Interview with Seek (E)
Who are Seek ?
SEEK is Lisa Terry (vocals), Freddy Luster (guitar, bass) Billy Fields (bass, keys), Chris Kounelis (keys), Tina Howard (percussion, background vocals), Brad Hasty (drums). We are a six piece band form Atlanta, GA…USA.
How long have you been together as "Seek" ?
6 years as a band and bit longer as a an acoustic project.
Your new album "Journey Into Day" is your third album and has only been released in the UK, on the Dome label, how come?
Actually it’s been released in Japan as well on Village Again. All of our records have been released in Japan and the US… Journey Into Day will be released in February in the US. This is the first album to be officially released in the UK. Surrender was released in Germany also…
Why do you think the Seek sound is specially suitable for the British market ?
We’re actually mainly influenced by UK soul… Seal, Jamiroquai, Sade, the Brand New Heavies, D-Influence, Incognito, Everything but the Girl (though maybe they’re not soul per se) as well as our own soul artists The Isley Bros, Earth Wind and Fire…
How do you describe the sound of Seek ?
Progressive soul… Soul music for the mind and body. It’s organic in it’s composition, yet we strive to incorporate modern day elements that we’re also influenced by… a tad bit of muted electronica and dance floor rhythms.
In the liner notes on your first albums you say "recorded at Freddy's house ..:". And the photo inside "Journey Into Day" suggests an "ordinary" room as well. Is that the way you do it, no studio ?
That room used to be where the studio was. Now, it’s our rehearsal room in the house. There is a studio in one of the bedrooms. The closet is our vocal booth and we run wires through the house for the drums and the percussion back into the rehearsal room. We’ve got that method down to a science. We use different little tricks to get what we want, such as putting a open faced wallet on the rim of the snare drum to dull the sound…
There´s a really nice live/acoustic feel to It, I guess your not into heavily sample action?
Sometimes we sample something to get a feel going, then we change the chords a bit… but that doesn’t happen that often. Billy is more into that kind of thing and it’s cool, because it comes out really different. “Some all night dancing” started off from a sample of a ‘Cars’ song… the chords changed though. But it’s not really sampling in the traditional sense, but more in the musical sense… In other words, we just play it. That’s the beauty of being real musicians, you can really explore the options within music…
What are your expectations for the new album?
Hopefully this will be the album that really does it for us… We worked really hard on this album, from the songwriting, to the production. We applied everything we learned from doing our other albums and put into this… We’re really proud of this… and I think it gives a good scope of who we are.
Got any favorite tracks on the new album ?
Rise, Something Real, Journey Into Day and Talk About It tend to be our favorites. But actually it depends on the mood. I like everything for different reasons at different times. If we don’t like something, we don’t put it out…
What are your plans in terms of touring?
We might be in the in the spring… We’re trying to secure some other dates in and around Europe… spread the word. We’ll go to Japan as well in the spring and we’ll be touring in the states extensively.
Do you plan to make your first two albums more widely available for European cd buyers , though Dome for example ?
Hmmmm… good question. You should ask Dome that one. But if people want them, you can find out where to get them from our website www.seekronized.com.
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