What is your name and role within Seabass?
My name is Annie, I sing, write all the songs and play guitar in SEABASS (as well as managed the band up until recently. We also have some answers peppered in from Ryan (guitar and makes all our records)
Where are you currently based?
Annie: We are TRAPPED in Adelaide. Nah, its pretty cool.
How did Seabass form?
Annie: myself, Kyrie and Flik were asked to play with Pussy Riot as their band in 2019… We thought after wed had a taste of the big stage together blasting through huge Ampeg bass rigs and Fender twins we better keep on going. Myself and Ryan had been playing together in another project so I brought us all together a few months after that! (Are Russian activist session musicians a thing? Apparently yes.
What’s been happening recently and how has your Covid experience been so far?
Annie: We’ve been working pretty hard on the release of our single ‘Burn’ as well as getting all our ducks in a row for our launch of our debut EP.
Ryan: Yeah, COVID has been disappointing but it gave us time to make the EP.
Your new single ‘Burn’ from your forthcoming debut EP ‘Always Kidding’ is out now, what influenced the sound and songwriting for Burn and the EP?
Annie: Burn pretty much just spilled out one morning… I was pretty wired about the mismanagement of last year’s bushfire season as well and one of the most outrageous acts of murder of an indigenous Australian at the hands of police. I was furious and desperate and so from that the song came.
Ryan: Influence wise there’s some 90s rock in there.
What does Burn mean to you?
Annie: Burn is a call to arms, a plea to not become complacent or to turn away. Burn is me desperately asking if others can see what I’m seeing and needing to do something about it.
How did you go about writing the music for Burn and the EP?
Annie: I have been sitting incubating some of these songs for a few years, some are definitely more recent. I just needed to figure out what they would be used for and how we would use them. They all started as fairly low-key kind of country inspired folk tunes but now (thanks to Ryan, Kyrie and Flik) they’re face melting indie-rock bangers.
Where and when did you record and who with?
Annie: We recorded everything at Ryan’s home studio which he has been operating out of semi-professionally for a little while. Ryan is responsible for recording, mixing and production.
Ryan: Along with any production ideas the band had along the way.
What can we expect from Always Kidding EP?
Ryan: We tried to get as much of a picture of the band as we could in an EP format. Each of us has a fairly wide range of skills. Some tracks are concise rocky belters others do their own thing and play by their own rules. We tried to get as much of our usual set down as possible in EP format and polish it through some extra production. It’s a power packed morsel.
Annie: In all honesty we’ve accidentally recorded an almost album… It’s a long EP or a short album. Extended extended play.
What programs/instruments did you use?
Ryan: Annie drafts her ideas up on Logic Pro then I record and mix on Pro Tools. It’s a pretty sanded rock config with two guitars, bass, drums and a bunch of BVs behind Annie’s huge vocals.
How did you approach the recording/production/mastering process?
Annie: We tracked everything at Ryan’s studio. I was pretty depressed at the time so I mostly just tracked when I was asked to and the rest of the time I just played Civilisation V whilst spilling dip and crackers on Ryan’s bed.
Ryan: We tracked some things completely separately and some stuff we tracked together. Vocals were done separately. Backing vocals were a riot because the band would all take turns at their part while taking turns lying down (This is what happens when you’re mixing console is in your bedroom). Annie and I had a feedback session where we boarded up the door of the studio and cranked our amps and grabbed an entire take of obnoxious noise over the whole EP – then I grabbed parts that sounded cool and mixed them in.
Annie: For some reason now Ryan no longer lives with those people…
Who are you listening to at the moment?
Annie: Well… Obviously Phoebe Bridgers and Fiona Apple… Oh and WAP on repeat… Honestly, if I can have a day where I hear WAP five times in a row, that’s a good day.
Ryan: Phoebe Bridgers and The BeeGees.
What do you like to do away from music?
Annie: I like gardening… I dabble in PlayStation, I’ve been playing Red Dead Redemption 2 and I finished the remastered Tony Hawk as well a while back.
Ryan: Nintendo Switch – Zelda and Mario Party with my housemates.
What’s planned for the remainder of 2020 going into 2021?
Annie: Crossing my fingers that we might be able to play a show in real life again soon and dropping the EP early next year.
Ryan: I’m going to finish putting together my new studio space and wait for the apocalypse to blow over.
When will the EP drop?
Annie: I think you’re like the second people we’ve told but February 17, 2021 and HOPEFULLY we get to have a launch show in Adelaide the week after that at Jive but stay tuned.
Favourite food and place to hangout?
Annie: Oh man, theres this spicy nut mix thing at my supermarket that I think I’ve eaten like 20kg of over the past few months. Ummm vegan Magnums. I like hanging out at Ryans house.
Ryan: Party pies and my studio.
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