Rock n roll duo, The Sea, consisting of brothers, Peter and Alex Chisholm are riding high right now. With the release of their highly successful, High On EP, earlier this year and arguably one of the best songs on that EP, to be released as a single early next year on 7″ vinyl, Get Up Stand Up Die, out 20th January 2014, and a UK/European tour scheduled for spring 2014, things are just about to get real busy again for this duo.
I caught up with Peter Chisholm, vocalist and guitarist in the band, to talk about everything from the struggles they have overcome, touring the world, being in the best place they’ve ever been as a band right now and what’s next’s for the band. Read on for more insight into this brotherly duo.
Firstly, I’d like to say thanks for this interview. What’s one thing that we should all know about The Sea that we might not know about you now?
Wow that’s a tricky one! Well I guess the most obvious thing is that we’re brothers and both mad keen surfers, we both grew up in Newquay in Cornwall, we were both on the junior British Team – Alex was English Champion…to us surfing was like football was for most other kids growing up anywhere else in the UK!
Am I right in thinking there has been kind of a rebirth within the band recently, with an overhaul of everything: new management, new music and an upcoming tour also?
Yeah there’s definitely been a rebirth, since Alex broke his neck we were ‘all at sea’ (no pun intended). We were at a point where we thought this might never happen, then when we realised that Alex was going to be able to play properly again, we thought “right, lets f**king do this!” Getting the new management was very important, to have someone there supporting you who really gets you and exactly what you’re about was huge for us…in a lot of ways it feels like we’re a brand new band – certainly we have a brand new lease of life post Alex’s accident.
I hear you’ve been working on a new album, what can we expect from that and can you give us a teaser into when it will be out?
Yeah, we’re constantly working on new material, you can expect A LOT in 2014…hmmm let’s see: a few singles, a mini album and then another full album later in the year. Lots of vinyl too! The first single is released on vinyl on Blue Monday in Jan [20th].
Do you feel like your sound has changed much since you guys first started out?
Well I guess we’ve refined it, I think we’re really understanding exactly what the best aspects of The Sea are now and we’re working on that…we’ve experimented a lot over the years: everything from pop to virtually metal at times…now I think we’re truly understanding what and who we are…not just from our perspective but from an audience’s too…I think that’s why we’re so excited about the new year with the new tunes…
You’ve toured a whole lot this year; the rigorous tour schedule must take its toll on you physically and mentally. But having said that on the flipside it is really rewarding also, being able to play to thousands of people every night and travel the world. Do you feel touring is the same now as when you stared out, or have you got a renewed feeling towards it now?
Essentially touring is the same as when we started: same hotels, same touring van. The venues have got slightly bigger, or more importantly they’re more sold out these days but largely it’s the same. Our attitude stays the same – we absolutely love it! We even love living on the lack of sleep…it’s part of it!
We’ve toured more than most bands ever had and to be honest it’s what we live for, on a personal level it’s how we both judge success “oh it’s been a great year, we’ve toured loads this year”. We’re an act that has never fitted into any ‘scene’ and so we’ve always had an ‘us against the world’ attitude – when you’re sat at a service station in Milan at 4 in the morning that attitude helps.
What’s been the craziest city/venue you have played whilst touring and what was the most memorable thing to happen?
Many, many weird places and weird things: a life threatening car crash in Belgium, played a place in Switzerland once which had life size stuffed grizzly bears on the stage with us. Played a place in South Carolina where the support band wore actual suits of armour. Been pulled over by the German police because they’ve never had the chance to look inside a right hand drive car before, so many times it’s not even funny anymore!
After a show in Italy which finished at 4am we were driving back to Switzerland when a coach came flying past us and then it’s back wheel came off, there were sparks flying everywhere, like something out of a movie – but neither of us said a word to each other just calmly drove around it and said nothing for about an hour…we were both so tired neither of us were sure if it was real or not.
We’re big supporters of new music here at Bitter Sweet Symphonies. Having said that, are there any new artists that have caught your attention recently that you’d like to share with us?
Really like Deap Vally and Drenge (nice to see some more 2 pieces rocking out) and there’s a solo artist from Cornwall called Kezia who’s great, she’s got a real soulful voice – watch out for her.
Do you have any tips for new bands starting out, any advice that you could give them?
Just don’t give up, it’s such a hard road but you’ll get those moments where you realise that your music actually means something to some people and that’s an amazing thing. Strap yourself in for a long haul, be nice to everyone you meet, make as many friends as possible, if they’re a dickhead just smile and move on, if they’re decent they’ll remember you’ve been nice and may help you one day. And play as much as humanly possible.
As we are approaching the end of 2013, what’s been your favourite moment of the year so far and what’s next for The Sea in 2014?
2013 has been a weird year for us, I think firstly it was realising that people like what we do – the attention that our single ‘Get Up Stand Up Die’ (released in Jan) has got from the radio in the last few weeks has been a real eye opener (a really good eye opener!). We finally realised exactly who we are as a band, so now we’re so ready to take 2014 on square in the face…We’re like coiled springs right now ready go mental next year.
You have a great relationship with your fans, so finally is there anything that you’d like to say to them right now?
Seriously from the bottom of our hearts: thank you! If you want keep in touch we’re going to keep doing loads of tweets and pics/videos from the road…I’m loving twitter right now…just drop us a message and say hi – our social media sites are run by us not some faceless record label person…it really is us!
Next year we’re going to be doing our biggest tour ever – we’ll try and get to your town! After the gigs come and say hi to us, don’t be shy. We’re going to try to make loads of new music for you all and lots of sexy vinyl. Tell your friends, tell your mum and play our tunes as loud as your stereo will go.
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A special thanks to The Sea for this interview and for more info on the band, check out the following links below.
