In a warm and whimsical conversation with Yan (Scott Wilkinson) of Sea Power, I learned to appreciate just what this unique band has achieved. With the recent name change, I might suggest the band wears its status as National Treasure with a certain irony.
The whole premise behind The Art of Longevity Podcast is a quote from Suede’s Brett Andersen, who once said that all successful artists have followed a similar journey, comprising four stages: the struggle, the stratospheric rise, the crash, and then the renaissance. What about the 20 year unusual journey of (British) indie rockers Sea Power?
“We might be the exception that proves Brett Anderson’s rule” says the band’s singer Yan.
I first came across Sea Power by actually purchasing their first two albums on CD: The Decline of British Sea Power (2003) and Open Season (2005). That was back when good up & coming bands would get the kind of exposure artists these days can only dream of, i.e. prominently placed in the window displays of record shops like HMV.
Between then and 2013’s superb soundtrack to the film From the Seas to the Land Beyond, I hadn’t really kept up with Sea Power. It’s easy to forget how accomplished the band is. Indeed on the day I spoke with Yan, he had received his BAFTA that very morning (delayed in the post since 2019) for the band’s soundtrack to the video game Disco Elysium.
Over the course of two decades the band has made a batch of fine songs, really solid albums, award winning soundtracks and plays sold out, highly renowned live shows. Sea Power also had some hits in the early days but the band's true supporters are its core fan base, who buy all their records and see them live repeatedly, religiously you might say.
Those fans, and the band's creative momentum, have pushed Sea Power to get better and better. 2017’s album Let The Dancers Inherit The Party was a fine record, with across the board four star reviews.
Yan: “It did okay, not as well as some people might think. It didn’t do an Ed Sheeran or anything like that”.
Well it looks like that might change with new L.P. Everything Was Forever, an amalgam of everything the band has done and have ever sounded like, wrapped within some genuine quality songwriting, the sort that can be achieved only after a band has put in its time working together as one. As we published this episode, Sea Power is vying for a number one position on the UK album charts, with their main rival being...the ginger genius himself (who said the band can’t sell as much as Ed Sheeran?).
That might say more about the chart than it does about the popularity of Sea Power, but it’s a remarkable achievement nonetheless. Yan himself is less sanguine about all this than he was when the band formed:“I thought we were destined to do really well. That the world would fall gently at our feet”.
Perhaps the world is. Just a gentler and longer fall than the band expected. Everything Was Forever should be the start of a new journey for a band with a new name.
“I saw this album as both the last record and the start of anything new, if it is going to happen. Getting the best of our influences over the years, before we move on to something new or, just stop”.
It is pretty clear to me that the music scene is better off if that new something does happen. Whether we are British or otherwise, we could do with Sea Power.
The Art of Longevity is produced by Audio Culture in partnership with Project Melody. Original music is by Andrew James Johnson.