//Interview\\ Seek Harbour: 'as time has gone on we are all becoming more of a unit together.'

From trouble in Dover Castle to Spice girl world domination secrets, Seek Harbour are no strangers to the adventures of being a musician, off the back of their latest single release ‘Far from home’, I spoke to Edwin about all things Kent and the reason why police turned up at their music video shoot.

What is the significance of your band name?

As we all grew up and live on the coast we went with a slightly nautical theme as it brings us closer to our home. "Seek Harbour" is to look out for any harbour whilst either sailing or lost at sea. Seeking the harbour until one is found. In doing so is to find comfort, safety, and most of all...home.

Within Seek harbour is the songwriting a collaborative effort or is it more of a go off separately and then come back together and play kind of deal?

From the beginning, our guitarist and programmer CeeJay was the one who wrote a song idea and showed us. From here our drummer does his own take, I suggest extra/fewer notes and provide runs and minor vocal ideas, Loz will play around with either pitched screams, emotional, hardcore and just screams. We will see what we like and then we all go in and think of lyrical concepts.

It has changed a little throughout the process, CeeJay is picky when it comes to his own writing as he likes certain things a certain way (as he's good at this by himself!) but as time has gone on we are all becoming more of a unit together. CeeJay will continue to do most of the writing (as his ideas come from some unknown place!) but we have helped with lyrics, saying what we like and don't like and sort of guiding CeeJay from afar as a unit.

That's the long answer! We all learn our parts separately then unite in the studio and for band practice.

Who is one artist, from any genre, you would love to sit down and have a drink with?

Oh, great question!

I will do you one better and ask each of the guys for you:

Me (Edwin) - Jack Black because I bet he's a load of fun!

CeeJay - "John Mayer because he's better at guitar than me."

Loz - "The Spice Girls because they took over the world and I want the secrets."

Simon - "James Hetfield from Metallica and ask him about the whole Napster saga when everyone was downloading music and they were against it. There were lots of funny cartoons about it years ago so it'd be great to show him one of the cartoons and ask him what he thought about the whole ordeal"

Far From Home is your latest single, what can you tell us about the process of making that song?

As I said in a previous question, CeeJay comes up with a half midi half audio track from his home mini-studio and throws it forward to us, we then learn our parts at home staying within communication until we hit the studio, it's a process that really seems to work! It didn't take long to get it right in practice either, which was a relief! Imagine if we could only play our parts when we weren't together! Haha!

What are some of your favourite moments from creating the music video for the newest track?

Oh no! I remember well haha!

There was a very nice guy named Ross who was sent to look after us as we filmed on the site of The Dover Castle, so we didn't get up to mischief. He had great long hair and a beard, turns out he was a metal-head! We all had a great chat.

We also ended up using so much smoke from the smoke machine that it filled the building and poor Ross was getting a bit nervous as every time we opened the door it wafted out looking like a fire was coming from inside, then halfway through the day a police car appeared and parked next to our vans!

Turns out they just ride up to do terrorism checks (and eat a spot of lunch!)

But the whole day as a whole was pretty fun, despite how cold it was in that unheated structure!

Where is one place you would love to play this year and why?

This year? Tough one!

Any festival would be absolutely incredible if I'm honest. Download Festival would be incredible. There would be a sweet irony in being able to play an Impericon Festival as our guitarist CeeJay saw Being As An Ocean there and then decided (after originally saying no!) to start the band after leaving the festival inspired.

After you first get to a city, you’re playing what is the first thing you look for?

Oh, I love cities, we probably all look for our venue. We load in and get sorted.

After that or sometimes before that if we've got there early is a great eatery or a nice bar, we have some interesting diets within our group so it's always a fun challenge, but we all love food!

What is the Kent music scene like at the moment?

There are a few spots in our hometown that put on afternoon jazz sessions, open mic sessions, rock, blues, all sorts. Most of them, free entry to keep people out on the weekend.

Then there are other venues within Kent such as the Booking Hall in Dover bringing down big-name artists and large tribute acts, The Tunbridge Wells Forum.

I'm not too clued up on the music scene around Kent as much as I am within my hometown but I'm sure there's a festival called Lounge On The Farm and definitely Smugglers Festival bringing in an eclectic mix of music. There are some very interesting bands around here but not many of them delve into rock. It's not bad at all in Kent!

What is one lyric from any of the Ep tracks that you feel resonates with you most at the moment?

It probably has to be Far from Home. "You'll be fine, it'll work out somehow."

Although this is intended to be said to a partner you're leaving, I often say it to myself.

What can fans expect in the coming months after the EP’s full release?

We now have enough tunes to start playing shows, touring, and gigging more this year! We are hoping to now start getting ourselves out there more, it's almost been a build-up behind the scenes to get us ready to be more seen.

I even heard CeeJay mutter the word "Album...?"

You can watch the music video for Seek Harbour's New Single 'Far From Home' below