...I think you'll like this song...

SEASFIRE came to my attention at the beginning of this year, and I’m already pretty certain that 2012 is going to be full of SEASFIRE, yeah I’m putting that out there. They have a show coming up on Feb 5th at Communion.

With comparisons to The Weeknd and Radiohead already being given to this up and coming Bristol band, I thought I should find out what they think about these reviews. I also found out how SEASFIRE started, their influences and their reactions to all the (deserved) praise.

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How did you guys get together?

We all met at school and college. James our drummer was the last piece of the puzzle. We all just loved music and would swap mix tapes and beats ideas. We would get together and just listen to music, put on parties just so we could play cool stuff to other people like a musical cult.

Have you always lived in Bristol, were artists like Massive Attack and Portishead big influences?

Well we were all born and raised in the West Country. Bristol was somewhere we all hung out and it had that draw. We like cities… we love strangeness and stories and human interaction and loss and how you can be in a city surrounded by thousands of people but if you have a broken heart you can be so lonely, you can wander like a Ghost.

Yeah Tricky and Massive Attack and Portishead all have that common dark alienation about their beats and lyrics - it’s something we aspire to. Although we feel we share the same time as acts like Koan Sound and Burial more than harking back to the early 90’s. But saying that we do love lots of early hip-hop too, so maybe that’s why people think we are a little like the Weeknd!

What would you say were the main influences on the band?

Buckley / Echo & the Bunnymen / Burial… Anything on Hyperdub

Had you listened to artists like The Weeknd while making tracks like “Human Sacrifice” or did the lo fi style come organically?

We are young and like sponges! We listen and we love. We don’t set out to sound like anyone, we just love sad songs and strange beats… maybe they do too? Our lo-fi style comes from the fact we produce ourselves in our bedroom. This might change as we grow. Our songs have become like monsters, massive black holes sucking in the light so it would be cool to work with people who could take them up a notch.

What do you make of the comparisons? Especially to Radiohead (which I can definitely hear on “Falling”)

Very much flattered by the comparison, which era of RadioHead? Feelings of despair and alienation are very RadioHead (ITYLTS- recent era, Reckoner maybe). These themes are in our songs too (like writing a love song to someone who does not even know you exist) and we love piano and a haunting vocal.

The response to “Falling” has been fantastic so far, how do you process that?

It’s just humbling really, we love music so much and the people who take notice of us and enjoy our music become part of our gang.

What big things do you have planned for SEASFIRE in 2012?

Well we have the live shows! On the 5th of Feb we are playing a lovely Communion night in London. They’re a great label and we are so happy to be playing their night. Then we have another show at Bristol Louisiana on the 24th of Feb supporting the very popular Spector, it will be interesting to see what people make of us. Then it’s more recording and writing and maybe another DIY vid for a new song. We just want to take our time and build our live show.

As this is for I Think You’ll Like This Song, what songs would you recommend to us?

Lana Del Ray – “BlueJeans’ (Cruelty Remix)” – a really sad song remixed into a dark italo masterpiece (ITYLTS- ahhhh couldn’t find this!)

‘Beat & the Pulse’ from the Austra album. We love Austra and this album is amazing!