Brother Sea are a South West (UK) based Celtic-folk band that brings together the acclaimed duo Harbottle & Jonas, award winning song writers Kris Lannen and Richard Trethewey, and the haunting tones of Annie Baylis.
Brother Sea’s music is that of departure, adventure and new beginnings, sweeping you away with a sense of boldness and innocence. With hypnotic vocals accompanied by classic folk instruments they create a sense of awe and intrigue with songs like campfire stories exploring heritage and folklore as they gently flicker through captivating soundscapes.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with members of Brother Sea about the latest music, challenges, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We all live in the South West of England, Cornwall and Devon, although we all originally come from places all over the UK including Scotland, Northumbria, Surrey and Cornwall.
We feel our music is a fusion of all kinds of musical influences, but it fits within the folk genre and our writing is so inspired by the wonder of wandering land and seascapes whilst exploring the riches of Celtic heritage and folklore.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
I guess we all have different stories when I comes to what led us down this path of music, like personally I didn’t pick up a guitar until I was 21 after I broke my back in a skiing accident. I had always written poetry, but I started to learn the guitar as part of the rehabilitation from my injury and discovered I could now place my words within rhythms and melodies.
As a band we met through the West Country folk music circuit and formed Brother Sea at the end of 2018 whilst touring Scotland together and discovered that we were all fans of each others writing and playing and it all just felt like a natural fit as our friendships grew.
We are friends first, which is so important in the dynamics of a band and we all keep our egos in check by not taking things too seriously and getting out for long walks or wild swims in rivers and the sea. We encourage each other in our song writing and there is nothing like the gift of creativity and discovering a new song or tune to motivate us all to keep going.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
Every song is unique and tells its own story, but we are working on our debut album so there is a thread of continuity where the songs connect. We are looking to follow the seasons with the album, so September is an autumnal song and speaks of its restorative nature as nature almost lets go and gives in to rest.
Cornwall, or Kernow, with her wild moorlands, exposed granite cliffs and wave drenched sands, is a land of legend and folklore that has captivated and drawn people with her magic for centuries to wonder and create their own tales upon her shores.
It’s hard not to feel a deep resonance with nature and the seasons in Cornwall, yet with our modern ways and the exponential rise in tourism this land is understandably bustling during the summer months, which can feel disorientating and like we may have wandered from her ancient and less trodden path.
But September’s restorative caress always comes around and is a month many who live in Cornwall, and perhaps even the land herself, long for. The air and sea are still warm, the holiday crowds start to thin a little, and there is and excitement of reconnection in the first autumn swells…
Recorded in the magical St James The Great Church in St Kew Church Town with it’s wonderful natural acoustics by the talented engineer and producer Josh Best-Shaw and featuring Scotland’s rising star on the blues scene Calum Ingram on cello.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this over saturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Probably the biggest challenge is the amount we have to do personally behind the scenes to market and promote our music which eats into our time to focus on being creative. It takes a real discipline and is so important to carve out time to dedicate to writing and developing songs.
We have no desire to be famous, we just want our songs to be heard by a wider audience and so technology really helps us to cast our music far and wide with a hope that our songs might land in people’s hearts and somehow sing into their souls and offer hope in what is a oversaturated digital age.
What was the last song you listened to?
Ghosts by Lau, brings me to tears every time, so powerful.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
I would love to say vinyl, but I guess I still love a CD as I listen to music a lot in the car.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
As a band Bandcamp is always best as we receive the majority of the sale, but Spotify is great for discovering new music and us being discovered through playlists.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
www.facebook.com/brotherseamusic
www.twitter.com/brotherseamusic
Anything else before we sign off?
We will be releasing a Christmas single in December for the homeless charity Shelter so please follow us and buy or stream this single as it would be amazing to raise as much as possible for the charity.
Deep peace of the sea to all in this strange season… Brother Sea
