In Conversation With - Seafret
Jack Sedman and Harry Draper met and formed the Northern duet that is Seafret. I asked them if they could give me a quick explanation on the band and how they formed and after laughing over the word ‘quick’ we moved on and I was landed with an answer that managed to cover a few of my preplanned questions.
They grew up on the North coast of England and met at an open mic night. Harry was playing the banjo, in his father’s Bluegrass Americana band and Jack was performing for the first time live his renditions of songs by Johnny Cash and James Morrison, on acoustic guitar. Harry’s father approached Jack and proposed the idea of the two men playing together.
“So cool.” - Harry Draper, September, 2018
Jack claims that his original plan was to say no, but ended up meeting at Harry’s home the next week. Reminiscing about the time, they chat about Jack performing for Harry’s family and how they became inseparable. “I was really nervous but then I went up and met Harry the following Monday and when I got there, they made me play a song…” Harry interrupts and corrects him by saying that he never made him and it was, in fact, his father and a man named Nigel, “…they were all there and I just sat there and played and then I was in with the boys!”
The Northern duo immediately started writing together, got signed and ended up living together London for around four years. Together they adventured the three staples of life together. “Living together, touring together and drinking together.”
“I miss it”, says Jack with a twinkle in his eye and Harry perks up saying that he definitely doesn’t, mainly due to the excessive amount of cosmetics for his hair. When asked how Jack maintains his hair in its amazing tangle of curls, his response was one very important word. “TRESemmé.” They enjoyed living together, which makes touring easy. You can see the ease between the two of them; they constantly make jokes together and verbally bounce off each other. Experiencing them in a comfortable environment, you can see how they make a good dynamic for a band and as two friends.
They say that they don’t write as often anymore as when they lived together, but it means that the time when they do meet up to write, its more fresh and productive. Harry laughs and jokes that it’s never productive. It’s not necessarily easier to write songs when you’re living together Jack explains; “When you both live the same life, you’re going out together and you explore a new place, you go together. Then when you’re apart, if you’re making something creatively in your mind, you try and work it out alone, but if we were in the same room, we would jump on each other and say that it should be another way. But being apart means having time to lay out the ideas and then bring it to the table.” When it comes to actually writing the songs, they say that it tends to start when Harry finds a tune on the guitar and Jack would write lyrics to the guitar.
As a person from a musical family background, I was interested in their musical groups and whether they were the type for big group jam sessions or just sticking to each other. “Harry’s house was the party house.” As previously mentioned, Harry’s father is in a band and they would frequent at his house, including the two in the sessions. We discussed the awkwardness of knowing when it is okay to pull out the guitar and play or not, especially in big groups. You want to avoid looking like Will in the second Inbetweeners film. When asked about their favourite places for live music and music shops, they both laugh and claimed that they “barely remember where we have been” but when they lived in London, frequently found themselves in Camden and Brixton and more specifically Omeara and Old Blue Last in Shoreditch.
Feature by Jesse Wells and Photography by Max Herridge