Charming? Check. Great accents? Check. Amazing music? Check. Aussie duo Seaforth genuinely have it all. It was so fun to catch up with Mitch and Tom - check out Part 1 of our interview here, and read on for our chat about recording with Mitchell Tenpenny, my future wedding song, the inspiration behind Breakups, upcoming music, and so much more - enjoy!
Ciara's Country (CC): I'm really glad that you mentioned that one of your interests
is indeed music - that is of course where we know you from, and I wanted to
take a little trip down memory lane. You first came on my radar with a track
you recorded with Mitchell Tenpenny called Anything She Says - how did that
collaboration happen?
Mitch Thompson (MT): I
feel like Nashville is a pretty
small town like with artists, but Mitchell is on the same label as us, and we
have mutual friends in town that we would write with. I think we met Mitchell
backstage at a Luke Bryan concert and we totally hit it off. We ended up
opening a couple shows for him acoustically on a very early tour of his before
his song Drunk Me went number one - we were actually with him when it went
number one! Then we ended up organizing to write with him, just like let's get
in and see what we can make.
We ended
up writing Anything She Says that day - we actually sang the original demo but
it wasn’t til a few months later when we were both sending it back and forth
like ‘you should cut it,’ ‘no, you should cut it,’ and Mitchell was like
‘alright, I’m doing it, but do you guys want to feature on it with me?’ So then
we got on that, and the next tour was named the ‘Anything She Says Tour’, and the
rest was history! We love Mitch.
CC: I think any story that starts with ‘backstage at a Luke Bryan concert’ is going to have a good ending! I really like that
song, but the song that definitely made me fall in love with Seaforth is
Everything Falls For You. I kind of feel a bit selfish because I almost don't
want to tell people about that song, just keep it for myself so I can have it
at my future wedding, but it's just so good I have to share it!
MT: Thank you so
much, that means a lot!
CC: Was that a song that took a long time to come to fruition, or
was it one that was ready to go the moment you thought of it?
Tom Jordan (TJ): We wrote it with a buddy of ours named
Derek Sutherland who we've worked with a few times, and he has a really special
way of crafting lyrics and putting spins on things that are quite unique. He
actually had the title Everything Falls For You, and explained how when you fall
in love with someone, it feels like your whole world starts to like revolve
around them and it's not just you falling for them, it’s your whole world falling
with you in a great way. We were just like ‘dude, that's incredible!’ and we
wrote the song itself in a few hours.
We cut Talk
About and Everything Falls For You on the same day - we were originally going
to cut a different song with Talk About, but we were working with Dan Huff, and
we sent him everything including EFFY, and he was like, ‘this is the song!
We’ve got to do this one – it’s a super special song.’ So it was really cool
that he kind of influenced us to really pursue that song. It's really cool. I
think the intention for it was to have that moment with love, so it means a lot
that you would say that, because we actually we played it at a wedding the
other day!
CC: Well, I have no plans for getting married in the near future,
but I will definitely be hitting you guys up when the day comes.
MT: Do you want to
put a random fake date in the calendar and we'll figure it out, then you've put
it out into the universe.
CC: Yeah, that’s the way I'll do it - I'll set a date now with you
guys and then I'll just find a husband somewhere along the way. How does that
sound?
MT: Perfect, just
send the deposit over! (laughs)
CC: I think it’s really interesting that you cut EFFY and Talk
About on the same day because they are completely different songs! How are you
able to get yourself in the mindset of moving from singing this beautiful love
song to a party track like that?
MT: We actually do it
in sections - we'll have a scratch vocal in there when we go into a tracking
session that the band will play to, and then after that, you do some more
guitars, overdubs. The vocals are usually the last thing, so all we have to do
is deliver the emotion, we get in and sing it when it's almost ready to go!
CC: We recently got the equally beautiful,
but maybe not quite so much a wedding song, Breakups. Can you talk us through
how that song came about?
TJ: Yeah, that song
would be a little bit of a downer at a wedding! That song came from a super
real place. As songwriters, you always try to take real experiences, because I
feel like people can sense when you're being genuine. I was going through a breakup
at the time, that was really tough, and we were writing with Liz Rose and my
buddy Cameron Bedell, and Liz was like, ‘how's that girl that you broke up
with? Have you spoken?’ I was like, ‘no, we haven't, I miss her, I want to talk
to her,’ because they become your best friend.
That
conversation just happened, and then the lyrics wrote themselves in a way that
we didn't really realize. That song was like therapy for me at the time, one of
the songs that you listen back to a week later and think ‘oh damn, I didn’t
realise how much it affected me!’ To see how people have responded to it so far
has been really amazing - it’s the power of emotion and songwriting which
reminds you why you do it.
CC: Do you find it difficult listening back
to or playing those songs that have such deep and personal meaning behind them?
TJ: For a while, yes,
but like anything, it gets better. That's why it's great to be able to write
about it because it's very therapeutic. It depends where you’re at – like if
I'm having a tough day, and I sing that song, maybe it might hit me a little
harder. But most of the time I don't cry!
MT: I was going
through a breakup and had COVID at the time when I sang the vocals for that
song, so I was like, ‘this is the best time to sing Breakups. This is great.’
CC: I'm glad you've recovered from both of
them! There’s genuinely not one of your songs that I don't like which is why
I'm already so desperate to know - what's next?
TJ: I would have
loved if you'd said ‘there’s genuinely only one that I don’t like!’ (laughs) As for what’s next, we've just
been working tirelessly on a new EP that we’re about to wrap! We’re going to
get it mixed and put it out as soon as we can. We're super stoked to have new
music on the way. I feel like building a brand and building our social media is
good fun, but we're musicians at heart and we feel the most accomplished and
the most inspired when we're able to put music out and be creative. I'm as
proud of this upcoming music as I have been of anything. I think it's our best
work to date, and hopefully people will really enjoy it!
MT: And we head out
on tour in the US for the rest of the year with Jordan Davis. I wish that was
going to the UK!
CC: That makes two of us. I love the sound of this new EP – what
topics might we be hearing on it?
MT: Looking at the
tracklisting, it's all over the shop!
TJ: There's love.
There's drinking.
MT: There's one about
a show host a specific talk show host, Dr Phil. There's some magic. There's
kind of everything on it which is really exciting. Every emotion is kind of
captured on it.
TJ: Hate isn’t! But I
feel like no one wants to hear a song about hate...
CC: Well… (laughs) I’m
looking forward to that – maybe I’ll be adding Dr Phil to my wedding playlist.
So, one thing that I really love to do is highlight underrated artists, and a
great way to do that is to ask the artists I like who they're listening to. Are
there any underrepresented artists that you guys think everyone should be
listening to?
TJ: This is very
random and not underrated in any way, but I got into grime music last year,
like Stormzy and UK rap and stuff.
MT: I love Lainey Wilson. I wouldn't say she’s underrated because she's friggin unreal. I'm
obsessed with Things A Man Oughta Know, I think it's incredible. Our buddy Adam
Doleac is great, I think he's got a lot a lot to share.
CC: I'm very much looking forward to duets with you guys and
Stormzy.
TJ: I think that
would be a fitting collaboration. Get him a verse on Breakups.
CC: I’m going to need that! Thank you guys so much for taking the
time to chat with me - I’m looking forward to playing Breakups and your entire
discography for the rest of the day and hearing new stuff soon!
TJ: We look forward
to getting out to the UK very soon, and when we do, we'd love to hang!
Huge thanks to Tom and Mitch for blessing me with such a great interview! Super excited for their new projects, and you know I'll be there to review their show when they make it to this side of the pond! More interviews to come soon - stay tuned on Twitter @CiarasCountry, and check out @weareseaforth while you're there. Thanks so much for reading!
