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Seasurfer, “Stay”

From the patron saints and international guardians of dream pop at Sant Marie Records comes the Berlin by Nottingham's Seasurfer, riders of the lush, metallic, and mercurial waters. Dorian E. crashes into the riptides of the corral reefs with a voice that tempts the tempests to open the mouths of floodgates, storms, and high tides. From the group Dark Orange, Dirk is the principle songwriter and guitarist who weathers the sea's high winds and unforgiving convection sweeps of precipitation, anchored by Mikel's command of the bass and rhythmic earth from below. With the recording of their full-length assisted by Spotlight Kid's Karl Skivington, Seasurfer's album, dive in, will be available June 17 from Saint Marie Records.

Dirk's guitar begins the plea of "Stay", as a funneling collection of cumulonimbus clouds gather like anvil shaped thunderheads of sheer, rouge satin. Dorian E. appears in the crimson spotlight frame, where delayed, multilateral frames of guitar strumming visuals of Dirk and Mikel become absorbed into the visual decorum of film tests, and polychromed oils bubbling in the liquid environments. Analog sets, circles, ripples stars, and surface wear flash in flurries of fish, and effects of the oceanic underground, undo all the nightmares in Seasurfer's path of riptides and surfboard breaking swells. The underwater subsonic waves of warning surface from the worlds of red, brief air-gasped blotches of blue, to ride the tide-generating forces of curled rips ordained by the orders and physics of the lunarian gravity-differential field. We had an opportunity to get behind-the-scenes insights from both Dirk, and Saint Marie boss, Wyatt Parkins in the following companion piece accompaniment.

DIRK, Seasurfer's guitarist and songwriter

“Stay" was one of the first Seasurfer songs written and is a bit of a look back at punk rock, but also on dream-pop. I grew up with punk rock, but I must also have a New-Wave and Pop gene. I believe that “Stay" has both. The scenes for the video were done relatively spontaneously after a band meeting in Berlin some weeks ago. I believe we had a bit too much to drink. Fortunately, Wyatt has made a cool, surrealistic film from all of this; I think he probably cut out our worst scenes.

Since the late 80s, I have been in a dream-pop band named Dark Orange, and now it was simply time to move onto something a little noisier. I think the times now are a little bit like they were in the 80’s, when music was somehow about being "against it”. Too much pabulum for the masses today, including Germany where young people listen to awful and empty nonsense. I also wanted to make a sound I have searched for but have found difficult to obtain: guitar noise but still including pop and new-wave. There are some very cool bands in Japan and in the U.S doing this, and we are like very giddy school kids that we can release our music on our favorite label, Saint Marie.

WYATT PARKINS, director, Saint Marie Records operator

I have made videos for several of our artists over the last year and was very excited for the opportunity to do so with a Seasurfer song, especially “Stay”… the sound is so massive! I was a little concerned about being able to match the sound in film. It is easy to get lost in the process because I see so many paths to take and it is hard to choose one. The biggest hurdle is footage. I rely on the bands for footage of themselves since they are located all over the world. Due to the lack of video equipment, the footage is usually filmed with an iPhone, but with the effect-heavy work that I do, it seems to work just fine. I am never completely happy, but there are many scenes in this video that I am still very much in love with."

Seasurfer's dive in, will be available June 17 from Saint Marie Records.