MEAN SEA’s ‘Please Swim Back’ is a rip-roaring punk rock anthem that will make you want to dive headfirst into the mosh pit and surf the waves of nostalgia all at once! Read our discussion with the band below!
Describe your sound in 3 words
Rock, Pop, Surf (Or at least that’s what we’re influenced by)
Tell us a few things about Please Swim Back and the newly released EP Trust Us We Know. What is the main idea behind it?
Please Swim Back is about feeling disconnected from your friends and family and then them making you feel more disconnected by offering advice or writing you off. The EP is a collection of thoughts from the last few years. Just like our first EP, these songs are kind of like a journal. A way to get feelings and fears out into songs in hopes of taking some power away from the negative thoughts and making something creative with them.
Which is your favourite guitar riff you wish you had composed yourself?
The guitar solo in Diabolic Scheme by The Hives.
Your sound carries a sweet nostalgia. If a time machine could take you anywhere (past/future) for a day, when/where would you go?
I’d love to go back and see some of the 50s/60s musicians at a small club. Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Del Shannon, Link Wray, The Ventures, Roy Orbison…
A song you would pay to hear for the first time again?
Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys
What is the story behind your name?
Mean Sea can be whatever you want it to be but to me it’s become a reference to depression.
If you could change anything about the music industry, what would it be?
I’d try to find a solution to the devaluation of recorded music. Starting with MP3s and Napster in the late 90s, leading up to the streaming services we have now, we’re left with the idea that music should cost little to nothing. Convenience always wins and it’s pretty obvious streaming would become the preferred way to listen to music; but the music industry’s failure to anticipate this shift early on, resulted in the situation we’re in now.
The revival of physical formats like vinyl and cassettes brings me some hope. But these formats come at a high cost to produce, and a high barrier to entry, which can be tough for independent artists and younger bands to fund.
Who do you think will be playing on oldies radio in 30 years?
Hopefully Oldies from the 50s and 60s. We need a new word for whatever will be the new nostalgic music in 30 years. What will be “Oldies”? Probably Pop mostly.
Thank you!
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