“One of the main differences is that while we were making it, we were all scattered around different parts of the world. The three of us were rarely together,” Nicholas states. “We did get together, maybe two or three times, in the studio to exchange ideas. For the most part it was writing individually and putting the files in the Dropbox, and having someone else work on them; this process of refinement. I guess that comes out in the way the album sounds, this cross-pollination of style and influences and production techniques.
“It’s not like there’s a template we start from with songs,” he continues. “We don’t decide on a palette of tones from the start and build everything from there.”
Nicholas believes it’s a good idea, and perhaps they’ll do something like that eventually, but for now, he doesn’t think they’re organised enough.
“That’s probably why it could be perceived as being diverse in sound. We’re always experimenting with ideas we try and mould into a track. It usually starts with a loop that’s developed into a track,” he states. “It’s not done until it’s stripped from our hands. That’s the difficult thing with making music this day and age. When you’re making records; you’re the composer, the performer, the sound engineer for the most part. There are always things you could go back to – change that bassline, or change that sound. I personally have a lot of trouble with knowing when it’s done. I think that’s why these freakin’ records take so freakin’ long.”
Since the release of +Dome, Seekae have maintained a steady touring rate, consistently selling out decent-sized venues across the country while introducing new material into the set while writing The Worry, however Nicholas points out the performance aspect doesn’t really have a direct impact on the music they make.
“It’s rare that we get together and ‘jam’, and when we do get together and tour, it’s more about hanging out, getting drunk and talking about movies and stuff, rather than doing what we probably should be doing – working,” he says. “That being said, whenever we do get to tour, we will take a couple of days to lock ourselves in a room and force ourselves to make some music, finalise some songs. That can be a really difficult process. You get halfway through a song and there’s a disagreement with the direction that you want it to go in. That can be difficult to resolve over email sometimes, so that’s a good time to get together and nut the ideas out in the studio.”
One of the biggest ostensible differences between the past two Seekae albums is the addition of vocals, a leap that seems more drastic on paper than on record. “When we first decided to make the album, the suggestion of vocals was there, but we never said, ‘Oh, let’s make a vocal-based album,’ just maybe a couple of vocal-based tracks. It just happened that there were vocals on the album; we didn’t change our writing style to allow us to put vocals on there. It just happened that we listened to music that was a lot more minimal and sparse, and that meant that there was room for vocals in there. There were so many different factors that led us to using vocals.”
Performing material from The Worry both nationally and abroad, Seekae eschew the notion of Cameron being the frontman, with obscuring lights, effects, and general mise-en-scène symmetry. “We’re sort of breaking that rule. How it came about, we were planning this record, then Alex showed us this vocal track bashfully, and we said, ‘Well, that’s actually pretty good, since when could you actually sing? Where did that come from?’ Then we started writing these tracks with more space in them, and it happened organically.”
BY LACHLAN KANONIUK
