SEABASS // Nothing Fishy Here, Just Killer Indie Rock

Seabass aren’t wasting any time in making their mark on the Australian alt scene.

MORE: How Architects Became One Of The Biggest Metal Bands In The World // BRING ME THE HORIZON: The Tide Is Turning // KILLER BE KILLED: Reluctant Heroes // MR BUNGLE: Surprise! We’re Death! REVIEWS: MR BUNGLE: The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo // BRING ME THE HORIZON: POST HUMAN:SURVIVAL HORROR // KILLER BE KILLED: Reluctant Hero // YOU ME AT SIX: SUCKAPUNCH // CHASE ATLANTIC: Beauty In Death // SEABASS: Always Kidding

Despite a challenging year, the four-piece came together to bring their debut, Always Kidding, to life. The EP is blistering, indie-rock at its finest, and we wanted to know everything about it. We got their lead Annie Siegmann on the line to chat about it, the band’s history, and everything in between.

Hysteria: Tell us about the band and how it got started.

Annie: Ryan (Martin, guitarist) and I have played together in a couple of projects, so we were already in each other’s worlds. One day, I got this email asking to put together a backing band for Pussy Riot for a show at the Adelaide Fringe; I’d always wanted to work with Flik (Freeman, bass) and Kyrie (Anderson, drummer), so we came together. We ended up playing some intense punk; we all come from either folk or jazz backgrounds, so it was nice to rock out…that sounds so lame (laughs). I’d been working on these songs and playing them solo for a while, so I thought it was time to assemble the people I enjoyed playing with and turn it into a band.

Tell us about the band name. It’s an interesting one!

Yes (laughs). I’m pretty fascinated by the ocean, so there’s that, but Ryan and I have conflicting stories on it. My take is that, since three of the four of us are bassists, I thought we should call ourselves a three-bass. It evolved to Seabass somehow. Ryan’s take is we were fishing one day and just decided on it randomly.

Listening to the EP, we picked up on some topics like relationships and climate issues. We’d love to know what else inspired it.

I wrote half the songs a while ago; they’re very classic breakup content. Then there are a few more recent ones, like Burn. I wrote it at 8am one morning. I was furious about the bushfires and the injustices with police brutality; it just came out in one go. I think I wrote it in 10 minutes; I was just screaming out into the void. Last year was such a weird year, and we just wanted to put more of what the band did out there. We collected a range of our songs and put them on Always Kidding. There’s some of those sensitive, folk-inspired tracks and some more intense ones. It’s like the evolution of the band from our early days.

Since three of the four of us are bassists, I thought we should call ourselves a three-bass. It evolved to Seabass somehow.
[ Annie Siegmann ]

Tell us about the recording process.

When we started recording, we were able to have up to five people in a household. Kyrie is also usually off touring internationally, so we took that as the perfect time to do it. Ryan recorded and mixed the whole thing; it was very in-house.

Let’s call it DIY!

Yes (laughs).

We get very angsty, 90s vibes from the EP and think it would’ve worked so well for 10 Things I Hate About You.

When I do write, it’s usually from an angsty place (laughs). I guess most songwriters do use it as therapy. When you’re vulnerable and put that out there, you want it to resonate with someone else.

Who are some of your musical inspirations?

I always come back to old school Kings of Leon. They’ve inspired some of our straight-up songs. Those simple ones, with not too many chords and a catchy guitar line….they’re fun to play and listen to.

I remember being obsessed with Edge of Town by Middle Kids. I thought it was brilliant and kept getting bigger as it went and had angsty bits. Part of me wanted to be like them and make that music.

What can we expect to see from the band next?

We’re just going to try and play more. It’s like we did things backwards; we did some big shows earlier on but now, we’ve gotten to the point where we need to show people what we do. We want to play some smaller shows and get our music out there. We pride ourselves on our ability to put on a good show. We want to do a Victoria regional tour; I’m hoping we can put that on in the middle of the year.