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The Eighth Note: Seismic State

‘The Eighth Note’ is 8 quick Questions with Wellington Musicians.

A chance for us to catch up with people & see what they’re up to, or introduce you to a new musician/band and their music.

Up next are Nicole & Liam from Seismic State, whose debut E.P is out today.

Who are you? Tell us a bit about your music:
Nicole – I’m Nicole, I’m the singer of Seismic State, our music is good old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll, we also like to challenge ourselves with changing time signatures and adding funky instruments to our recordings.
Liam – I’m Liam, I play bass. The other members are Matthijs on drums and Sai on lead guitar. And Nicole forgot to mention she plays guitar also.

What have you been working on lately? Any new tracks or albums on the way?
Nicole – Our EP is due for release on the 20th of September, there’s four tracks on it but we have a bunch of other original tracks we like to jam at our gigs, we also have two new originals in the works right now.
Liam – yeah, we’re always working on new stuff. Pretty excited about the upcoming EP release!

Where is the best place people can follow you & find your music?
NicoleSpotify, Spotify, Spotify
Liam – and did we mention Spotify? haha

What were the 3 most influential albums to you growing up?
Nicole – There’s so many! Green Day – American Idiot, Paramore – All We Know Is Falling,Jet – Get Born and anything Beatles, Eagles, or Elton John
LiamAlice in Chains – Jar of Flies, Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream, and probably a best of Queen compilation

Which other Wellington musician (s) would you most like to work with?
Nicole – There’s a bunch of amazing Wellington bands floating around at the moment, we’re really excited to be playing with Archie The Brave on the 20th, Pale Lady are definitely a band we loved playing alongside.
Liam – can we still call Shihad a Wellington band?

What is your favourite Wellington venue to play in?
NicoleCaroline, Valhalla, we’re yet to play at the Cavern Club or San Fran or Meow but we’re super keen to do so!
Liam – anywhere with a stage and a good crowd.

In your songwriting or composing (or the band’s songwriting) how do the compositions and songs take shape?
Nicole – Sometimes it starts with someone coming up with an idea and we all build on that, I do the lyrics and melodies, and we build from there. Or we have a google drive of random recordings of our jams at practice and sometimes I’ll find a piece of a jam and start writing a melody and fitting some lyrics to it.
Liam – yeah, we’re pretty collaborative. Some of our jams are pretty fluid, but there’s magic in that. Other times someone will present a relatively formed song idea which we all then build on. And when Nicole adds her vocal magic it goes to a whole other level!

Where/when is your next gig?
Nicole20th September at Caroline for our EP release! 🙂
Liam – see you there!!


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