Kid Vinyl recently met up with Archie Fairhurst of Sea Mullet to discuss their ambitions. So just who are Sea Mullet?
Kid Vinyl: So, Archie, nice to speak to you at last. For the benefit of our readers not familiar with Sea Mullet, would you like to introduce the band?
Archie: Well the songs are written by myself. In terms of instruments and musicians, these consist of Michael Culme-Seymour (jazz guitar and vocals), my brother, Dan Fairhurst (flute and tenor saxophone), and Jon Mason (electric drum kit). I play a mixture of bass, trumpet, whistle, I sing, and use my laptop as a loop and sample station
KV: I think I’m right in saying you first got together at Nottingham Uni, is that right?
Archie: Michael and I used to write songs together at school in Singapore. This is where we lived for 14 years before coming to England to study. I’ve lived abroad for most of my life (Soloman Islands, Indonesia, and Singapore). Sea Mullet began at Nottingham Uni as a solo project of mine, and grew into an ensemble with the musical reunion with Mike (who went to uni at Loughborough).
KV: Do you think that that kind of world experience has influenced your music in any way?
Archie: Yes.
KV: What else has influenced you? I know it’s a difficult question, everything influences us in one way or another.
Archie: From an early age, I’ve been exposed to Asian music. I remember playing gamelan regularly at school when I was 10, also some video games with the help of the OW Guide online and being used to bring some great music that I used to hear with my sennheinser headphones, now you can find almost the same quality headphones, by reading this sennheiser pc 363d review.
KV: That’s certainly not an experience most people get in this country!
Archie: The majority of my influences come from outside Britain despite, being British. I have been influenced culturally, to think cross-culturally. This has made me open-minded with music from an early age.
KV: I think that shows on tracks such as African Orange and Ivory Smoke Ring. Obviously Miles Davis has influenced you as well, but in an understated, mature way.
Archie: In terms of the ‘parent record collection’ influence – my father brought me up on African-American jazz (e.g. Miles Davis [jazz-classical) and Blues (e.g. Rev. Gary Davis [gospel-blues]), my mother brought me up with Kraftwork, The Buzzcocks (and other punk), Brian Eno etc. This is all threaded in to being brought up in Asia, being exposed to Indian and Indonesian music.
Miles Davis inspires me in terms of compositions, harmonically, how to use subtlety. He has also inspired me with balance (which is what my dissertation at uni was on: ‘The Musical Synthesis or Balance in Miles Davis’s Work, focusing on Kind of Blue). I believe in a theory of synthesis which comes from a balance of opposing musical forces
KV: That’s certainly an interesting topic and shows an awareness of music (and self-awareness) that is perhaps not common among other young musicians… Actually, I can see the Eno influences there too. Maybe Eno producing ‘Sketches of Spain’!
Archie: Haha! I often think of how Miles would react to the concept of remixing – something I’m exploring at the moment. A lot of his music before he composed (and a lot of jazz for that matter) is based on remixing. Taking old ballads and turning them into something modal and dark
KV: Indeed, I notice you recently remixed Davis’s Feio.
Archie: Yes. A VERY bad mix in terms of production. I’m just getting the hang of software to do it at the moment. Midi programming and things. I’m finally getting somewhere, because i have always had a fascination with electronic music. Coming to England has injected the ‘beat’ or dance into my music, which you can get a sense of in some tracks.
My compositions were always influenced by blues progressions and jazz-blues rhythm, but coming to England, and swimming under the drum and bass and dub step scenes, I’ve come to terms with a more contemporary side of music which I would never have received in Asia i don’t think.
KV: Speaking of which, you may have heard that last year HMV, in conjunction with The Guardian (I think), published some research into record sales which showed Cornwall was the capital of the slow beat. So it is that, as a Cornishman, I feel I can speak with some authority when I say that African Oranges is probably the most startling and lovely new song that I have heard for quite some time.
Archie: Thank you. I feel that my beats and rhythms are always lingering on the hip hop front. I love listening to the incredible Jay Dilla and his friend Madlib – these producers have taken on the baton from the old jazz musicians from the 50’s and 60’s and given it some increible texture.
There is something about a slow beat. One of the best is Led Zepplin’s ‘When the levee breaks’ – and I’m not a ‘Zeppllin fan – but that song (and it’s production) oozes power.
KV: I find it interesting that your rhythms, to my mind, seem to help to fill out the picture rather than simply to drive the song forward forward, kind of like early Portishead. I am a Zeppelin fan, I confess, and you’re right, the power is all in that song!
Archie: I was going to mention Portishead, also from the west, (bristol?), a similar trip hop style.
KV: Indeed, Bristol was the Trip Hop capital of the early nineties.
Archie: That’s what I think might be unusual when I compose. I often hear the music in my head first and develop it without putting too much thought on the rhythm or tempo, but when I get to recording it, the tempo and beat fit in just nicely (most of the time anyway).
KV: It’s been a long time since I wrote any songs, but I remember discussing the process with Matt (still writing, and now the editor of Kid Vinyl) and him saying that he had a theory whereby the songs were in the air and just appeared in his head when he was in that place at that time. I kind of knew what he meant.
Archie: Yeah, they can come from all angles at any time. I’ve turned over a new leaf with my music recently, after discovering the ability to use samples live and in recordings.
KV: Is that partly behind your decamping to Leeds? Or is it completely unrelated? Using samples live can be very effective, I don’t know if you’re familiar with The Bays, but you should definitely get along and see them if you get the chance.
Archie: I hope to create a style that reflects a collage. Where music is layered – samples from commentaries and other musicians, interviews etc can be intertwined with original lyrics and melodies, creating a kind of fabric, with many different layers.
KV: Do you run from the word ‘soundscape’ or embrace it?
Archie: Any sound is credible music, and any music is credible for me, so I will tell myself to engage with anything, even sounds that you can’t be sure are possible (in your head). HOWEVER, I do believe in aesthetic fundamentals in music – fundamental sound relationships (from as early as the sound of a blackbird song), these scales, chord progressions, which I feel are aesthetic, seem to be locked up in an endless washing machine. They go round and round, and change deeply, evolving with time.
I hear plagiarism all the time – bass lines, melodies – concepts even. There are fundamental aesthetics which are recycled all the time. Sketches of Spain for instance is based on that famous Spanish guitar traditional song by Joaquin Rodrigo.
KV: It does seem to be increasingly common. You plainly don’t subscribe to the theory that all that can be done with music has been done, an excuse often proffered.
Archie: Nothing well ever be done, because of time I guess, we keep spinning on, and with everyday new developments make music a consistently fascinating thing. Always.
Moving back to England has opened me up to how bizarrely diverse and how spoilt we really are in terms of musical technology
KV: A very refreshing stance. What’s next for Sea Mullet?
Archie: A demo – I’m currently working on it day and night – and then moving up to Leeds in the next fortnight
KV: Have any labels shown any interest yet?
Archie: I haven’t sent anything out yet, nor have we had more then a handful of gigs, but I have a few friends in the music industry who tell me they’ll throw it up the ladder as high as they can
KV: Nice to have that kind of help!
Archie: It’s lovely. All are friends of friends who showed interest in the group when we played in the last semester of uni.
KV: Finally Archie, is there anything else that you’d like to tell our readers?
Archie: No. Other then we might be changing our name soon. SO STAY ON THE CASE.
For more about Sea Mullet and to listen to some of their tracks, visit www.myspace.com/cmullet.