High school rock bands rarely stay together past graduation. Once university comes around, members tend to split apart and head off in their own directions in life. That was not the case for the five members of Seaway. The pop-punk band from Oakville has released three studio albums and has gone on tour around the world with big names of the genre, including Neck Deep, Bayside, and Simple Plan.
This past September, they released Vacation, and they are set to bring their Canadian tour with Silverstein to Ottawa on Nov. 4 at the Brass Monkey. The Charlatan caught up with lead singer Ryan Locke over the phone to talk about the new album, their upcoming tour, and how they became a band.
The Charlatan (TC): You guys are all high school friends, is that right?
Ryan Locke (RL): Yeah, three of us actually went to kindergarten together, so two of them I’ve known my entire life and then the other two guys, we met in high school. We kind of all started playing music together collectively in high school.
TC: Who are some of your biggest pop punk influences?
RL: Sum 41 is a huge one for us, Blink-182, Simple Plan, Gob, and then there’s other ones, like Third Eye Blind, Weezer are really big influences on us. I guess wouldn’t call them as much pop-punk, but they’re still heavy influences on the music we make.
TC: What has [this year] been like for you?
RL: It’s been busy, to be honest, very busy year. We started the year doing our first U.K. headliner, so that was really exciting, and then we came home and did a tour in the States with Simple Plan, so that was also a very exciting tour for us, you know, growing up and listening to that band, so getting to know them was really cool, and sharing the stage with them was amazing. And then we went into the studio in L.A. to record the record, so that was kind of a first for us too, we never really recorded outside of Ontario really, like Southern Ontario. It’s been pretty non-stop, but it’s been amazing. It’s definitely a year of a lot of firsts for us. It’s a really exciting thing doing a lot of these things for the first time.
TC: What was it like making [Vacation]?
RL: It was a lot of fun. It was like, probably the most prepared we’ve ever been going into the studio. We did a lot of demo-ing and pre-production sessions, so we did like two weeks with a good friend of ours named Derek Hoffman in Toronto, and he worked on our last record, Colour Blind . . . So, going into it, the idea was “Let’s just get all our ideas recorded on the table, lets work with people that we know we work well with before recording the actual record so that we have a lot material to go in with when we actually go to L.A. to record.” It’s a first for us, going down to L.A., we’re working with newer producers in L.A. Basically, we wanted to come ready for that, so we had like maybe 12 songs demoed out that we were excited to record, and then we wrote even more when we were in L.A. We were very prepared, it was a very fun experience, recording in L.A., getting the L.A. experience. It was very fun.
TC: Which are some of your favourite songs on the album?
RL: “Lula On The Beach” is a favourite of mine. The way it was written was a lot of fun, just kind of like a late night writing session, all the guys were there and we just kind of started bouncing ideas back and forth and the song literally was written that night. So that was a really cool one, it’s a special one for all of us. And it is kind of a different feel for Seaway. It’s kind of like a new direction for us, different influences on that song. So that’s why I like that one. I also really like “London,” I just think it has a really fun vibe to it. “Scatter My Ashes” too was like a really high energy song, which I really like, I’m excited to start playing that one.
TC: What do you think of the response so far of the album?
RL: It’s been great. So we released it Sept. 15, and we’ve been on tour ever since. So we’ve slowly been introducing new songs into the set, and I think every show that passes by, we notice a better and better reaction from the new songs, so that’s exciting, that’s something that we like to see. There are some nights where the new songs get better reactions than the old ones, which is really exciting, that kids are spending a lot of time listening to the new record, not getting hung up on any old stuff. Because you worry about that, the follow-up record doesn’t stand up next to the one before, but it’s been going pretty well.
TC: What are you looking forward to the most about this upcoming tour?
RL: To pick one thing in specific is really hard because we don’t get to tour Canada too much . . . I just love touring Canada, it’s nice feeling at home the entire tour. Whenever we tour the States or tour the U.K. or Australia or any of those, it’s always fun and it’s cool touring new places, but there’s really nothing like touring your home country. I’m excited to some out and play Ottawa, we’ve got lots of friends in Ottawa, lots of friends in Winnipeg and Edmonton and Vancouver, so it’s a different feel when you’re touring your home country, especially being Canada. There’s really nothing like it.
TC: Do you have any connections to Carleton University by chance?
RL: Yeah, tons actually. I have a lot of friends that went there when we were visiting schools. Actually, I think one of the first schools I went to go visit friends in and party at was Carleton, because we had a couple buddies that were like two years older than us, so when I was in Grade 11, they were first year, so one of the first dorm party experiences I had was at Carleton. My younger sister went to Carleton for a while . . . A lot of friends, a lot of family that went there, I’ve spent a lot of time playing shows up there, partying and visiting people, so Carleton is definitely a fun place to be.
TC: You’ve had the opportunity to tour with a bunch of great artists like Neck Deep, Bayside and Simple Plan, what have those experiences been like?
RL: They’ve been great, I try to take something away from every tour we do, try to learn something different. I think you learn the most when you’re touring with those veteran kinds of band like Bayside and Simple Plan . . . Those are guys that have made an entire career off of touring, they’ve been at it for 15 plus years. It’s always cool trying to pick their brain or hearing their stories from early touring days and stuff like that.
TC: What has it been like to share your music with these new fans and then meet them after the show?
RL: It’s been pretty cool. Simple Plan fans, specifically, are very accepting and appreciative of the music . . . We’ve had a lot of people come back on shows since saying like “Yeah, we saw you guys for the first time with Simple Plan and we couldn’t wait to see you guys again,” so that’s been really cool. It’s always nice when you really notice how you’re winning over fans . . . We’re always super appreciative for anyone that will listen to our music, but even more so when people buy a ticket to see Simple Plan, but the next time we come through, they buy a ticket to see us. That’s what touring is all about, you’re trying to get your music to new people, so when you kind of see that actually happening in practice, it’s a really great feeling.
