Gearing up for their set at Tramlines on the Friday on the Leadmill Live Stage, we caught up with Ciara from the Sea Monsters all about their sound and what it’s like to be playing in the same band you started when you were 13.
You started the band when you were 13, right? When do you think it changed from just a group of friends messing around together with music, to an actual band playing venues and performing your own headline tour?
I think we’d been writing songs for a few years, but not good ones. And then we just started to hone in our sound and think about how we wanted to sound rather than just writing whatever came to our heads. And as soon as we started to do that, we got better offers for gigs and festivals, and I think that being that bit older did help. I’m really glad we’ve been in a band since we were so young, and since we were 13, we were saying, ‘Oh, we want to go on tour!’ but I think that we were just not really ready. It’s good to have that experience, but I think it’s good that we didn’t get offers that were as good until a bit later because we definitely improved and it’s good for people to see the best version of the band.
It’s said that you describe your sound as ‘indie glitter’. Can you explain this a bit more?
Indie glitter was something that we came up with when we were about 16 because we always used to wear glitter on stage and we were like, ‘Right, we’re going to make this our thing!’. And I think it was based off the sound of the keyboards in our songs being kind of shimmery, but I think we’re starting to grow out of that a little bit as we get older, but we’ve still got the indie glitter tag following us everywhere!
So would you describe your music as something different, now that you’re not 16?
Yeah, I think that we’d go for more of a 80s influence-synth-pop-indie-thing! Or something like that!
So would you say that your sound has changed pretty dramatically since you first started?
Yeah definitely, I think when we started we were writing pretty basic sort of short catchy pop songs, which weren’t bad necessarily but I think that we’ve improved as musicians and we’ve obviously got better instruments. We’ve got a really good sample pad now and keyboards that allow us to sound more the way we want to and I think that we always sort of had the 80s idea in our head but just couldn’t make it with what we had at the time. But as we are improving as musicians and buying new instruments, it’s becoming more of what we always wanted it to be.
You’ve been together around 6 years? What does a band need to be to be able to stay together so long?
6/7 years. I think it really does help to be friends. I know some bands form because they all play instruments and I understand how it can work, but I think the fact that we’ve all pretty much been friends since we were little kids has really helped us. We were friends already, and this is just another thing for us to do together. We’d be hanging out just as much as we do anyway so it doesn’t really make a difference that we’re playing instruments, it’s just another thing to do that we really love. Our friendship’s definitely grown through being in the band together; we’ve shared so many amazing experiences and I think our main thing is that we always put our friendship before the band. Even though the band is important, it’s also important to check on each other and we know each other so well by now that if someone’s down, we’ll know it. It’s important to just be friends.
Do you think it ever makes it more difficult the fact that you’re friends?
I think sometimes, because it does make it a little bit harder if you disagree with something in a song, but generally it’s really good and made us the band that we are.
Apart from playing music, what is your favourite thing to do as a group?
We’re all sort of really into a lot of different creative things. We’re all at uni doing things like film and art and music, so we do a lot of creative stuff outside of the band like making our own music videos and art work- it all sort of relates back to the band, generally.
Speaking of uni, aren’t you all spread out at different ones? How is it balancing being in a band with members in different places, at the same time as doing a degree?
It’s hard because some of us are in Sheffield, some are in Manchester, and some are in York and we’re based in Sheffield where we come back to practise. We’ve all got part time jobs along with uni and the band as well, and we always say the band takes priority because it is really what we want to do. We’re making it work just because we want it so work so bad, so that I don’t think we’d ever let anything stop it from working. But it is hard, and getting six people in one place is a nightmare!
Would you say it’s better or harder putting a song together for 6 people as opposed to a smaller group?
In some ways, probably harder to write but it produces a better song because we’ve got 6 people with all quite different music tastes and influences with all quite different ideas, but it just kind of works. We’ve got quite a good system now because we’ve been doing it for so long- just putting all our ideas together and making an outcome we’re all happy with. We all like our songs a lot, we’d never write something we wouldn’t personally listen to.
What do you think was the biggest moment for your band so far? (best achievement, when you started to feel successful, best gig)
I think last year as a whole was a massive year for us. It was sort of the first time we were on the festival circuit; we did the Isle of Wight Festival, Tramlines, YNOT and Truck. It was just massive for us because a lot of these festivals, we’d previously paid to go to just to watch our favourite bands, and to be playing alongside massive names and just to get the experience of doing it as an artist rather than just someone going to it is really cool for us. I also think the end of last year was big as we had our first tour which has always been a massive thing for us. We’ve said since the very start that we just really want to do a tour; we want that feeling of getting to stay over somewhere because you have a gig the next day, playing in London and then driving to Brighton at like 3 in the morning.
How does playing at a festival compare with your other gigs?
It is quite different because at a festival you do notice the crowd moving in and out a lot more whereas they wouldn’t really do that at a gig. It’s quite good because you do get families and people who wouldn’t necessarily come and see you just wandering in and it might turn out that they really like you and they’ll come to a gig that you’re playing in future. I think, generally, people are just really happy at festivals and they’re there to have a good time and I don’t think people mind if they don’t know the bands, people are coming to the smaller stages and are keen to find the next big thing. I think we always have a really positive attitude at festivals- people are always really nice to us.
What can we expect to see from your set at Tramlines?
We’ve got a new song that we’re playing for the first time at Tramlines which we’re very excited for. We’re bringing out the songs that we feel are kind of festival appropriate and a bit dancy and maybe a cheeky cover as well.
What does playing at Tramlines mean to you, being a local band? (Does it feel more comfortable playing in your home city or make you more nervous?)
I think more nervous in some ways, like we’re really nervous for this gig because at the start of the year we were touring, but we’ve not played in a while, and to come back to Sheffield and this be like our almost home coming gig at Tramlines is a really big deal. But it’s also so exciting, especially as Tramlines has just grown and grown and we’ve seen it do that because we’ve been there from the first year, even before the band, when we were going to it. It’s just really cool to see the kind of massive names they’ve got on now and to see our name alongside them- it’s insane.
Who’s your favourite act playing at Tramlines? (apart from yourselves)
There’s so many! Reverend and the Makers are definitely a massive influence for us so we’re really excited to see them, and then Johnny Marr is my hero so I’ve got to see him.
If you weren’t pursuing a career in music, what would you be doing?
Probably something to do with film because I’m doing film at uni, so probably making music videos.
Any tips for any young teenagers just starting out? How to make a band work?
I think definitely just write and don’t overly think about it. Some people do try too hard to sound like another band because they’ll be influenced by someone, and they’ll try to be them. The thing to do is to just sit down with your mates and just write loads of songs- even if they’re bad, just come up with ideas and mess around until you find something that you think works. Just don’t get frustrated when not everything sounds good because everyone’s written a band song, even the Artic Monkeys, you just don’t have to ever play it.
Where would you like to see the Sea Monsters being in ten years?
Headlining Glastonbury, ideally! We want to be the biggest band in the world!
