SEA WOLF
The SiS Interview by Greg Grits

Stranded In Stereo recently came across some tracks from LA’s Sea Wolf, the project of Irving bassist Alex Church that’s been in the works on for years. It’s now reached a fever pitch and is garnering him the attention of not only bloggers, but the music industry as a whole. The five songs that have been released as a home made demo EP range from indie folk, bringing to mind Jeff Tweedy at his best (“The Garden You Planted”), washed out indie pop (“You’re A Wolf”) and the ‘60s influenced “Middle Distance Runner” that channels Nico, but you know, if sung by a dude. 2007 is poised to be the year of Sea Wolf and Stranded In Stereo had chance to sit down with Alex Church to chat about where Sea Wolf is going, and how the whole thing got started.

Stranded In Stereo: Most of our readers are going to be unfamiliar with Sea Wolf and its music. Can you give us some background as to how the project began? When did you decide to make music outside of your principal band?

Alex: Sure. Well, I started thinking about doing another project quite a while ago. Say, 2001 or 2002. I’d been writing songs for Irving, which meant writing songs that I thought those guys would like and would want to play. But I just wasn’t that happy with them. They didn’t feel like me. So I decided to let myself just write songs that I liked, most of which ended up not fitting with Irving.

It took a few more years, but Sea Wolf really started when I got the name, in the summer of 2003. But I was pretty involved with Irving at the time, so Sea Wolf only had a small handful of shows for the first 2 years. But they were so well received and so satisfying that I knew it wouldn’t be too long before I would dedicate most of my time to it.

Stranded In Stereo: Is there a difficulty in balancing the duties of being in a band that is active and touring with a solo project that is gaining attention from music fans and labels alike? Have you found yourself in any situations so far where you’ve had to put one project on hold for the sake of the other?

Alex: It’s been a challenge, but as the new Irving record was released only this past April, and we had to tour and support it, I sort of made a decision to commit whatever time was needed of me this year to Irving. But that said, I also knew that I really wanted to push Sea Wolf this year, and so in-between Irving commitments it’s pretty much all I work towards. Luckily there haven’t been any big time conflicts yet.

Stranded In Stereo: The songs on the Sea Wolf EP are very layered, there’s a lot going on. What was the recording process like? Did you record at home, or did you record in a more traditional studio? Were the recordings done gradually, or in just a few sessions.

Alex: Hmm, well just to clarify, that EP is actually just a little homemade thing we did for shows. I started recording those songs, along with about seven others, a little over a year ago with the intent to make a full-length and to shop that to labels and whatnot. So when we do eventually release a record most of the songs on that EP will likely end up on it.

It did take a while to record though, spaced out over a year. Most of the songs were recorded primarily at my house on a two input Mbox. We did a few basic tracks and overdubs at The Ship, which is a professional studio in my neighborhood. And then I did all the vocals at Avast! in Seattle with Phil Elk (Built to Spill, The Shins, Band Of Horses) who also mixed them there.

I hadn’t really thought of the record as being very layered, but I guess you’re right. One thing that I didn’t want to do was overdo any of the songs by putting anything unnecessary on them. If they are layered I think they just turned out that way because that’s what they seemed like they needed at the time.

Stranded In Stereo: Are there any plans to bring Sea Wolf on the road in the near future?

Alex: No dates set in stone, but we’re going to release the record, and hopefully an EP before that, next year so I expect we’ll be on the road quite a bit then.

Stranded In Stereo: How have you translated this project into a live setting? Do you have a regular live band, or is it a rotating line up?

Alex: Right now it’s rotating seven-piece group: drums, bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, cello and violin. It’s a big group. We do have some regular players, and some rotating players. It’ll solidify a bit more next year when we start to tour.

Stranded In Stereo: What are your goals with Sea Wolf? What do you hope to accomplish with the band? At this point is it your primary project? Do you see it becoming your primary project?

Alex: Well yeah, I do consider it my primary project at the moment. Right now it’s just got a lot of momentum that I can’t ignore. As far as accomplishments, well I just hope for the best.

Stranded In Stereo: What artists have influenced Sea Wolf’s sound? How do you feel about the LA Time’s comparisons to The Decemberists and Wolf Parade?

Alex: Well you can’t be an artist of any kind without being influenced in some way by everything you are exposed to. There’s no particular sound, genre or era that I am most influenced by. I like’ 60s rock and folk, ‘70s outlaw country, new wave, contemporary indie rock, sea shanties, 60’s soundtracks, experimental, etc.

Sea Wolf’s sound is mostly a product of what I am capable of doing and being, where I want to go with that and what I want to explore. I do want Sea Wolf to be a contemporary sounding band. Ideally I’d like it to stand the test of time, and therefore be a timeless sounding band, but I feel it’s important to push and expand and look ahead from the sound of the moment.

As for the comparison to Wolf Parade and the Decemberists, even though Sea Wolf doesn’t really sound like either of those bands, there are definitely some elements that are similar and I do see them as my contemporaries. So I’m just fine with the comparison.