Interview: Sea Wolf
Meet You At The Show: So are you excited for the release of “Turn the Dirt Over” as a single?
Alex Brown Church: Yeah I am! Because, well obviously the songs have been out for a while now, but the remix that Brendan Canning (Broken Social Scene) did will be out there and we’re releasing another song that we wanted to put on the record, but didn’t make the final cut. It’s going to be great to get that out there and there’s another song that’s on the vinyl.
MYATS:What sparked the change of Leaves in the River‘s more mellow, intimate feeling to a fuller sound on your latest release, White Water White Bloom?
ABC: Just probably having toured behind Leaves (in the River) for so long, and eventually they took on a new life and became a lot more dynamic we wanted to try to capture that same feeling on the next record.
MYATS: So how was it writing your album here in Montreal?
ABC: It was great! It was really good. I was in my girlfriend’s apartment during the fall and winter, and looking outside the window with the great scenery was really inspiring. Definitely a lot of good imagery there, which was reflected in the album.
MYATS: Favourite thing about Montreal?
Oh, definitely the people. Just the fact that there is such a cultural difference, or diversity. I just found there were a lot of friendly people here. From being in a big city where people are usually a lot more distant and a lot of more protective, there were a lot of really nice people, it was great.
MYATS: How did you find the music scene here compared to somewhere like LA?
ABC: Well, I never really did dig into the music scene there. And it’s different because Montreal is a lot more concentrated, because the area is a lot smaller, there a lot of different scenes and areas while LA is huge and really spread out. Even within my neighborhood there is such an influx of people from other cities that are moving to LA, or leaving from LA. Montreal has such a strong character, and I feel like the music scene is probably a lot smaller just because there are so many less people. So because of that, I would say that it’s a lot more tight knit than LA.
MYATS: Are there any environmental or external factors that affect your creativity while writing?
ABC: Yeah, definitely. All of my travels tend to leave a mark into my lyric writing and any dreams or events that happened over there, that’s usually where I pull into my memory for a lot of the songs. And then you know some songs directly reflect from where I’m at, at that moment. And because I tend to put a setting to a song to a certain place, where I really am can have an effect on where the setting of the song is.
MYATS: I know it was a while back, but how do you feel about your contribution of “The Violet Hour” to the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack? Because of the mass population that it reached, do you feel like you gained new fans that may not have been interested otherwise? How do you feel about the whole Twilight “scene”?
ABC: I’m actually pretty unaware of it. I mean I’m aware of it but I don’t have any friends that are crazy Twilight fans – I shouldn’t say crazy twilighters – but I’m not really involved with it too much. We did a show with Death Cab for Cutie and a whole bunch of other bands in LA, for the release of the soundtrack, and that was pretty crazy the amount of people that came. Oh yeah, definitely. I mean I think it’s good exposure but it’s hard to really say how much it’s really doing, on a trajectory.
MYATS: So you were asked by Augusten Burroughs to contribute an original song for his audio book A Wolf At The Table. How was it writing a song with such a clear story to base it on in your head? Was the story a rendition of Little Red Riding Hood?
ABC: It wasn’t so much writing a song about that book, but more about being inspired. I was just going to write a song that after reading the book (was inspired by) the different feelings and the impact it had on me afterward. The direction that I got was just do whatever I wanted to do.
MYATS: So what kind of sound are you aiming for in the future?
ABC: Its hard to say until I start writing – I don’t have all the songs for the record, and I don’t know what songs of those will be on the record – so its hard to…I mean that’s what’s really going to determine what the sound of the record is going to be. I mean it sort of feels like it’s going to be a cross between the first and second record, where I want to sort of bring it back to me a little bit.
MYATS: And just mellow out a bit?
ABC: Yeah, just mellow out a little bit. Like, “Turn The Dirt Over” for example, that song was sort of like the jumping off point of the next record, but at the same time I don’t really know how the songs are going to end up coming out.
MYATS: What has been the latest album/artist discovery to blow your mind?
ABC: I really like the new MGMT album. That’s definitely my favorite album of the year. I try not to listen to too much new stuff. Actually when I’m writing I try not to listen to too much at all, to avoid influencing anything. For me, I kind of like old, weird stuff.
MYATS: Do you ever feel intimidated by the seemingly endless masses of acoustic singer/songwriters/folk artists in the music scene these days? What do you do to differentiate yourself from the pack?
ABC: No, because I don’t really consider myself to be one of them. I mean, we don’t really think of Sea Wolf as a singer songwriter, I think of it more like a band. I mean were a little folky but we have some wild rock moments as well. And going out on this solo tour by myself, that’s not what I want to do, and I never intended it to be that way. But I feel like I have two records out now, and that’s what people know now; the band and not just a guy with a guitar, and its going to be a kind of special show.
MYATS: How come you decided against getting the full band?
ABC: Generally because all of my friends at the time were already in other bands. I mean they would play with me, but they weren’t really committed. I wanted it to be a band with full time members but I also didn’t want to wait around for full time members for so long, so I just decided that whatever it was is what it should be.
MYATS: How did you like working with Mike Mogis? What different approaches did he use compared to your last album?
ABC: I loved working with Mike, hes a really sweet, nice guy. It was kind of a learning experience for me, when you work with a different producer they all have their own little tricks and experiences that you learn from. They all have their own method and it really expands your repertoire. We really did one instrument at a time in the studio, then put it all together and because we were all playing separately we kind of lost that energy of all playing together. One thing that Mike is really great at is getting things to sound really good without having to change their character. He knew which things to keep and which things would work to make it sound really natural and also really good.
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We would like to extend a big thank you to Alex Brown Church for taking the time to chat with us and wish him luck on his forthcoming solo tour. You can catch Sea Wolf live in Montreal on Wednesday, September 22nd at Il Motore. Tickets are $12.00 in advance and can be purchased via Blue Skies Turn Black by clicking here.
Interview by Amelia Robitaille
