reference points. Triple J, community radio, independent record shops and the resilience of the local vinyl market inform our choices, alongside Californian stations that punctuate the highway. The result feels familiar enough for a long drive and varied enough for a coastline that keeps changing. The sequence starts before the city disappears in the rear-view mirror.
Leaving the Bay Area
The first hour begins in San Francisco with restrained Think13 material, then crosses to Pacifica and Half Moon Bay as traffic thins. Close vocals, clean guitar and small details in the mix suit drivers leaving before the city wakes. The song choices give the opening road the intimacy of a rehearsal room, with the ocean appearing and vanishing on the right.
Dee and Christoph’s Tiny Telephone recording story reveals the studio thinking behind that restrained side. Hearing how a performance was shaped can sharpen the act of listening to it. Sydney drivers may recognise the long urban release before a motorway, while Melburnians know how quickly weather can alter a coastal run. Here, fog can erase the road ahead and reveal a cliff edge within minutes.
Big Sur Without the Haste
At Santa Cruz and Monterey, the playlist gains pace without becoming a run of faster songs. Monterey’s recording history and the Bay Area’s live-scene density make it a natural home for songs with ensemble chemistry: organ, bass and drums sharing the frame. VAGABOOM performances bring that cooperative spirit through education, rehearsal and confidence on stage.
Big Sur changes the needs again. The highway narrows and slows behind coastal traffic, so spacious arrangements make more sense than tightly chopped edits. California prohibits holding a mobile phone while driving, and Australian state laws also restrict handset use, so the list is loaded before departure. The long gaps between services make the unfamiliar miles-per-gallon figure worth converting to litres per 100 kilometres.
Monterey to Santa Barbara
Coming south from Monterey, the choices favour songs with forward motion. Open guitar textures and a live pulse leave room for a saxophone line, a snare hit or a harmony that gathers as it travels. Those details reward attentive driving without requiring every track to chase a dramatic peak.
Santa Barbara provides a calm midpoint, with low-key streets, cafes and nearby beaches replacing the overt momentum of Los Angeles. Think13’s work can sit beside warm California pop and Bay Area indie records. Local radio remains part of the trip, with presenters accustomed to Triple J or community stations understanding the value of introducing an unfamiliar song.
Malibu, Los Angeles and the Last Chorus
The last California leg runs through Malibu, where the road briefly tightens between hills and beach before reaching the motorways of greater Los Angeles. Strong collaborative performances belong here. A VAGABOOM stage clip or full-band Think13 song can convey the excitement of a major city without turning the soundtrack into a string of arena anthems.
Los Angeles traffic calls for contrast, alternating restrained pieces with emphatic finishes to match slow lanes and sudden openings. Melbourne’s scale and Sydney’s harbour traffic offer loose comparisons, but the highway has its own pressure: palm trees, merges and radio signals fading as the city takes over. By Santa Monica, the songs feel local because of the rooms and people behind them, not because every lyric names California.
The Route in Listening Order
The running order follows the geography, with estimates that assume ordinary traffic and allow a stop rather than a race. Detail-rich songs suit the city and its final urban edges; expansive pieces suit the coast; collaborative tracks gather pace toward Los Angeles.
Played as a single sitting, the playlist traces that movement from studio precision to live warmth and communal energy. Live cuts make the Bay Area section feel present, while the closing collaborations carry the sense of a shared project rather than a collection of unrelated downloads.
The practical sequence looks like this:
| Road leg | Typical driving time | Listening focus | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco to Half Moon Bay | 45–60 minutes | Intimate Think13 studio cuts | Provides a measured start as urban traffic clears |
| Half Moon Bay to Monterey | 1.5–2 hours | Live ensemble and VAGABOOM performances | Matches a brighter rhythm and the growing Bay Area scenes |
| Monterey through Big Sur to Cambria | 1.5–2.5 hours | Spacious arrangements and instrumentals | Gives the cliffs and slow coastal traffic room to breathe |
| Cambria to Santa Barbara | 1–1.5 hours | Warm California pop and radio discoveries | Creates a relaxed transition into the afternoon |
| Santa Barbara through Malibu to Santa Monica | 1.5–2 hours | Full-band and collaborative finishes | Builds toward the arrival and movement of Los Angeles |
A little silence belongs between songs on the remote stretch through Big Sur, where the engine, gravel and surf become the backing track. Moderate volume lets the music share the space with the coastline rather than cover it.
Saturday’s departure is fixed at 6:30 a.m.: the finished sequence will be loaded into the car before sunrise, the handset placed in the glovebox and the first song queued for the Pacifica exit. By sunrise, the Bay Area will be behind the windscreen and the coast road will begin.
