In case you didn't already see, Sealife recently put out a sweet 12-song album named A jazz. I thought it was p tight. So I sat Sealife down for a questionnaire. 12 songs, 12 questions. Read on for a background on Sealife, his tape recording techniques, musical inspirations, and truths about the known universe...
1. Sup?
Hey buddy
2. So what's new about A jazz?
A Jazz is an uneducated exploration into jazz. It’s a bit of a change of sound for Sealife, but I was exposed to a lot of jazz as a kid, my mother is a jazz singer and always had it on at the house. I was listening to a lot of Gabor Szabo (check out the album "Dreams") when I started writing this, and I love how dark and mysterious his music is.
3. A jazz has a very distinct production quality, was it recorded on tape?
I usually record digital but I started getting into tape during quarantine. I started with Fostex cassette tape 4 -track, which I made the entirety of "Apt. 6" with. Later I got a 4 track reel-to-reel, which is much thicker tape, which results in a cleaner sound, and I made the entirety of "Queen of Hearts" with. The rest of the songs are a mixture of tape and digital recording, aside from "Stefon" which is all digital, it's the most contemporary jazz piece on the album and I wanted it to be super clean.
Stefon was by far the hardest and most complicated song on the album. I brought in Brendan McGovern to play saxophone, and Michael Toman to play drums, which he absolutely nailed. There's a part at the end where the beat changes from 4/4 triplets to 4/4 but it's based on the speed of the triplets, so it goes into some obscure 13/16 time signature or something but you don't really notice it. We had fun making that one.
4. What gear did you use to make the album?
Lots and lots of stuff. I have a Fender Jaguar that I love, and I recently got a 60's Hagstrom Viking that has a totally different sound than the Fender. I used the Hagstrom a lot for crunchy leads. The reel-to-reel is a Tascam 34, and the tape recorded is a Fostex X-12 that doesn't rewind on its own. I have a Behringer Deepmind 12 and a Roland JX-3P which I mostly use for synths. I can't remember what mic's I used, I like to reinvent the wheel every time I record, which probably accounts for a lot of different production styles on this record. I also used a wooden flute on Peaches, and Court Crawford did an upright bass solo.
5. Is it "a jazz" or A jazz as in every song is in the key of A?
I find the key of A to be very uplifting and playful. A few songs, including the title track, are in A, but other songs want to be played other ways.
6. "Sealife," so whaddya underwater or something?
Truth be told it was my rapper name when I was 19. I also went by Lazarus. You can look but you will never find anything from my hip-hop career on the internet. Sorry.
7. What do you see when you turn out the lights?
I see w my minds eye
8. Your Instagram videos are amazing. Wtf?
Thanks! All the songs from those videos are recorded on a reel-to-reel tape machine I've been learning how to use. I found a green screen at Goodwill and figured out how to use it. I think I'll turn some of those into full songs soon.
9. So do you, like, have a band or something, or are you just one dude?
Sealife is just me, I like to collaborate with other artists, but most of all i like the freedom to make any kind of music I want. There's something special about solo artists. How many authors does it take to write a novel?
10. Do u play computer games?
I got really into slither.io in 2018. It's a flash game where you have to eat other snakes to survive. I could write a thesis on how well it represents capitalism.
11. How did you spend your time during the latest global meltdown and what are your plans for the next one?
I can think of 1000 things I SHOULDA done with all that free time, but mostly I watched a lot of stand up comedy.
12. Do you realize we're floating in space?
And I'm glued to my seat
Check out this video for a more in-depth tutorial on how Sealife records to a tape cassette.
