[Interview] SEA LEGS

With the release of their new single, ‘Open To Suggestions’ and the beginnings of a promotional tour along the East Coast, front man BYRON KNIGHT of SEA LEGS has plenty to tell. Wearing his signature hat and larrikin persona, he speaks to LOUIE SMITH about the new single, overseas adventures and his disliking for cats. 

It’s been a big year for Sea Legs. You’ve recently released a new single, ‘Open To Suggestions’ off your EP We Do What We Do When We Do What We Do, and are in the midst of a promotional tour up the East Coast. How have people been reacting to the new music?
The vibes have been very positive which has been awesome. I know Triple J Unearthed have really been getting behind it, which has been great. The hype behind the tour has been quite solid and as far as I’m aware, the new single has been received pretty well. Yeah it’s pretty exciting, it’s a track that we all really like and it’s probably the last single that we’ll release off this EP. We’re really looking forward to these shows. We have some cool gigs lined up so it should be good.

You’ve played a few already. How were the crowds?
Um, well, funny you ask. In Newcastle we played at the Cambridge Hotel with Something With Numbers and we had a lot of fun that night. It was really good but there was probably the biggest riot I’ve ever seen break out half way through the Something With Numbers set. They were doing that mosh barge circle thing that they do and someone must have hit someone’s chick and then it all just escalated really quickly and yeah, it got out of control.

We played down the Windsor Hotel on the Saturday night and once again it was a really fun night and it was a good crowd considering the weather was really bad and half the roads were shut cause of flooding and such. So yeah, the first two gigs were awesome.

So you’ve supported some big names such as Art vs Science, DZ Deathrays and Jinja Safari. What is it like now that you’re touring as a headline act and that people are solely there to see you?
It’s really positive. Being a headliner can obviously be a bit daunting but as far as I’m aware, tickets sales are going OK and we’re really excited to see how the shows go but yeah, its pretty exciting to finally be at that point where we can actually headline our own shows and stuff. It’s pretty cool.

‘Open To Suggestions’ has been receiving stellar reviews, with extensive radio play all over Australia and overseas. How does it feel knowing that people in other countries are hearing your music?
It’s really crazy and very exciting. When I was over in America recently we serviced the EPs to about 30 different college radio stations as well as some community stations in the UK. Yeah it’s been going great. We’ve been getting plays on some cool stations over there and you can see on facebook the likes are coming from all over the world. As far as I’m aware, we’re getting some OK international play so that’s rad.

You had the privilege to play some industry showcases over in the US. What was that experience like?
The best one we played was in Brooklyn at this place called Union Hall with a band called Streets Laredo. It was this awesome little venue, like a little dungeon. It was about 100 capacity and the room was just packed with cool people and obviously heaps of industry people too and the show went really well. Yeah, then we had a couple of shows in LA, which were really good too.

I heard you met Sweet Brown at the airport?
Yeah that was definitely a highlight! Haha.

Are you ‘besties’ now?
Oh we seriously are! I was the first Australian she’s ever met in her life, I’m not even kidding. They were as stoked to meet us as we were to meet them. She had this full on large momma entourage. It was pretty funny. They were heaps stoked to meet us and they’re coming out in August. I think she mentioned she wanted to catch up and stuff. So yeah, me and Sweet just rockin’ the town haha. I might get her to feature in a film clip.

Yeah you should!
That would be really cool.

You would get so many likes from that.
It’d go viral! Nobody’s got time for that.

Can we expect a video clip for ‘Open To Suggestions’?
Yeah it’s gunna feature Sweet Brown, haha. Well hopefully. Haha, nah we are definitely going to shoot a video, we’re just chucking around some ideas and concepts at the moment. It can be hard trying to come up with a concept for a video that’s not going to cost you an arm and a leg. Obviously our budget’s not huge at the moment so we’re always trying to think of cool concepts that aren’t gunna blow out the bank too much. But I love shooting clips, I mean I know a lot of people hate it but I actually enjoy it, it’s quite fun. In our ‘Al Pacino’ video, we sort of took ourselves too seriously and I don’t think it worked that well, haha. I think it’s better when we keep it light hearted.

I do have one question about the single artwork. The quote “I had a love affair with a smoking hot cat lover, she had my heart. But I’m allergic to cats” Where did that come from?
It came from an experience I had. I dated this girl back ahh, ages ago and the first date, we went to the movies and it was nice and then we went back to her house to watch more movies, (it was a rainy day) and her house really stunk and I think the reason was there was just heaps of cats. She had about six cats and I’m not much of a cat person, I’m more of a dog person so it was kind of a bit weird. I really liked her but I couldn’t look past that really. There was a lot of cats haha. So yeah that’s where that came from and then I wrote ‘Open To Suggestions’, not like 100% with that in mind but it was around the same time so you know, yeah haha.

Triple J’s Ruby Howe describes ‘Open To Suggestions’ as “a really well realised sound”. Did the writing process differ for ‘Open To Suggestions’ compared to past works?
Well the thing is it was one of the first songs Sea Legs wrote. The reason why we chose this song as a single was because it’s stood the test of time and we haven’t culled it from our sets. We think it’s a strong track and we really like it so that’s why we released it as a single. We had our options for other singles but we just thought this one’s stood the test of time so we’ll go with that.

Is there anything exciting in the works for Sea Legs in the future?
Well we have a bit of a tour announcement for October but I’m not allowed to reveal it yet, but its gunna be big and it’s national. We’re really pumped. I just can’t wait to reveal it. We head into the studio in August and we’re gunna start recording for EP number two, which is set to be released in February next year. So yeah, we’ve been writing a lot for that and we’re pretty psyched on how that’s all coming together. There’s talk of a South East Asia tour early next year too so we’ll see how all that pans out.

Sea Legs perform at The Small Ballroom, Newcastle, on Friday July 12, 2013.