Australia’s electronic music scene has always struggled to find its own identity. Geographically enormous, the nation’s sheer size plays against it with producers denied the ability to foster relationships with like minds.
The past 18 months, though, has born witness to a sea change in the way Australian electronic music views itself. Newly signed to Future Classic (home to Flume, Flight Facilities and more) Seekae could well become the latest export to nestle on these shores.
“Electronic music… it’s massive in Australia, to be honest. I think it’s the music, right now,” explains Alex Cameron. A trio whose music matches the muscle of electro with the cerebral nature of IDM, Seekae are keen to point out, though, that electronic music is far from new to Australian shores.
“A lot of bands get brushed over,” he says, “because the kind of electronic music that was really exciting for us back in 2009 is now on the charts in Australia. That can be great for artists who are successful, it can also be great because the scene where it all came from is forced to change and I think that’s a positive thing. It’s a positive thing to inspire change in a musical movement and I think that’s what we aim to do.”
To date, Seekae have released two albums in their native Australia, with ‘The Sound of Trees Falling On People’ being swiftly followed by ‘+Dome’. While fans at home have been able to chart their progress, the band admit that traveling outside of Australia is a strange, if somewhat refreshing experience.
“We’re ambitious, we want to write more and more music but it’s fun to be in a new town,” he continues. “It’s fun to have a whole back catalogue of music, it’s exciting and it’s exciting to be playing new music as well,” explains Cameron, before adding: “My kind of focus has always been on making good music and that’s what we want to do. If we feel like doing it we make it. I feel like it’s good enough for us to be able to travel and if we get booked in a town and a couple of hundred people come along to fill the room up I’ve got nothing to complain about.”
With Future Classic giving their catalogue a full UK issue, fans are now able to catch up with their Antipodean cousins. The retrospective feeling, though, triggers something else within the trio themselves. “I think a lot of the time when I listen back to my own music I hone in on the mistakes or what I would have done differently but I think we’ve come far enough now,” admits Cameron.
“It’s been five years since we released that first record and I think I’m far enough away from it so I can appreciate it just being its own thing. I never listen back to them so it was nice to hear it again. It’s interesting. I mean, who made this record? Did we make those decisions?”
It’s an experience that has helped trigger the band’s next move. Completing work on their third album – the band’s first for Future Classic – the final mix down took place recently in London.
“We just got the last two mixes back for us next record, so it’s done,” he states. “We just literally got them mastered the other day in London. We did a bit of mixing ourselves, and then we actually got in touch with David Wrench, who works with a bunch of artists that we really like. He’s based in Wales and he completely blew me away with the mixes that he did. So many amazing ideas that you can hear in his work – I couldn’t be happier with the way the record sounds.”
For now, though, Seekae are rejoicing in being able to play live, to bring their music to new people. “It’s very different,” says Alex Cameron of their live show. “Vastly different. Mostly because what we do live is very different from how we make music. So for us, it’s nice for us to really explore the songs and the melodies and the rhythms and see what we can come up with. People seem to be really into it. People seem excited to come down and see electronic music. I think it’s a world people are really excited about right now.”
Find Seekae online HERE.
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