Regulars of Adelaide's indie music scene for the better part of a year-plus now, SEABASS have gone and released their debut EP, a seven tracker titled 'Always Kidding'.
A mix of indie pop and rock sensibilities married to five years of songwriting for Annie Siegmann, 'Always Kidding' comes to life with a group of songs that span epic, hectic rock-outs to introspective singer-songwriter meanderings."This EP is a collection of songs that have been accumulating over the past five years – it's taken that long to take the leap to creating for my own band," Annie says.
"The EP is really us honing our sound as a band. It has hints of the lonely singer-songwriter in a bedroom late at night, and then leans heavily into a guns-a-blazing guitar-centric, power drum territory."
Fans of Middle Kids, Ali Barter and The Preatures will find instant appeal with SEABASS, who first arrived on the scene when they landed a support gig with Pussy Riot in 2019.
Annie is joined in the group by Flik Freeman, Ryan Martin John and Kyrie Anderson. "['Always Kidding' EP is] a showcase of the band's skill and just how exciting SEABASS can be," Annie says.
"The fact that we recorded and produced it ourselves with Ryan at the helm as engineer allowed us to highlight some huge drums, catchy, powerful vocals and soaring guitars.
"At the end of the day, I'm just happy that my friends want to play music with me. And they happen to be some of the biggest, badass motherf...ers in the world."
Ahead of the band's launch show at Jive in Adelaide (27 February), Annie shares a few more details about each track that features on 'Always Kidding'.
'Burn'
We've heard a lot about 'Burn' already but just to recap: Urgency and frustration about the bushfire mismanagement by our sh.tty Prime Minister and the murder of Kumanjayi Walker. Flik's basslines are melodic and beautiful.'Right Fit'
'Right Fit' was the pre-emptive break-up song that I wrote about a super problematic relationship. I feel like the song has reclaimed a little bit of power, which is hopefully conveyed in the vocal delivery particularly in the bridge.'Always Kidding'
Our second single released a couple weeks ago. Also the title of the EP. We're all a bit silly, this song is silly but also groovy as hell.'F...ed It Up'
'F...ed It Up' used to be written from a completely different perspective. It used to be centred around me f...ing up a relationship, but as that relationship ended and I gained some perspective (and regained some power) I decided to change it to: "You f...ed it up."It has become a pretty popular staple in our live show and definitely gets the crowd singing along with us. One thing that really lifted this track was adding the drums hits in the pre-chorus. It used to have a gradual fill into the chorus, but now it's much more hard-hitting and Ryan has mixed Kyrie's HUGE drums beautifully to make them larger than life.
'What I Need'
"You're not what I need now, I promise you." I realise that a lot of the lyrical content on the EP signifies growth and boundary setting in personal relationships. Knowing when enough is a enough and knowing when to walk away.'Black And Blue'
We love playing this track live and we loved recording it. The guitars and exploration of tones and balls-to-the-wall rock wailing was really essential in this track.'Wolves II'
When I wrote this song, I had no idea what it would grow into. We recorded this one in one take and the amps were smoking afterwards, so we hit save on it and sent it straight to Spotify. Just joking.But seriously though, we recorded bass and drums (and a guide guitar so I could be in the same room). We love how this track descends into chaos and really showcases everyone individually as players.
SEABASS' EP launch takes place at Jive (Adelaide) 27 February. They'll be joined by Oscar The Wild and Mum Friends.
