Seekae interview

Seekae are a three piece from Sydney who are re-releasing their debut album The Sound of Trees Falling on People (SOTFP). For the uninitiated, their sound is ethereal, mostly instrumental, twitchy music with deep filmic undertones. Although commonly described as sounding like early Aphex Twin or Boards of Canada, Seekae also take after an impressive lineage of Australian predecessors. I'm thinking bands like Essendon Airport, The Necks and the effervescent Pivot. With the other two members, John Hassel and Alex Cameron, in absentia I chatted with George Nicholas about the burden of the "ambient" tag, the benefits of receiving government money and their new musical direction.

Dominic Kirkwood: Does it feel weird to be re-releasing SOTFP?

George Nicholas: It does actually. We're happy that it's being re-released though because I feel that it didn't get much exposure at all. We were distributing the record ourselves and selling it online. We were quite surprised by how many people were buying it online.

DK: You've coined your sound as "Ghetto Ambient". I'm interested that you're using the ambient tag. Are you taking the piss or are you serious about it?

GN: We're kind of taking the piss (laughs). We're not ambient at all really. I think a lot people get the whole idea of ambient music wrong. That something which is a little bit "mellow", or "chilled out" is ambient,  that's a misinterpretation of the term ambient. You get lumped into all the "chilled out" kind ofstuff, which is something we really want to get out of. We started out with live shows where we would play twelve minute long tracks, which had one key change, and the same monotonous beat going over and over. Now we're doing party hip-hop tracks and songs with higher BPMs.

DK: On that note you don't sound like a typical Australian rock or indie band. Did people react to it favourably because the album and sound is quite different?

GN: I think in Sydney there is quite adivide between the Sydney indie rock/pop scene and the electronic scene. The electronic scene is made up of electro producers, a few techno producers and some drum and bass producers. There's nothing really in the middle. So I think that's where our appeal might have been.

DK: You've had some great support slots with the likes of Decoder Ring and Pivot etc but you've also recently received a grant from the Australia Council. Has it been a relief to be able to make music your primary focus?

GN: Definitely. The soundclash grant helps a lot. It took a lot of the financial strain off the band and we've been able to do a lot of the things that we've wanted to do for a while. Like being able to rent a studio, which has been a really good thing. We've also been working with a few hired musicians. So we've had a violinist come in who's been writing material, which will hopefully be on the new album.

DK: After you've finished recording, what do you see in store for Seekae as a musical entity?

GN: Take over the world (laughs). I would like to tour the album and get some international distribution and see how it goes overseas. Maybe to do a tour to Japan, it's a bit selfish but I really want to go there for a holiday.

The sound of Trees Falling on People is out on October 17 through Rice is Nice.

By Dominic Kirkwood

Release: Album

To Cure: A predictable playlist