It’s always fun to see my friends getting to live their dreams. I want to introduce you to a band that I would listen to even if we had never met.
Here are some questions that I asked Seabird band members Ryan and Aaron Morgan.
What is the story behind your band name?
Really it just comes from a fascination with aquatic life. Mainly sea turtles and penguins. They’re outcasts of their species on land but in the sea they fly like birds. We’re from Kentucky so we didn’t have oceans or Seas but we do have tons of creeks. Aaron used to go down to the creek behind our house, put goggles on and watch the crawdads fight under water. Then he would throw our G.I. Joe men under there and let the Crawdads try to wreak havoc on them.
How long have you been a band?
Probably about 10 years. We signed to a record label in Nov of 2006 and released our first full length record in June of ‘08 but we had been at it a couple years before that.
How did you get started?
A guy that was dating my wife’s (then girlfriend) sister heard me playing some stuff that I wrote. He kept asking me if I would play music with him but I wasn’t really too interested in starting a band. Finally he convinced me to record a couple demos in his basement. That same day was the deadline to submit music to enter a “Battle of the bands” competition here in town. We submitted the demos like an hour before the deadline and to our surprise we got in. It was a long competition and we had no idea what we were doing but after 6 months of duking it out with a bunch of great bands we took 2nd place. That made us realize that people really connected with our music.
How many instruments can you each play?
We really only each play 1 primary instrument. Aaron obviously plays the piano and sings but if you put a bass in his hand he can squeeze out a couple of Korn riffs and Smoke On The Water. Ryan plays guitar and try’s to figure out a way to sneak banjo into every song he can.
How would you describe your music?
Hmmmm…that’s honestly a tough one. Aaron always calls it Rock N’ Roll. Ryan tends to think of it as Pop but with a quirky, indie twist.
What bands have influenced your style?
The Beatles, Led Zepplin, ELO, U2, Coldplay, Radiohead, Travis, Spoon, The Strokes….
What do you like to sing about?
We feel obligated to honesty. We try to write from real life situations although not always literal. We’re totally comfortable singing about life’s darker moments but we try to have an overarching theme of hope.
What has been your favorite experience as an artist so far?
Being famous is everything it’s cracked up to be.
What is your new album like?
We feel like it was a very natural progression for us. We’ve certainly grown up as men some since our first record and that comes through in our writing. This is just another honest record from the last few years of our lives. We try not to overthink everything and just have fun with our music too though. Sometimes it seems like when bands take themselves too seriously their music gets uninteresting. We do feel like this is our best record but that’s really up to our fans to decide. This record really does have a lot of the elements of our first two records that we think our fans hope for.
What inspired the subject matter of your new songs?
Relationships; whether with our families, friends, the music industry, or situations that we see our friends going through we tend to be inspired to write about those stories, real stories.
When is it coming out?
Probably May or June
What are the challenges of being in a band with your brother?
Being my brother’s boss. No seriously we love making music together. It can always present it’s challenges but we’re forced to work through those because of our commitment to each other as family. We’re better off for it too.
What is the best part about living your dream?
Connecting with people that love our music as much as we do. That’s really an incredible feeling as we just write music that we’re excited about.
What’s the hardest part about living your dream?
Touring and having to be away from our wives and kids. Also as a band you’re always being asked to make compromises to reach a larger audience. We’re all about reaching a larger audience but it’s difficult to discern which decisions and opportunities will make the band better and still be confident that we are sticking to what we’re passionate about as artists.
What advice would you give to a band just starting out?
Focus on writing GREAT songs. There’s so much music out there these days. People really just want to be inspired by music that is authentic and meaningful. Don’t compromise the quality of your songs for anything. That being said, it’s very important to get criticism from people that you respect. It’s impossible to do anything great on your own.
You will have the opportunity to watch Seabird in concert at the Cincinnati Cyclones game on Friday, March 8th.
Here is the link for the pdf
Cyclones – Adventure Mom Discount Info form
You can get an Adventure mom discount that night for $10 a ticket.
The deadline to order tickets is March 1st @ 5pm if you want them mailed to you.
The deadline to pickup your tickets from will call is March 8th @2pm.
You need to make sure you mention Adventure mom when ordering by phone for the discount.
(513) 421-1302
I hope you can make it too!
Thank you so much for organizing this! I hope I can attend.