In my mind, there is no reason why Seaforth are not as popular as some of the chart-topping artists currently out there. Their music is unparalleled, diverse, and well put-together - words you might also use to describe the guys themselves! I was delighted to spend some time with Mitch and Tom to chat about their love of the UK, working with some of the most talented people in Nashville, why Australia produces such great country artists, Swamp Goats, and more - enjoy!
Ciara’s Country (CC): Anyone who knows me will have often heard me raving about Aussie duo Seaforth – every song of theirs makes its way to the top of my playlists, and they just seem like all-round great guys! I’m absolutely thrilled to have Seaforth’s Tom Jordan and Mitch Thompson here with me today - thank you both for joining me!
Mitch Thompson (MT): Thank you for having us!
CC: Are you in Nashville at the moment?
MT: Yep, bunking down in Nashville. We actually haven't been able to leave here in about two years now!
CC: Where's on your bucket list for when the world opens up?
Tom Jordan (TJ): Genuinely for me it’s the UK! It's funny because we were in London for C2C in March 2019 just before everything shut down. I’d never been before but I've always had this weird like fascination with the UK, so when we landed in London, I was so stoked. We got to the hotel at like 7pm and our management calls us saying ‘boys, we're gonna have to get you back on the first flight tomorrow morning, they're gonna shut down the borders,’ so we flew straight back! I didn't get my chance to see the UK, so it's the first place I want to go.
CC: You’ll be making a lot of UK fans happy by saying that! What is it about the UK that you like so much?
TJ: For me, so much of my life growing up was inspired by UK music and TV shows. There's just something about it!
MT: Naturally have an affinity with the people because it's kind of our ancestry anyway, coming from Australia. With anyone I've met from the UK, I feel like we immediately have this bond, we have very similar personalities, ways of life. It's just beautiful over there too, it feels like such a great escape from wherever we are at the time. I was there when I was younger, but there's still so much for me to see!
CC: That’s high praise indeed when you come from one of the most beautiful places on the planet!
MT: Yeah, Australia is pretty special, but it's that thing where if you grow up somewhere beautiful, you take it for granted. It's just what you know, so then going out and seeing other places, you have a crossover appreciation for where other people live. Like maybe you don’t notice it as much being in Europe, but you’ll come to Australia and be like ‘Oh, this is nice!’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, let’s do a swap!’
CC: You’ve been living in Nashville for a few years now - is there a difference between the way you were producing and writing music back in Australia and how you are now in the US?
TJ: Yeah, definitely. Mitch and I mostly worked just the two of us together in Australia, we didn't co-write a whole bunch, we just really focused on developing our sound as Seaforth. Obviously Nashville is the home of country music songwriters so as soon as we came here, I feel like we were instantly influenced and inspired by the talent around us. I feel like the best way to get better is to surround yourself with people that are better than you, and there's no better place where people are more talented and inspiring than Nashville.
CC: Is there anyone that you've met in Nashville who you've been really inspired by, or who has helped you hone your sound?
MT: There's so many, honestly! When we started coming out, we had a circle of two or three people we'd write with and that circle just kept expanding. We managed to be able to work on a record with Dan Huff who was our dream producer, so I think we learnt so much about putting a record together and tracking a full band with him.
We've also written songs with people like Liz Rose who has written so many amazing hits. Seeing how she puts a song together, the way that she feels about stories and songs, was such a great way for us to learn what we should be doing and taught us not to be so precious about certain things. I feel like we've learnt little bits from so many people, and we’re always continuously learning.
CC: Nashville is definitely the home of country music, but I've been really interested to see how many Australian acts are making their way over - you guys, Brad Cox, Morgan Evans, The McClymonts - why do you think Australia produces such great country artists?
TJ: There's so much talent in Australia in general, but the thing with Australia is that it's so far away from everything that travelling to the US or the UK is such a hefty trip, so a lot of that talent hasn’t historically made the jump to the US or the UK, but now people are starting to do that more. For us, we were inspired by Keith Urban – he’s Australian, and so people like that have paved the way for artists like us and Brad Cox, all the people you mentioned to be inspired to make the move.
Australia has a really great growing country scene. There's a lot of talented artists down there, so we’re super excited to get back there and play shows because we haven't played any real shows in Australia since we started this whole band!
CC: And it was the place that inspired your band name, Seaforth, which comes from your hometown of Seaforth in Sydney, Australia. Can you tell us a bit more about how that name came about?
MT: Yeah, Tom and I met when we were three years old, and we grew up in a suburb called Seaforth. I’ve got to be honest - picking band names is the hardest and worst thing to do! We sat down and wrote like 300 different things, I'd write a name, he'd write a name, so we went back and forth until one of us had written Seaforth somewhere, and then we thought ‘that's the one’. We wanted to take a piece of home with us, it's part of our story.
CC: I would love to know some of those band names that didn't quite make the cut.
TJ: We went back and found some! One that we stuck with for a minute before we landed on Seaforth was Swamp Goats. We were genuinely calling ourselves Swamp Goats! Mitch sent me one of the first songs we wrote together and I saved it to iTunes with the artist title ‘The Himalayan Swamp Goats’, and then we shortened it to Swamp Goats. We did our first proper writing trip to Nashville and LA as Seaforth/Swamp Goats, and in LA we got a little intoxicated one night and got matching goat tattoos to signify our commitment to the band, so we both have small goat tattoos on our arms!
MT: The Swamp Goat lives on!
CC: I think I might have found it harder raving to everyone about all these beautiful songs I was listening to by ‘Swamp Goats’ instead of Seaforth!
TJ: For a moment we were like ‘shall we just stick with it? I feel like people won’t forget it!’
CC: You never know, you might decide to take on a side project in another genre that could be Swamp Goats.
TJ: Yeah, Swamp Goats could be a reggae band, maybe rockabilly.
MT: I feel like it's got to be the complete opposite of what you think it's gonna be! That's why I thought it'd be funny for us to be Swamp Goats and playing all these sweet love songs.
CC: Many of your fans know you maybe formerly as Swamp Goats, now as Seaforth, but I'd like to get to know you a bit more as Mitch and Tom. What are some of the similarities and differences that you both have?
MT: It's funny because I feel like Tom and I are essentially brothers at this point. We’re very much on the same wavelength with personalities and musical goals, but as people and what we like, I feel like we're like the complete opposite! I’m just a simple guy - I love fishing, I'm a bit of a handyman, I like to fix things and do random tasks. That's pretty much all there is to me – and music of course!
TJ: It's funny for me, because I feel like a lot of people have hobbies outside of what their profession is, but my hobby is literally making music! It sounds super cheesy, but I like just sitting in my home studio making trap beats and the like. That’s my hobby - the way some people will go and do fishing or rock climb or whatever, but I've never really had that and so I feel like my whole life is centered by music which is very overwhelming at times but also super cool.
I often find I have so much to chat with my interviewees about, but Seaforth took it to the next level! Come back for Part 2 of my interview where we discuss recording with Mitchell Tenpenny, Everything Falls For You & Breakups, what's next, and more. Stay tuned on Twitter @CiarasCountry to be the first to know when that's live - thanks for reading!
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