My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 85 - RYAN LOCKE

Episode Date: October 28, 2020

Seaway frontman Ryan Locke joins Robbie in the Basement today to break down the band's newest album 'BIG VIBE' front-to-back. 3Chi: Use code BASEMENT at checkout to receive 5% off at 3Chi.comYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Today I have on the front man of one of my favorite pop-punk bands on the scene, alternative rock bands on the scene if you want to call them that, Seaway. They are from Ontario, Canada. The singer's name is Ryan Locke, he's the one on the show today, and they have a new album out called Big Vibe that is honestly one of my favorite albums of the year. So I was stoked to get the chance to talk to him. But before we get into that,

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Let's get into this interview with Ryan Locke from Seaway. All right, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to My Mama's Basement. I am here with a very special guest. We've got Ryan Locke from Seaway. He just put out an amazing album called Big Vibe. This is an album that I've sort of been putting everyone onto and wanting to talk about with everyone. So now I'm glad I get to sit down and talk about it with someone who knows a thing or two about the album Big Vibe. How are you doing,

man? I'm doing well, man. It's a shitty day here in Toronto, but you know, it's all good. So I'm a huge Seaway fan. I want to put that right out there. Vacation was one of my favorite pop punk albums of, I would say, the last decade. It's been in my constant rotation since it came out. And Big Vibe, I think, is easily the best album Seaway has ever put out. Like, I'm going as far as saying that. I haven't been able to take it off since it came out. Tell me about, like, just where you guys were leading into this record to start it off um since it came out tell me about like just where you guys were leading into this record to start things off before we get into it like you know deep dive yeah where was seaway

coming into big vibe uh going into big vibe it's weird we were like on one hand there was a lot of pressure to like one up it and try and um get to the next level, you know, comparing it to Vacation because I think like when we put out Vacation, we were all like super stoked on it. You know, it's a great record, I think, but I don't think maybe it got us to where we wanted to be after really, you know, two years, three years after releasing it.

So I think there was like the pressure of like, okay, it's, you know, I don't want to say make or break because it probably you know it wasn't going to break us but like something that we were like really consciously trying to like push ourselves to get to the next level but on the other hand it was like very chill just like let's go make the record we want to make so it was very much like pressure to succeed but also just like pressure to just you know make a fun record and chill the hell out yeah so it was a good time recording and writing the album you would say it wasn't uh you weren't grinding away no yeah like there wasn't

like heavy pressure from the label or anything it was very much just like, go in, make the record you guys want to make. Like, um, they're like, our record label is very understanding and they're like, help us, you know, push us in, you know, suggest things. But this one, they were just like, we're, we're hands off. You guys just go do your thing. And, and I think that specifically helped it a lot. You know, we can get into it when we talk about the whole record, but I think like not having any like preconceived notions of of what they might have suggested what we thought we should be doing it was very much like like i kind of keep saying it's kind of like our fuck

it record we just kind of went and we're like fuck it let's just you know this is this sounds pretty weird it's a little you know a bit of a curveball let's do it fuck it you know like oh this is very poppy fuck it let's do it you know we didn't really like hold back on any of that that kind of thing yeah there's a lot of people comparing it to like 80s pop and there's throwback vibes on it i would agree with that i think there's a lot of throwback almost nostalgic sounds on it that are really cool and you could see that in your music videos i feel like your aesthetic has dove into that as well like you guys are embracing it oh yeah big time and like it's hard to say like i don't i wouldn't say the whole record is like 80s kind of power pop i think that and that's the other thing about the record is like

every song we went in like with like a concerted oh well you know i want it to sound kind of like this or i want it to sound like that so obviously big vibe um mrs david like those songs are very like 80s power pop driven. But then there's, you know, songs like Brain in a Jar, which is just like a punk rock song, you know, so like, I get people comparing certain songs, but but I don't I wouldn't say the whole record is like that, you know, but that's just nitpicking, I guess. Yeah, let's get into it, though. We're talking about it, we might as well go track by track, we'll go down the entire list. And I'm sure questions will come up along the way.

Brain in a jar. So like it was probably a year and a half that we were working and demoing, but we definitely like the difference between going into this one and going into vacation is like we had like almost a full fledged record written going into vacation. Whereas this one we kind of wanted, like we had a lot of demos. We had a lot of demos we had a lot of ideas we had a lot of like you know like call it like the bones of songs and structures of songs but like it wasn't like finished songs and i think that helped us a lot because we were able to like fuck around with like dynamics and just like you know the feeling of being in the studio and

working on stuff versus just like this is the part this is the way it goes and and we're you know now we'll track it that way so like you said it's your fuck it record exactly yeah it was very yeah it was like fluid kind of going in you know some songs were heavily written in the studio others like had been worked on much prior but that's kind of the way it all came together the second track big five rick's big vibe for sure it is like this whole song kind of like worked around that in the end that song wouldn't be on the record if you know the world didn't shut down this year that's awesome it's a great song great power chorus like when that hits the final time it's huge when the full band comes in and everything yeah um still blue do you feel more pressure just like to step up on this or yeah it was definitely like it was definitely a bit more work like I was used to you know like we'd kind of pass off duties

going you know I'd do a couple parts I'd rest he'd do a couple parts you know we kind of switch back and forth so I was like more than anything worried I'd like go in having to sing all of the leads and all of the harmonies and I'd go in and like lose my voice or something but it was fine I guess yeah like there was there was no issues with that so in terms of pressure I don't yeah like there was a bit more pressure but um it's you know kind of go with the flow mentality hey you guys are Canadians you guys don't have anxiety um wild things up next a really really cool track up next we've got maybe my favorite track on the entire album pathetic yeah i love that on the entire track yeah yeah yeah those are thumpers um and then you bounce back with sweet sugar up next you've got peach if you let me up next has

one of my favorite moments on the album and it's when you hit the i'd be pathetic without you there's like the billy eilish song where it's like, I was underwater. And it like sounds like she's underwater. And we were like trying to put something like that in the record. And we just, we never found it. And so I feel like this is kind of like what we landed on. Like, oh, we'll put that in and we'll bring the, you know, the lick back and stuff.

But it's sick when people notice that stuff, you know. Those are like the Easter eggs where it's not, obviously it's not like, you know, most noticeable thing oh no it is for me i was like it was like an nba dunk contest i was holding myself back when i heard it bro i couldn't believe it and then you've got another one in the next track wicked yeah and then the final track on the album we kind of touched on it before sick puppy great outro track it's just like you know fun tour stories like that it's like you don't get to talk about too often so like to be able to throw it into a song is

always fun i wonder if that guy's heard sick puppy i would love to know if he's heard it i hear from him on twitter like i don't keep too close in touch with him but i hear from him on twitter here and there and so like actually a couple weeks before the release i saw him say like oh so stoked um and i was like oh bud do we have something for you but i haven't heard from him since so i don't know if he hasn't listened to yet or maybe he doesn't maybe he doesn't remember that night completely possible yeah all right ryan this has been awesome i'll have to get you back on the pod some someday uh you know break down another record one of your favorite records that's not even a Seaway one

or something like that. Yeah, that'd be sick. That sounds great. This has been a ton of fun. Check out Big Vibe, stream it on Spotify, buy it on iTunes. That's if you want

to really support the band. Tell the people where they can find you on social media, all that stuff. Yeah, we're at Seaway Band on Twitter and Instagram

and you can search for us on Facebook and YouTube and all that shit. Awesome. This has been a lot of fun. Thanks, dude.