Up-and-coming bedroom popster SEB runs us through his new EP, ‘IT’S OKAY, WE’RE DREAMING’.
One of our favourite songs of the past few months is without a doubt SEB’s ‘seaside_demo – bonus track’. Not just because we love the seaside – although we do, very much – but because it spins a special kind of magic that really gets you. It masterfully treads that line between being vulnerable and a little sad, but also warm and lovely. And it’s just one cut on an EP of six, which you can check out below, and read more about direct from the musician himself.
“‘IT’S OKAY, WE’RE DREAMING’ serves as the first act to this whole journey,” SEB explains. “It fleshes out the mind-state I was in senior year where all these possibilities were about to open up, but at the same time, I’m starting to deal with the realities of growing up.”
daniel*
I wrote this song about a year ago while I was visiting my mom. She had this old guitar sitting in the basement and for some reason, when I was sitting down there, I couldn’t stop thinking about my grandfather. As I started playing the chords, the melody came with me so quickly. Coming up with the lyrics wasn’t too difficult either because I treated it like a conversation with him. If I had a chance to talk to him right now, what would I say?
Coney Island
This was my attempt to make a song about mental health not sound like a song about mental health. I really don’t like when things are too on the nose, cause where’s the creativity in that. So what if a feel-good song can make people sing along but not have them realize they’re singing about taking pills prescribed by a therapist. At the time too, I was talking to a therapist but I wasn’t feeling like I was getting better. So this song was me trying to deal with all these issues but making it more bearable.
THEY DON’T LIKE ME
This one came out of, I guess, frustration. I feel like there was an expectation of what people wanted me to sound like. At least, in the media, the only time they’ll show someone who looks like me, it’s always in a certain context. Anything outside of that, they deem it as weird. Or there was always an attempt to label what I do as rap or r&b but if somebody white made the same song, it’d be called pop or alternative. It’s not to say I don’t like that music but it’s not what I was making. So this song was me trying to get out of that frustration.
thrift shopping_pitched
This was another song I wrote while I was in Seattle. I had just come from thrift shopping with my sister earlier, and for some reason, thrift shopping felt really profound to me. Like what does it mean to buy clothes that were worn and loved by other people? The cool thing about this song was that the original and unpitched version sounded so different from what you’re hearing now. There were live-sounding drum breaks and a whole breakdown section with more instrumentation but when I took all those things away, that’s when that magical feeling came on.
killer lover boy
I had some time to really think about what falling in love for the first time really felt like. I feel like people make it seem like it’s the most magical thing but at the same time, not enough people talk about how crazy it can also make you. So with this song, I figured let’s take that to the extreme. Let’s make this cute love song, and make it about loving somebody so much, you would do anything to have them not be with anyone else.
seaside_demo (bonus)
This was a song honestly that wasn’t going to make the EP. It really serves as a glimpse into what the next project (ACT II), is going to sound and feel like. There’s a certain rawness and sadness in the song that tells a story almost better than the lyrics itself. It was a major stamp of approval that, where I want to take my sound is connecting, and to trust in that more.
