It’s been a while between drinks for the lads from Dear Seattle, but their new album has finally landed and they’re getting set to take it on a national tour. Released on Friday, September 2, Someday is the sophomore long-player that features the already certified by triple j bangers such as In My Head, Way Out, Feel The Weight and Here to Stay. Keen to continue building on the success their breakout debut album Don’t Let Go brought them, Dear Seattle will be hitting up Perth this Saturday, September 24 at Rosemount Hotel. Ahead of the tour, MICHAEL HOLLICK caught up with the band’s lead singer and guitarist Brae Fisher to find out about the record, how their writing process has evolved and what advice he would give to younger musicians just starting out.
It’s been a long time since you dropped this album’s first single and the album’s actual release. What happened?
It definitely wasn’t intentional. I remember recording these songs back when we were versing India in the cricket (January 2021). There was a lot of waiting, waiting, waiting on this one as everything along the way got pushed back because of COVID. But now we’re finally putting it out and we’re feeling fresh and energised.
I imagine that COVID also impacted your touring plans and playing live?
Definitely. We were recording the songs then starting to get everything together to put the record out and tour the first single, In My Head in mid 2021. However, with COVID, that tour got pushed back nine months or so. So that tour became the tour for (second single) Way Out. But then that tour also got pushed back. I think by the time we played the Sydney show for that tour, that gig had been postponed four times. So there’s been some hurdles along the way, that’s for sure.
Focusing on the new album, what does the album title, Someday, mean to you?
Well, I know it’s now kind of an ironic name since that the album has taken three or so years to come out (laughs). One of the reasons we gravitated towards Someday is that it has that aspirational feeling and wistfulness for the future, as you’re looking forward to the things that are to come. But what I realised is that I have never strayed from that thinking. It’s pretty easy to get caught up thinking in the future and not take in what is happening in the present and take in what’s occurring right now. So there’s a bit of dichotomy to it, a bit of a darker side as well as the positiveness.
What are you most proud about on the album?
I think the way that everything came together on this album was more nuanced and feels like it has a certain maturity to it, and it’s not just based on hooks and the obvious draw cards of catching someone’s attention. Even though these songs still do have that catchiness, you’ll come back time and time again and find something new about the song each time.
And what can you tell us about the latest single from the album, Paranoid Letter?
That song is about how it feels to have the variety of expectations that people place on themselves. To capture that feeling, I’ve written the lyrics from a few different perspectives; there’s first, second and third person all speaking about myself. Like, there’s the way that you think about yourself, there’s the way you think about others and then there’s also the way that others think about you.
To me, one of the most powerful things about trying to be present in life is realising that there is this range of perspectives that all go on at once. I think it’s very easy to get lost and think in terms of what others think about you as opposed to what you actually think.
I believe this record featured more of a collaborative writing process?
On the first record, the songs were ones that I had primarily written by myself. So for this one I just really wanted the boys to have their buy in with it. Not that I was hindering them from that, it was just the way that things fell initially. I really wanted the majority of the songwriting to be done by all of us and so we did a lot of writing trips together where we would hire an Air BnB and take acoustic guitars, really strip the process back and do it as a group. It definitely brought a lot of sonic ideas that I wouldn’t have otherwise thought of.
Most people are familiar with the band due to your debut LP, 2019’s Don’t Let Go. Were you always sure that you and the band were going to “make it” and reach this level of success?
I always had the confidence to trust myself and believe that I could make a career out of it and it’s only been recently, since the start of this album cycle, that we’ve been able to be self-sustainable and also take a bit of wage off of what we do. At the same time, we’ve been a band for almost nine years now, so it’s been a long time of having to put our money in before you start to see anything come back on it. But of course, we would do it anyway, the money side is just a bonus.
If you were talking to your younger self, what advice would you give regarding playing in bands and trying to make it in the music industry?
I think if you’re passionate about it, and you love it for the right reason, it makes you happy and brings you joy, keep going with it. I think a lot of people have these hobbies when they are younger and maybe don’t nourish it as much as they could or don’t feed that passion as maybe you’re told it’s not something that you can make a living from or there are other external factors. Or even friends telling you it’s not the right thing as the music you’re making is not the style of the month. I think the thing to remember is that those things always change and if it brings you joy, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t do it.
