{"id":32310,"date":"2020-04-09T14:15:13","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T18:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/?p=32310"},"modified":"2020-04-09T13:50:09","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T17:50:09","slug":"playing-philly-sea-offs-en-root-ep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/playing-philly-sea-offs-en-root-ep\/","title":{"rendered":"PLAYING PHILLY: Sea Offs Take Root with Playful, Soothing Dream Folk EP"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_32315\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32315\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-32315 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/MG_1362-1-e1586453391161.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/MG_1362-1-e1586453391161.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/MG_1362-1-e1586453391161-324x216.jpg 324w, https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/MG_1362-1-e1586453391161-416x277.jpg 416w, https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/MG_1362-1-e1586453391161-500x334.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/MG_1362-1-e1586453391161-700x467.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32315\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Credit: Ann Bi.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I met <a href=\"https:\/\/seaoffs.bandcamp.com\/\">Sea Offs<\/a> months ago at my favorite coffee shop, I didn\u2019t expect that our meeting spot would soon close down, or that I\u2019d eventually write about the band while watching the children across the street play outside in hand-sewn masks. Similarly, Sea Offs didn\u2019t anticipate debuting their first release in three years during a time of collective trauma. But if you\u2019re feeling anxious (which, you probably are), Sea Offs\u2019 new dream folk EP <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/seaoffs.bandcamp.com\/album\/en-root\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">En Root<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> offers a moment of solace in its delicately powerful declarations of vulnerability and self-acceptance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">En Root<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with its silly wordplay, evokes slow, sturdy growth, which fits the EP well. But if Olivia Price and Rashmit Arora love anything as much as they love a good pun, it\u2019s an unexpected song structure. Grounded with vocal harmonies and finger-picked guitars,<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> En Root<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is soothing, yet never boring. You can sense the care that goes into the beautiful, multi-instrumental compositions of songs like \u201cTo Find Your Side\u201d and \u201cFor Familiarity\u2019s Sake,\u201d but the duo is their best on \u201cWill (You),\u201d which recalls the emptiness of sex without intimacy. Price sings, \u201cWill you make me doubt\/My own amount\/I lay complacent like a ragdoll.\u201d Like the other songs on the record, it begins on the mellower side, yet unexpectedly erupts into a shouty (yet still beautiful) rejection of the bullshit and baggage that comes along with being treated as less than what you\u2019re worth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3585080583\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" seamless=\"\"><a href=\"http:\/\/seaoffs.bandcamp.com\/album\/en-root\">En Root by Sea Offs<\/a><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The following track, \u201cFight Song,\u201d is surprising in a different way \u2013 recorded in one take, you can still hear the metallic scratching of the guitar as Arora and Price harmonize in the folkiest way. With their witty sense of humor, it makes sense that \u201cFight Song\u201d is a raw meditation on arguing with those you love, rather than an aggressive chant. But, especially in uncertain times, there\u2019s nothing better than a band that is soothing, yet exciting all the same.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Read what Olivia and Rashmit have to say about the new EP in the interview below.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LxGJuxk2f9Y\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>AF: <i>What has your experience working as a duo been like?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OP: Writing with someone, or doing anything artistic with someone, is such a vulnerable experience. You&#8217;re opening yourself up and your emotions up in so many ways that you really have to build that comfort with another person. I\u2019ve played the odd solo set, like when Rashmit went back to India one summer&#8230; you become totally reliant on the comfort of having another body on stage with you that, [so] when you&#8217;re stripped of that, it&#8217;s like, &#8220;Oh my god, I don&#8217;t know how to talk to anyone.&#8221; It&#8217;s an interesting dichotomy that, to be an artist, you&#8217;re making a spectacle of yourself. And there has to be a degree of narcissism with being an artist where you have to have confidence in what you&#8217;re doing to showcase it. But at the same time, you&#8217;re so insecure and so afraid of being in the spotlight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>AF: <i>It&#8217;s hard, because you have to take yourself seriously, but also not take yourself too seriously.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OP: Sometimes I wonder when you get writer&#8217;s block, if it is just a product of taking yourself too seriously, or you&#8217;re being too hard on yourself, versus just letting it be a judgement-free zone, letting it fall out, but you have all of these thoughts like, &#8220;You&#8217;re not good enough!&#8221;<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even writing something down and not having a final product is fine too. It&#8217;s not time wasted if you don&#8217;t sit down and write a song. It was still valuable. I think that&#8217;s hard to get past \u2013 feeling like you need to produce something.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>AF:<i> How do you find the scenes different in State College, where you met, and Philly?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OP: I&#8217;ve never really felt comfortable playing house shows in any city, and I think it&#8217;s because I think the people are so trendy, and I&#8217;m like, &#8220;I want to be cool!&#8221; But that said, I feel like the folk scene in any community is just&#8230; to me, the most welcoming and down-to-earth people, and those are like, the living room shows! I always come away from those shows with friends, and I love the personal conversations that you have with people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RA: There&#8217;s a lot more competition in Philly in order to get heard, but there&#8217;s also the fact that there&#8217;s such a good music community here is a big boost actually. I don&#8217;t know how much playing local shows actually adds up to you being a conventionally successful band these days. The measurements are changing, and how you get a following is moreso online, I think, than going to play a show where kids are just there to get drunk. But in Philly, people are there for the music, and that&#8217;s rare.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>AF:<i> It&#8217;s funny how there really is a huge difference between a basement show and a living room show.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OP: It&#8217;s a different crowdgoer, too. But I like more of a sitting-around-in-a circle-listening type of thing. Those shows that we&#8217;ve played with other local artists, I keep in touch with those people still, and any time I pass through their area I hit them up, and we&#8217;re just keeping up with each other&#8217;s music. I think there&#8217;s a lot of support. Once you do find your scene here, it&#8217;s very supportive, but it takes a little bit to find your crowd.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>AF:<i> The title of your EP <\/i>En Root<i> is a pun \u2013 is there any deeper meaning to it, or is it just funny?\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OP: I mean, Sea Offs is kind of a pun too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RA: We have a lot of puns. You know when you&#8217;re seeing someone off? But it&#8217;s the sea. You&#8217;re seeing off the sea, maybe? Climate change? I don&#8217;t know! The other pun \u2013 our first EP was called <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sea the Blind. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s just a play on words.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OP: For <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">En Root<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, I think I just needed a title, and I was like&#8230; the phrase &#8220;en route,&#8221; I say that all time when I actually haven&#8217;t left yet, and it seemed appropriate, but then we were like, &#8220;Let&#8217;s just keep with the weird spellings.&#8221; Maybe it&#8217;s about feeling rooted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>AF:<i> Speaking of plays on words, I like that you have a folk song called &#8220;Fight Song&#8221; on the record<\/i><\/b><b>.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RA: That was a last minute song, and the recording is a one-take recording. We were both sitting on two sides of a figure-8 microphone so it captures sound on both sides. We have a video of us doing that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OP: The song itself was about a fight, so it&#8217;s very literal in that sense, and even when we were trying to think of a title, Rashmit was like, &#8220;I think it&#8217;s funny that it&#8217;s going to be this rock anthem, but it&#8217;s not at all.&#8221; We like to throw in some little weird things.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_32314\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32314\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-32314 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/MG_1411-e1586453839194.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/MG_1411-e1586453839194.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/MG_1411-e1586453839194-324x216.jpg 324w, https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/MG_1411-e1586453839194-416x277.jpg 416w, https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/MG_1411-e1586453839194-500x334.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/MG_1411-e1586453839194-700x467.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32314\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Credit: Ann Bi.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>AF:<i> What are you excited to share with people from the EP?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OP: I think this was just the first thing we&#8217;ve done where we had a third party in on the process, a producer, someone mixing it. So Kyle Joseph is who we worked with, and he really forced us out of our comfort zone. On &#8220;Somehow,&#8221; the structure is totally different from where it started, and it&#8217;s so much better now, but it was such a fluid process where he really took the time to research what our influences were.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RA: Even on &#8220;Will (You),&#8221; the single, there&#8217;s this entire tempo ramp-up in the middle. The idea of doing a ramp-up came from him, and we wrote the music to get there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OP: We had the space and resources to get weird on this one. We didn&#8217;t have to worry much about a time constraint. We could be in the room and be like, let&#8217;s try this.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RA: We had ten days in a studio in Brooklyn.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OP: We probably have a bit of a track record of writing long songs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RA: But also, not having conventional song structure, because I am not into just the standard structure. I think we like writing things with two sections, but this might be one of the first explicitly A and B section song.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OP: The build up is really slow, but what I like about how it turned out is that it&#8217;s so atmospheric with the textures that keep getting introduced that I feel like, lyrically, there&#8217;s a part A and a part B, where the first half is your realization of the role in the relationship, and the last part is when you&#8217;re almost in this place of\u00a0 anger that you&#8217;re in that role, and I think the music reflects that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>AF:<i> What Philly bands have you been into lately?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RA: One of the bands I really like is called <a href=\"https:\/\/nostranger.bandcamp.com\/\">No Stranger<\/a>. It&#8217;s kind of a mathy rock band, very unlike Sea Offs. <a href=\"https:\/\/friendshipphl.bandcamp.com\/\">Friendship<\/a> is awesome.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OP: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eliza-edens.com\/\">Eliza Edens<\/a> always has a special place in our hearts. When we released the last LP, we were both featured on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Key<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the same listing, and her little tidbit was saying how she just moved to Philly, and that was around when I just moved here, so I reached out via email like, &#8220;We should be friends! I really like your music!&#8221; And then we met up, we&#8217;ve stayed in touch, played shows together, and she&#8217;s a wonderful songwriter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>AF:<i> What makes Philly special to you?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OP: I like that everyone&#8217;s so down to Earth. I really do think it&#8217;s the brotherly love thing, where you can be total assholes to one another, but god forbid anyone else talks shit on a fellow Philly person &#8211; you&#8217;ll like, defend them to the grave.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Follow Sea Offs on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/seaoffs\/\">Facebook<\/a> for ongoing updates.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I met Sea Offs months ago at my favorite coffee shop, I didn\u2019t expect that our meeting spot would soon close down, or that I\u2019d eventually write about the band while watching the children across the street play outside in hand-sewn masks. Similarly, Sea Offs didn\u2019t anticipate debuting their first release in three years [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":32314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[305,8832],"tags":[3123,10010,10009,2847,10011,10013,4178,10012,10008],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/MG_1411-e1586453839194.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32310"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32310"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32337,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32310\/revisions\/32337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}