Seabellies

Mon 16th Aug, 2010 in Features

Seabellies are a band from Newcastle, known for their vast instrumentation and percussive pop sounds. The band is just about the release their debut album By Limbo Lake, and as guitarist Kyle Grenell discusses, it has been quite a journey.

From winning the Garage to V Competition, and securing a number of festival spots in 2007, Seabellies have gone from strength to strength, releasing numerous digital singles, such as Young Cubs to wide airplay and success. Their new single Trans Ending off of the album is one Grenell is particularly excited about.

You are about to release your debut album By Limbo Lake which you have been working on for the past two years, how does it feel to know it will be out soon?
It feels fantastic! Just great to know that the songs we have been touring on are now going to be sent out, completed and ready for people to listen to.

Are there any artists in particular that have paved the way for you, or that you listened to during writing and recording?
We listened to more of a genre than any particular artist, a lot of ‘90s indie rock music. I think that helped us develop and nurture our songs because it gave us a feel of what we wanted to create, rather than looking at a specific band and thinking we want to be just like them. We want to sound like us, so I guess we needed to get a feel of what we liked and things we found interesting, and we sort of pieced it together from there.

You have had a lot of success with previous releases, such as Young Cubs; in what ways do you think it was beneficial to release those singles and EPs?
The process of releasing those singles really helped us develop who we were as a band and what sound we wanted to make. The album opener Ices (Death & Love) started out as this low fi electronic song, but it has since morphed into this orchestral rock number, so we thought it would be a great start to the album. We were able to get a lot of radio play through releasing all those singles as well, which was good because then people became aware of us and we were able to play more shows, and it all kind of progressively helped lead us to the point where we could put out an album.

By Limbo Lake was produced by Wayne Connolly. He has of course worked with many respected musicians such as The Vines and Josh Pyke, what did you learn from working with him?
He is such a great guy! He just works really naturally, and he has a really good idea of how to make things work. He was really good at keeping us tight and under control, because we tend to want to do too many things, but he showed us how things can work better in other ways.

What was it like to record in Albert Studios?
It was great, it is in Neutral Bay, so such a great location which I think helped immensely too, because it sort of became like a home base for us for well over a month. It was good to record with lots of space as well; I think it helps to have space and to be able to think more clearly.

In what ways do you think you have grown/changed since you first started making music?
I think we have really developed our song structure, and we learnt that through each release, picked up elements we thought we could have done differently, so we aim to work on that for our next release. I think we just have more direction overall, more gathered and focused.

What is next for the Seabellies?
Well, we would like to go overseas again; we were in the US a few years ago now, so it would be nice to play some shows over there, but really I think we just want to focus on Australia for a while and really play heaps of shows around the country and enjoy the release of our album. We have already started work on our second album, because this one had been two – three years in the making, and during that time of course we have been continuously writing and forming new ideas and concepts.

So what is By Limbo Lake to you as a band?
It is really a refection for us of what we have achieved so far and where we would like to go. With our next album I don’t think we are going to change who we are, but the songs will be structured differently and there is a growth, I think it will be noticeable, just like people who saw us when we first started out will see us a bit differently to if they come to one of our shows now.

In terms of your live shows, you guys have been known for swapping instruments and creating a bit of chaos on stage, what can be expected in the shows you have coming up?
I think we have really streamlined it and worked on just sticking to our core instruments rather than trying to do everything at once. I think the best bit is seeing Sean [Kelleher] jump off of drums and onto playing horns. We love having that extra percussion on stage, so although we have controlled it more, I think it will be better for organizing it a bit more, but it will still have all those elements on stage, that’s what makes it our show.

How do you feel about the music scene in Sydney at the moment?
I really love Parades; I think they are a terrific band. We certainly feel very lucky to be a part of this bunch of bands around today, it is great because we can all play shows together and be a part of each other successes in a way. They aren’t from Sydney, but Fire! Santa Rosa Fire! are awesome too, so we are stoked they will be touring with us for our upcoming gigs, it should be really great and we can’t wait to see how people will take our album.

Seabellies debut album By Limbo Lake will be released on Friday 20th August