In this interview spotlight, I chat with Bristol (UK) based rockers Seek Warmth about their latest project, challenges, motivations, how much technology has changed music consumption habits 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 (me and Jay) are from Bristol, England- although I’m originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland. The music we make is seemingly an amalgamation of some of the genres we like, such as lo-fi, shoegaze, post-rock. I’ve always been very melody/song-based, so everything is always rooted in a good old melody, but with some twists and turns.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
I’ve always been eclectic in what I listen to and this means I like to make a lot of different types of music. I have a fascination with raw guitar sounds, reverb, beats and 80’s-type synth sounds, so I alternate between making electronic music and guitar music. I’ve most recently been focused on the Soft Look, my electronic project. However, when I’ve tried to do that live by myself, I’ve found it limiting and perhaps not very engaging for myself or the audience. As I’ve always enjoyed and valued the process of playing live, I wanted to do something and knew it needed to be more than myself to build layers naturally. When I met Jay, we bonded over post rock/shoe-gaze/dream-pop and when we started jamming we had a nice guitar/guitar bond which led to the bunch of songs we currently have. Our love of chorus and reverb was strong and has literally saturated through the songs. My natural inclination is to write, essentially, odd pop songs and Jay has a real ear for a melody which has led to some nice sounds. Overall, I think we’re just interested in seeing where the music goes and we’re enjoying the creative process.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
I think we wanted a more subtle sound than previous releases. With my previous guitar bands, it’s been quite loud, aggressive- bordering on something epic. Although I’m happy with the majority of my past releases, for this I just wanted to create an understated and natural sound, keeping it stripped back and a bit more like it originally sounded in practice/demos. In the past, I’ve often preferred the demo versions of songs to the finished recordings. There’s something more natural and warm about demos that seems to disappear once you put everything through the recording process. Some of my favourite music is totally lof-fi. For example, my favourite Pavement album is ‘Westing by Musket and Sextant. I just love the messy, raw energy, but with huge amounts of warmth and melody coming through. It sounds like a moment is being truly captured. I’d love to record and release our stuff like that, but I suppose I’m afraid that our lo-fi, messy noise might not come across so well, so I aim to make it more fit for purpose. Maybe we’ll take the lo-fi plunge for the EP/album!
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
I feel that, even in the last 5 years, things have changed a lot. You could send out some emails, try to share your music and make new connections in the past and have a lot more of a response. In 2013, I got lots of feedback and interest off the back of some emails and messages, linking to my music. This time around, there’s less response and you feel that the appetite for new music has perhaps been diluted by the sheer amount of stuff that’s out there. Maybe people are listening a lot more critically now, or with less attention-span- giving a new band a few seconds to impress before moving on? Just a theory. Who knows whether it’s oversaturation or the way technology has shaped our listening habits. Conversely, it’s great to be able to instantly put your music on Soundcloud/Bandcamp and self-release. I love making music and getting it out there. I love getting feedback and it’s so easy in this day and age to communicate with people and sort out gigs through promoters listening to tracks online, etc. There are so many positives about technology in this day and age. I’ve discovered lots of new bands and for a music-lover it’s a great time to discover new things. Jay is very much old school in that he buys CDs at gigs and plays them in his car. I’m a Blutooth/Apple music person, so I guess I can’t complain too much!
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
Our Facebook is quite active for little snippets of gigs and stuff. We try to share bits and pieces there: www.facebook.com/seekwarmth
We’ll put new music on Soundcloud- hopefully soon as we have lots of songs we aim to record! However, you can listen to Pillar to Post there. www.soundcloud.com/seekwarmth. Please just keep checking in on us!
