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The duo from Bridlington, England, Seafret -consisting of Jack Sedman and Harry Draper- became known around the world, when they released their debut album “Tell Me It’s Real” in 2016. An album through which they talk about their entire history until then, their move to London, their first contract with a major record label and plunging head-first into an industry they could scarcely understand.

After trying it, they decided to regain their independence so after returning to their base they released their second album “Most of Us Are Strangers”, proving they were right about their desicion! Their fanbase continued to grow and hits like: “Atlantis”, “Pictures”, “Hollow”, “Running Out of Love” etc. made them known beyond the British borders, giving them the opportunity to make their music known even in countries they would never have imagined.

They recently released a brand new song, “See, I’m Sorry”, which despite its apologetic meaning, is an up-tempo song that once again got their fans excited, especially when they made it clear that this is the first single from their upcoming third album. 

That alone was a good opportunity to have a talk with them and ask them -literally- about everything! So how did Jack and Harry meet and how did they decide to form Seafret -if you’re still wondering what their name means, don’t worry because they answered that for us too-. What are their future career plans and what would be a dream collaboration for them?

Read everything in the exclusive interview they gave to SounDarts.gr

Hello Seafret and welcome to SounDarts.gr! Great news was coming from you as you are heading out on your first tour of 2023. Are you excited? What can people expect from your shows?

Harry: We’re very excited! It feels like it has been years since we’ve been on tour. It was just before covid when we were last on the road. We’re ready for it! We got a new album coming so there will be many new tunes. It’s going to be great!

Jack: It’s going to be nice to play the new songs and some of the older stuff as well, but the new stuff is exciting for us because obviously no one’s heard a lot of it. I think we have a couple more tracks that will be released before the whole album and before we go out on tour. It’s exciting!

Recently, you released your new, up-tempo single, entitled “See, I’m Sorry”. What’s the story behind it?

Jack: It’s just about being sorry for things that you’ve done, messing up and mistakes that you’ve made in your life. I think everyone’s got something that they can be sorry for a little bit and sometimes it’s hard to speak up about it. Sometimes you might have things in your life that are small things but they just stay with you and you think you should have been a bit more apologetic. Also it just seemed quite universal when we were writing it but that was the main reason. An apology song, but a happy one weirdly.

Harry: Which is strange! It’s like “Sorry! I’m Happy”

Do you feel like you need to apologize to a specific someone?

Jack: Always!! I won’t say this on camera though! haha

Harry: A lot to apologize to!

How did you manage to organize the whole procedure for its music video, as it has some fan-made clips?

Harry: It was amazing! Our fans will always, get involved if we want them to, and they’re always there for us. So when the idea came about and we put the message out for people to apologize on video for us, we got so many. It was amazing! Some really deep ones as well! But then some funny ones like: “I’m sorry for selling the family TV to buy a Seafret ticket”.

Jack: There was something we didn’t know when we were talking about doing the video. We didn’t know what the reaction would be from the fans because there was a quite short deadline and we didn’t know how many videos we would be sent. I think within a week or so, we had over 70 videos and people just taking time to make really nice signs and actually think where to do it because they had nice backdrops and stuff. We’re always surprised by our fans.

I can understand that you have a great interaction with your audience. Are social media useful for this purpose?

Harry: Yes! We wouldn’t be able to do it otherwise. I think it’s great to for stuff like this. You can reach out to them whenever you want. It can be quite personal, it’s lovely!

Can you share with us a remarkable story with your fans?

Jack: I think when we turn up to countries that we’ve never been before or never even dreamt of arriving, it’s always been a bit of a shock when you turn up and there are people waiting outside the venue for you. From starting out, I don’t think we ever thought that we would be going to places like Brazil or anywhere that’s just so far away from what we’re used to and then to arrive and be welcomed like we have already been there, that has been pretty incredible!

 Have you ever been in Greece?

Harry: I went on honeymoon in Greece! It’s really nice! We haven’t played in Greece but we’d love to play in Greece.

Jack: I have been in Greece yeah!

Your musical story began in 2011. Tell me more about the connection between Jack and Harry and how you ended up in the form you are today?

Jack: We were playing at an open mic night. It was my first time going to one of these kind of nights and I saw Harry performing there with his dad’s band. He was playing a banjo at that time. It was very fresh from its birth like, playing live. It was in a small pub venue and there was no microphone or anything.

Harry: We just had to kinda get up in front of everybody and play acoustically. It’s very intimidating actually, if you look back!

Jack: So we did that and we met that night. I saw Harry playing and it was Harry’s dad who asked me to sing with Harry playing the guitar. I never thought that I would ever do something like that and I was going up for a laugh, basically but then we kinda met up, the following week and just started playing music, writing songs and it snowballed from there really!

Harry: We had that connection almost straight away!

How did you choose your band-name?

Harry: Because we grew up by the sea, and the time I was only playing guitar so we got the “fret” from the guitar and put the name together as “Seafret”. Later we found out that it also means, a mist that’s coming off the sea, a sea fret, so that was even nicer! Better than the Misty Boys at least.

Jack: haha! We entered the show before we had a band name as well. So for our first performance we were like invited to play in another venue in York, but we didn’t have a band name yet so we were like “Jack and Harry” at the time. We had to think of one, pretty fast, but we stuck with it. It’s really difficult because thinking of a band name happens when you actually have to find it. It’s a really hard thing to do! It’s like trying to name anything and it needs to be new, it needs to be interesting, and I think you can really overthink it, so we just kinda stuck with it. We had some other names like people calling us “the Sea bass” most of the time, it’s been quite great.

Your last studio album “Most of Us Are Strangers” was released in 2020. Now you have another album waiting to be released! What details can you reveal about it?

Harry: It’s finished! It’s coming out this year! It’s ready to go! We’ll be releasing all the information really soon.

Jack: It’s in the CD factory at the minute and it’s the best one yet by far! We’re starting to release the music that is leading into it. We’ll be announcing the date really soon.

Which of your songs so far stands out to you and why?

Jack: There’s a song called “Breathe” that came on in the car. My phone was hooked up to my car and it came on like a shuffle thing. I don’t tend to put our songs on all the time but it came on and I thought I’ll listen to it. Then I understood that this song is good because it was one we used to play live. That part is beautiful it’s really flirty and then it kind of builds up into this big ending. So that was one kind of we’d forgotten about, but it’s become special to me again. Obviously the big ones “Atlantis” and “Oceans” there are go to tracks that people have liked.

Harry: I have to say “Oceans” really because that song branched us out and took us around the world. It took us to places like Brazil and Russia because it was so popular there, but there’s a track called “Tell Me It’s Real” which is my go to one, because it still feels like “tell me it’s real” it’s always like “God we’re in Brazil? Are we? How? Why?”

What could your dreamy LP contain? Maybe some special collaboration?

Harry: I’ve always said Jack White just because I think he’s a genius.

Jack: Elton John. He’s good at the “Yellow Brick Road” album that’s going back in time a bit but of modern singers?

Harry: Someone like Halsey or Dua Lipa would be cool.

Jack: Yeah. A bit more pop would be really good like Taylor Swift.

Would you collaborate with a new artist from another country?

Harry: Yeah definitely! We did it on the last album “Most of Us Are Strangers” we worked on a re-release with a Mexican band, which was really cool. So we’d definitely be up to a Greek musician for example to get on board. It would also help us out in places like Greece, because if it’s a popular artist or band out there already doing it… a collaboration like this could help us make our music know there too.

Jack: I like things like that. Even if they do a chorus or you’ve got different languages it just makes it more interesting and great.

If you had to put a title on your career so far, what would it be?

Harry: “Honored”. It’s an honor to be able to do this as a job but it’s also very unpredictable.

How do you envision Seafret in ten years from now?

Jack: Hopefully just carrying on, doing the same things. I think we’re pushing on with our songwriting and things like that.

Harry: We feel that we’re getting better so we’ll just try to keep getting better and release new music and if we’ll have already ten albums out then we can do an anniversary tour or we can do a best of album. Cash in.

What’s your motto in life?

Interview: Theodore Kolliopoulos

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