Nestled in the corner of the bar on top of the soon to be packed out Wardrobe I sat down with the nations arguably most underrated ballad composers, Seafret, to talk about their new music, inspirations and the limited possibility of a sax lead new album.

Harry and Jack, with pints in hand, seemed right at home in Leeds- the nearest show to their home of Bridlington on a tour which has taken them to Europe and back. On this, their third date on sold out UK soil, you can tell they are revelling in the opportunity to play a room full to the brim, even if it means turning away friends who were unable to squeeze onto an overfilling guest list.

New music was first on the agenda following numerous indications of studio time on social media. On asking how it all was going; “we’re getting there, it’s exciting. We did two weeks at the start of the year and got four tracks down, and then we’ve got festivals and stuff in the summer, a little German tour and then we go back in to finish it up. By the end of the year it should be out.”

The two Yorkshire lad’s recent Monsters EP seems to have summoned in a new stage for Seafret’s soundscape, and they seem to agree. “It’s more us though. Not to say that the first album wasn’t us, but this is where we are now, it is a bit more raw. We just experimented and found ‘Monsters’ and was like “this is fucking great!” Like we don’t want to write singer/ songwriter songs. We love choruses and wanna write banger tunes you know? Ones we can enjoy playing live. We wanna write the new ‘Billie Jean’.”

‘Loving You’ is their first single post-EP: a love ballad which fights Lewis Capaldi’s ‘Someone You Loved’ for tear jerker of the year. Stripped back and bare, Jack and Harry have left a bit of their heart wrapped up in the sensitive piano. Filming the video, however, seems to have been a complex affair. It seems getting a piano to the top of a muddy hill on the Isle of Skye was just as complex as it sounds.

“We carried that piano. There was 6 of us all around the corners… [We had] 200m to carry it through all these swamps and tiny little rivers, doing 10m, then put it down, and then move it again. We were all at different levels and it fell onto the director at one point and we thought he had broken his ribs all day. The things you do for a music video. When it was up in the right place everyone was excited so we had a can of beer.”

“The things you do for a music video”

Making a new album is never an easy task, as Harry remarks “it’s a process, and one that’s very cutthroat to yourself. With the first album we had songs which we just didn’t put on it because they didn’t fit. It’s like “aww I liked that one.”” The answer of tackling a concept album brings a resounding “no” accompanied with a joking example of a seven-song album based on Jack’s weekly routine, complete with a provocative rap chorus. Additionally, if you’re holding out for a Seafret sax solo anytime soon, you’ll have to wait a while longer whilst Harry learns the jazz flute and convinces Harry that it’s a business opportunity to, and I quote, “break into new territories”.

Beyond making music themselves, it’s blindingly evident that Seafret simply love music. Watching the glorious Gaz Coombes in Hull left the band sticky dancing the night away and getting up to the rowdy antics which turn a good gig into one which will stay with you forever. “Everyone was quite quiet and attentive… so I picked Harry up at one point by his arse and his back, lifted him up and started bouncing him around. I ended up taking my top off and throwing [my new merch] t-shirt into the crowd. It was quite a bouncy thing, someone even punched me at the end of the night, and I lost my ray bans- it was a good night. Like flat out. I was just really excited, I think if you go to a show you really love, it’s okay to lose your dignity.” Words I think we can all live by.

“I think if you go to a show you really love, it’s okay to lose your dignity.”

As last Friday brought with it International Women’s Day, the focal point of women in the music industry was discussed attentively with a band not ashamed to go and rock out to Dua Lipa amongst a sea of girls in Wales. “First Aid Kit I bloody love, I just like everything about them. St Vincent as well, the first time I saw her was on Graham Norton in red spandex with an electric guitar and I was like “okay, okay, is this real?”” On the wider industry, “actually at the labels nowadays lady’s run the show. All the male execs are running around like “What do we do now”. I don’t think you can beat it, our manager, [for example], she’s brilliant.”

Sitting down with Seafret I can feel the energy bubbling up inside them as the time ticked ever-closer to the gig. The boys are honestly brilliant. Having grafted their way from busking in the streets to where they stand today their new album is undoubtedly going to be an addition to the Seafret discography which sold out rooms around the country have been waiting for.

Header Image Credit: Richie Bolgiani