TWO MAGNIFICENT MEN AND THEIR NOISEMAKING MACHINES

[hedmekanik]

Take two regular guys with a penchant for electronic music, throw them in a studio with a mountain of electronic gear (and a few bottles of sherry), and voila! they will produce an album. But it could take a while. Travis Lyle from PY-TV spoke to the rapidly-rising stars of the Durban electronica scene, Seake, after giving their 'Kids With Balloons' EP a listen:

PY-TV: Three years ago you guys busted onto the scene with your homegrown filthy electrotech. Having seen you play live a few times, and listened to the recently-released ‘Kids With Balloons’ promo tracks, I can say that your sound has changed. What’s been going on in the world of Seake that’s influenced the direction your music is taking?

Luke: We’ve been listening to loads of different stuff over past year mostly. In the past we were trying to make techno, the kind of alternative minimal thing that we liked, but over the course of the past 24 months, quickly realised it had become horribly stale... we were trying to be all Berlin or Detroit... but we’re just two young upstarts from the sunny shores of SA...
Malcolm: It got towards the end of last year and we were growing a little tired of our current sound which was a mixture of house influences meshed together with the current techno sounds. Also this type of music is very edit-intensive, meaning most of the elements need to be carefully sequenced in the studio with time on your side. So it was quite difficult for us to replicate our sound on stage, and we wanted to do something more organic that could be played live on stage that still has its roots in technology driven music. That’s led us to use more familiar sounds, and us combining contemporary music with our existing love for computer music. We’ve gone in a slightly African sounding vibe and we hope this will delight SA listeners and overseas punters alike.
Luke: Because we are African, and it’s a shame to not have any of that influence in our music...

PY-TV: Let’s assume there are people out there who know nothing about you or your music. How would you describe the music that you make and what equipment do you use?

L: Our equipment basis is software - we’re not classically trained musicians, but production artists first. We are moving towards instruments, but programming is the basis of our knowledge, and we’re trying to get more musical gear. So that means right now we’re operating on laptops with lots of midi gear - hardware synths and effects boxes. Our sound now is vibrant tweaky electronica with a smooth blend of more traditional instrumentation like using sampled guitars, mallets, keyboards and properly recorded vocals too.
M: Our sound is a wide range of electronic music with warm 'poppy’ tweaked-out programming around a more contemporary backbone. The sound of the album is really different; it’s a mash of styles. We’ve even done a Country and Western type funked up pop track with these rad African vocals! So there’s no real pin pointing to a genre for us.
L: I don’t want to use that classic cliché, but it’s true – we’ve got lots of different influences, and it all comes out in our material. From indie rock vibes to pop, disco to techno, funk to dubstep... it’s all in there.
M: We’re writing stuff that’s happy and frivolous whilst applying our knowledge of programming and computer technique.

PY-TV: OK, let’s talk ‘Kids With Balloons’. How long did it take you to get it to the release stage, and what are your expectations from it?

L: We started on it in November and December last year, and had a creative surge in April and May this year, so we’re now into the final production stages, with about 3 weeks to come before we’re down to what we reckon will be the ‘final finals’ & send off for mastering.
M: With something like this, it can go on forever, so we sat down and made a decision and said ‘Right, that’s it, let’s get it done!’ Our friends have been hounding us for an album and we’ve been all ‘Oh, we’re kinda working on it’, and eventually we just plucked up the courage and got on with it.
L: So... yeah, it’s been…eight months, and we’ve still got some EQ’ing and admin, but we’re chatting to labels, and have had a cover competition where we invited graphic artists and some friends to have a crack at it and design a cover. We’ll just be happy to get it out there, we’re not concerned about being up there with the big boys yet, but rather about getting feedback from people in the industry and punters. Lend us your ears!
M: We want to get it out there in the streams where it can be analysed by the masses, you know? Have it subjected to critical opinion. It’s the right time to let it go now.
L: The biggest expectation from our side will simply to find out whether people think it’s any good or utter rubbish!

PY-TV: My initial reaction to the EP was that your sound had mellowed and become more ‘intelligent’ – are those three tracks any indication of the general direction your music is now taking, or does the album have some secret sonic weapons in store?

L: Those three tracks were simply finished at the time of the promo date, thus they were our choice at that point. They’re not necessarily a fair reflection of where the album is, they’re a kind of…spacey disco/IDM sound, whereas on the album there are a lot of more instrumental tracks, and even a big pop track! The 3-track promo is a little tidbit, a hors d’ouvre – a salmon crouton! So it’s a taster of some flavours that we do, but you gotta come to the restaurant for the full menu.
M: We’re still finding our feet somewhat, so on ‘Kids With Balloons’ we’ve allowed ourselves to be heavily influenced hence the wide splice of genre flirtations. But the EP is a good indication of some of our future intentions.
L: Those three tracks are... a Polaroid moment, so we’re not saying this is our direction forever, just a good time for that snapshot to be taken.

PY-TV: Rumour has it that there are a couple of big-name labels that have been sniffing around. Care to elaborate on your plans for the future?

L: Our initial reaction was to release locally on a label but the majors in SA are too focused and too bothered by sales and hits, so we’re actually in the process of chatting to overseas labels, not that we think we’ll make waves there but they deal with leftfield indie stuff which would suit us better…
M: We would love to release locally, if we can find a label that would be accommodating of our sound. We’re not snubbing the local labels or claiming we’re the next big thing at all but I just don’t think they’d be interested unless they had a mainstream investment prospect in us. The underground European labels have been involved in ‘alternative’ genres for so long and they have the first hand knowledge on the scene. We not trying to get stinking rich and famous, we want our music to get out there and we want people to dance to it and have fun with it like we do.

PY-TV: You’re going to be promoting ‘Kids With Balloons’. Where and when will punters outside of your home stomping ground be able to catch you perform?

L: We’ve been doing a lot of gigs, but wanted to sit down, as gigging doesn’t allow you enough time in the studio. We have day jobs, gotta pay the bills somehow. We turned down a few gigs over the silly season, wanted to give ourselves the time to hone the new sound first.... but i think we’re just about ready to get back on the road...
M: Right now all our focus is on the album, but once that’s bedded down we can start planning something in the near future, then get back on the gig scene and plan some lekker opskops!

PY-TV: Give us a summary of your last three years: how many gigs have you played, and what has been your best gig so far?

L: Hmmm... 25-ish properly live, i think? Initially, both of us playing our stuff as DJs was a lot easier, live gigs require lots of prep; we take days off prior to a live gig to prep. It’s a pain when people say we’re glorified producers because we rehearse as a band and have full command of the sound we put out. But, uh…best gig? Splashy Fen! So much of awesome - the crowd convulsed into a pulse of hot madness! There was this warm, thick sound booming out of that system, that people just went nuts to! To have that top production, I mean, it’s a big event.
M: Ja, Splashy was the best! The amount of positive feedback from that gig was overwhelming! Another highlight was our set in Cape Town at the The Assembly with the Killer Robot crew. We were treated so well - like rock stars! (laughs) ...nice backstage area, booze, great sound and amped punters…top class. And then the ‘Are Friends Electric’ gig in Joburg at the Horror Café. It was a real listening gig and totally unexpected. People would clap at the end of each song the artist performed, very different to what we were expecting but cool none the less. We got great feedback from that gig. It was a total music appreciation society.

PY-TV: Finally, on the topic of electronica – who impresses you the most?

M and L: Locally, people like Lark, MTkidu, Sweat X, Felix LaBand (where are you!?!) Humaniser, Yesterday’s Pupil, BLKJKS, Jacob Israel, 5 Men 3 Missing, Kliktrak, Radar Complex, Goldfish, Veranda Panda/Spitmunky/Liam Magner... lots of talented folks around these parts! International stuff that’s on our iPod includes Tim Exile, Animal Collective, Harmonic 313, Daestro, Clark, Nathan Fake, Burial, Four Tet, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Beirut, Matthew Dear (in any guise), School Of Seven Bells.


Keep your eyes on www.seake.net for upcoming album launch dates and shows, but in the meantime, here's a sneak preview of Seake's album material:

Seake - When She Speaks To Me.mp3

[Editor-in-Chief]

Aha! Note the countrified afro angle! Great contrasts!

[hedmekanik]

Teaser track posted above!

[Editor-in-Chief]

Great work travis and Seake! Grand interview. Now lets please please please have one or two teaser tracks to prep us for the release and of course the live dates. (You guys are being VERY cagey bout those!) Your audience awaits!