Seek Out Ships are planning an album release in the near future.

Sydney, N.S rock group Seek Out Ships was formed in 2005 as a two-piece acoustic act between long-time friends/bandmates Christopher Poirrier (drums) and David Daix (guitar, vocals). In 2009, after a four-year stint of “meandering between farting-around and complete dormancy,” the two decided to get a little more serious.

The band recruited Mark “John” Scott on bass and has been much more active of late, releasing some recordings and trying to spread word of the band.

Poirrier and Daix both joined us via e-mail this week.

1. What are you up to these days, musically or otherwise? (Feel free to plug whatever you’ve got coming up.)

D.D. - Um, considering we have been dormant for quite some time, I would say a lot is going on, I guess. Just practicing on a regular basis is a pretty big step for Seek Out (which we’ve been doing lately). We also have a full-length album in the works; the material is done, we just have to get some studio time set up. And maybe a short Maritime tour with our friends First to Fall.

2. How did you get into the music business and what was the first major lesson you learned once you got your feet wet?

D.D. - For a band with a nautical name there is not a lot of wetness going on in terms of the industry. haha We’ve been around for quite a while, but it feels to me like we are just getting started.

C.P. - I think, in regards to SOS, we haven’t really gotten our feet wet at all, as Dave mentioned.  We’re finally starting to get the ball rolling.  Personally, I’ve been in bands since I was 10 years old.  I’d say the first real experience with the industry would be with my other band, Drowning Shakespeare.  We’ve been together since January 2004 and have completed a few tours to Ontario.  We’ve put out a few independent releases as well.  I hope that the experience I’ve gained from that can be put to good use in SOS.

3. How did Seek Out Ships form?

D.D. - Well, me and Chris have been playing together for about 10 years now. At one point we went our separate ways musically but wanted to stay in touch, so we formed Seek Out Ships as a kind of extra reason to get together. And five years later, we wanted to start playing shows and our good friend Mark Scott picked up the bass for us and that was it.

4. What are the band’s musical influences?

D.D. - So many influences. Hmmm. What are some ones that will make us sound cool? haha. I guess our newer stuff is more influenced by artists and bands like Death Cab, Wintersleep, mewithoutYou, Neil Young, David Gray, Iron and Wine. I’ve also been listening to a lot of stuff I grew up with too: CCR, Bruce Springsteen and Steve Earle, stuff like that. A lot of the music people have heard from us is between two-five years old, so our new material is going to sound a bit different, but still sounds like us.

C.P. - For the record, I dislike David Gray. hahaha Dave will probably get mad at me for that one. In regards to SOS, my biggest influences would have to be The National, DCFC, Wintersleep and mewithoutYou.  Mark just introduced me to a new band called Biffy Cyclo.  Weird name, cool music though.

5. You guys released a four-song EP, you’ve recorded another and you mentioned having even more material coming down the pipe … are you noticing your sound develop or change at all as you guys continue to write and pump out new material at such a quick pace?

D.D. - Oops, answered that already. But, yeah, we are growing. I feel my writing style is changing a bit as I get older. Less songs about girls and more tunes about where I come from and where I want to go. Chris kind of grows with me too. It’s pretty cool. And Mark makes it all sound better than it is. hah

C.P. - I notice a huge change in our style, both musically and lyrically, but, especially lyrically. Although I don’t like to put labels on music, musically, we’re heading in a more “indie-rock” direction whereas before I thought our stuff was more “pop-rock.” The new material is still catchy and melodic, it just seems like it has more direction. It seems more mature. We’re working with dynamics and progression a lot more now. Lyrically, as Dave mentioned, we’re getting away from the “songs about girls” trend or whatever and moving into songs about life and experience. It’s refreshing.

6. If you weren’t in the music industry in some capacity, what would you be doing today?

D.D. - For my part, I’m not sure. Same thing I do now, I guess: dream of living in the country, writing tunes and planting a garden.

C.P. - Unfortunately, we’re not signed to Universal so I’m forced to work a job outside of the music industry. hahaha  I’m heading back to college in September for Pharmacy Technology. Of course, SOS will continue to write, record, play shows, tour, whatever.  We’re just having fun playing music together.  It’s very laid back and stress free.

7. What song or album have you been listening to most lately?

D.D. - Buy A Ticket – Greg MacPherson

C.P. - Iron & Wine – Boy With a Coin, Wintersleep – New Inheritors, I’ve yet to pick up the new record from The National – High Violet, but, that will be purchased very soon, First To Fall - The Dream Song.

8. What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned recently?

C.P. - Of course, Dave bails on the toughest question. hahaha.  Honestly, that’s a hard one. I keep replaying the books that I’ve read recently in my head and trying to manufacture something witty and/or intellectual to say. hahahaha. I’m going to take the easy way out and say, go read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.

9. What’s your favourite way to waste time?

D.D. - Laying in the shade on a warm spring day or watching my favourite movies again.

C.P. - I don’t consider it wasting time, but, I just love being with my fiancée and our friends. I love watching hockey and drinking a few beers.  I love heading to my parents’ house for a barbecue and swimming. I love spending time with my dog. I love to travel. I’m just up for anything, anytime.

10. Finish the sentence below and please elaborate on what you mean:

The east coast music scene is …

C.P. - … hard to describe. I can’t comment on places outside of Sydney because I haven’t been on tour in over a year. From what I hear, things are great elsewhere. I take a place like Sydney and it saddens me to say that the all-ages scene is dying and has been for quite some time. There was a time when there used to be 10-15 all-ages shows per year. I think there have been four in the last 13 months. This concerns us because we don’t want to play bars. We’re going to end up putting on our own shows, which is fine by us, I just wish that there were more options for touring bands and other local bands who want to play the all ages scene.

11. What’s the next thing you want to accomplish, musically or otherwise?

D.D. - I want to make some solid recordings of our new tunes and let people hear them while they are fresh.

C.P. - I guess this is a good time to elaborate on our future plans which Dave touched on briefly in question one. Next up is our new record, which is yet to be named. We have nine brand-new songs fully written. We’ve been practicing those lately and they’re almost ready to be recorded. We’re recording in June. We’re shooting a video in July with our good friend and film production master, Matt Ingraham of MI Productions (check him out on Facebook). After that, we’re going to press the record. Probably going to use something eco-friendly as we think that is important.

Then we’ll make some T-shirts and hopefully hit the road for a Maritime tour with our friends in First To Fall (also, check these guys out on Facebook). We haven’t really thought beyond that, but, that’s a pretty good start.  In closing, I just want to say that if anyone wants to check us out, our tunes can be hear at http://www.myspace.com/seekoutships and you can become a fan on Facebook by simply typing in Seek Out Ships.

Check back to EastCoastNoise.com next Friday for a chat with: Kyle MacDonald of Moncton’s Cop Shades

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Sleepless Nights just released a new EP on its website.

Halifax’s Sleepless Nights just released the third and final installment of its digital EP series. The Communication Barrier is described by the band as a “13-minute psychedelic dance track that is a step in a different direction from Sleepless Nights typical blistering guitar riffs, captivating hooks and sing-a-long melodies.”

The EP was released earlier this week, and the band is hitting the road this weekend with Myles Deck & The Fuzz for a tour through the Maritimes, Ontario and Quebec. Maritime dates are located at the bottom of this post.

Recently, Nights’ Aaron Wallace chatted us up via e-mail:

1. What are you up to these days, musically or otherwise? (Feel free to plug whatever you’ve got coming up.)

Sleepless Nights is just about to release the third EP in a series of three that we’re posting on our website. When that comes out we’re doing a tour to Ontario and back with Myles Deck and the Fuzz. Then when we get back to Halifax we’re releasing a full length album of new material. That should be out sometime in the fall.

2. How did you get into the music business and what was the first major lesson you learned once you got your feet wet?

I first started playing shows when I was 15 and living outside of Yarmouth. At the time, no one wanted to hear anything that wasn’t really heavy or funny in some way. By playing the music I wanted to play in that environment, I learned to take a punch. If you’re going to stick it out you’ve got to be tough.

3. What song or album have you been listening to most lately?

A mixtape by this band on DFA called Holy Ghost. They’ve been doing a lot a great remixes in the last couple years where they record entirely new tracks and only keep the vocals of the original song. If you’re ever on the Internets I recommend looking up their song Hold On and their cover of On Board by Friendly Fires.

4. What’s your favourite way to waste time or relax?

Digging through magazines and blogs for new music.

5. The Internet and social media are allowing artists to get closer to their fans than they ever were in some respects. What are your thoughts on this?

It puts the power back in the hands of the artists and it’s harder for prefab artists to succeed because people can tell when something is sincere. I’m pretty excited about it all actually.

6. If you weren’t in the music industry in some capacity, what would you be doing today?

Lobster fisherman or compost.

7. What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned recently?

It’s not good to let on that you are smarter than you should be at your day job. You may get fired.

8. If you could hit the “delete” button on anything related to music (a song, artist, trend, whatever), what would you delete?

Vampire Weekend. Fuck them.

9. What’s your favourite thing to drink (alcoholic or otherwise)?

Picaroons Warthog. That shit is delicious.

10. Finish the sentence below and please elaborate on what you mean:

The east coast music scene … has the chance to develop outside too much interference from big music industry. We’re isolated geographically and somewhat mentally so there is quite a bit of originality here.

Check out Sleepless Nights w/Myles Deck & The Fuzz at the following dates:

June 4 – The Capital – Fredericton, N.B.
June 5 -    The Seahorse – Halifax, N.S.

Check back to EastCoastNoise.com next Friday for a chat with: The Olympic Symphonium’s Kyle Cunjak

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Share's recent EP featured Andrew Sisk and Miranda Durka.

(Editor’s note: As you might have noticed, we’re running a little behind this week … so, with apologies, here is our weekly Fridays with … feature, this time with Share’s Andrew Sisk.)

As we reported recently, Halifax’s Share released a free digital EP, Coco & Co, mere months after the band’s critically acclaimed Slumping In Your Murals.

Recorded at home, it captures yet another incarnation of the band – a duet, featuring songwriter Andrew Sisk and Miranda Durka (vibraphone, organ and vocals) performing the majority of the arrangements with guests including Snailhouse members Mike Feuerstack (lap steel) and Mike Belyea (drums).

As Share continues to perform, main man Andrew Sisk tells East Coast Noise he has his own project in the works and a few other interesting things on the go:

1. What are you up to these days, musically or otherwise? (Feel free to plug whatever you’ve got coming up.)

We just released a free digital EP.  It’s a little footnote for our album, Slumping in your Murals, which we put out in August. It’s a bilingual three-song minimalist bossa nova pop thingy that I recorded myself, which is a new thing for us. Besides that I have a new side project under my name.  So you can expect to see an Andrew Sisk album come out within the next year.

2. How did you get into the music business and what was the first major lesson you learned once you got your feet wet?

The music business is no place to be unorganized.

3. What song or album have you been listening to most lately?

There is a new act from Victoria, B.C. called My Lovely Son who just released an album that is really amazing.  It is yet another example of something amazing coming from the Canadian music scene that may be ignored amidst the hype of bands who have lots of money to spend on advertising.  If there is any justice it will get a Polaris nod at the very least.

4. What’s your favourite way to waste time or relax?

Picking away at songs in my little home studio.  It is starting to make me somewhat of a hermit.

5. The Internet and social media are allowing artists to get closer to their fans than they ever were in some respects. What are your thoughts on this?

It is a business and marketing ploy, but it is what it is. It really has nothing to do with the music and if it does … then I suppose that is what happens when the business side drives the artistic side of an artist. I don’t know if that is good or bad for the music, but it certainly helps the business.

I grew up during an era where you could only imagine what the people making the music you loved were like as a person. Now you can be Facebook friends and follow them on their daily experiences. I know that I don’t like my favourite albums because of what the band looks like or the quality of their blogs and I think that is what will have longevity. Good music.

6. If you weren’t in the music industry in some capacity, what would you be doing today?

I would like to be writing, anything really.  I really enjoy the process of creating and working with words.

7. What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned recently?

I read Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Outliers which is an amazing examination of patterns in history.  He has this amazing ability to research different subjects and extract the most interesting parts and relate them to his argument. Essentially, in this book he examines successful people and dissects the series of advantages they were given which allowed them to become so successful. It’s worth the read.

8. If you could hit the “delete” button on anything related to music (a song, artist, trend, whatever), what would you delete?

I think it would be interesting to delete band names and band images then people had to judge music on the music.  It would be interesting to see what happens.

9. What’s your favourite thing to drink (alcoholic or otherwise)?

I think that Kombucha doesn’t taste so great but I have totally bought into the idea that it makes me healthier. It is a tea beverage made through a fermentation process involving a weird fungus; needless to say I don’t know anyone else who likes it.

10. Finish the sentence below and please elaborate on what you mean:

The east coast music scene … has some really great people in it.

11. What’s the next thing you want to accomplish, musically or otherwise?

I am working on a few projects all at once right now, all musical.  The one I am most eager to complete is based on a book I found from 1918 that I am hoping to interpret musically while having my friends read excerpts, combined with a animated projection. It is a big collaboration that I have always wanted to attempt.  I am hoping to release it on cassette only and have it performed live only once. The rest is secret.

Check back to EastCoastNoise.com next Friday for a chat with: Sleepless Nights’ Aaron Wallace

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Singer-songwriter Carmel Mikol recently released her debut album.

Folk/pop singer-songwriter Carmel Mikol has been keeping herself busy these last few months. She released her debut album In My Bones (produced by Fred Lavery at Lakewind Sound Studio and Scott Ferguson at Ferguson Music Productions) two months ago after spending 2009 touring from Newfoundland to British Columbia.

The Cape Breton native has lived in the States and now resides in Halifax, but plans to move back home soon. She also has a ton of touring lined up for the next several months. For some of her upcoming local dates, see below … but in the meantime, Carmel fills us in on her activities:

1. What are you up to these days, musically or otherwise?

I just released my new album In My Bones on March 30 with three release shows in Nova Scotia. The title track took first place in the Great American Song Contest Folk Category and the album has been getting some lovely reviews. This month I release the album in the U.S.A., playing a dozen shows through New Brunswick, New England and the Midwest states (Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison area). After that I return home to play great Nova Scotia festivals: Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival, Deep Roots Music Festival and Celtic Colours Festival.  In the late fall I head back to the States once again to tour New England.

I will be doing video blog updates of my tours and posting them on my website. So keep up with my latest adventures at www.carmelmikol.com

2. How did you get into the music business and what was the first major lesson you learned once you got your feet wet?

My Dad taught me to play guitar around seven years old and I never really put it down. Picked up the piano a few years later. I’ve always been writing, performing, doing my own recording. But I started working on a professional recording and performing career just a year and half ago when I moved to Halifax after some time living away (in the U.S.).

The first major lesson I learned is that being a musician these days requires more than just good songwriting and performing skills – you have to be an entrepreneur. Nobody will care about your career as much as you do… so don’t wait for someone to show up and give you a gig. Chase or create your own opportunities.

3. What song or album have you been listening to most lately?

Impossible German by Wilco, Ray LaMontagne’s album Till Time Turns Black and our own Old Man Luedecke’s new one.

4. What’s your favourite way to waste time or relax?

I hate wasting time! But I do try and relax by going out and catching great live music. Halifax has an endless supply. And Sydney, Cape Breton is alive with amazing and interesting new stuff too. Whatsgoinon.ca keeps me up on events in Cape Breton, even when I can’t be there.

5. What tends to inspire you when you’re in songwriting mode?

I don’t think there’s ever a time I’m not in songwriting mode. It’s kind of a constant state of being. I read a lot. I walk around the city (or the woods, depending if I’m in Halifax or at home in Cape Breton), I haunt my favorite cafés, and always pick up something that triggers an idea for a song.

6. If you weren’t in the music industry in some capacity, what would you be doing today?

I’d be writing books. Actually… I really want to do that someday. But anything else would make me very unhappy. I’ve tried other careers. One time I almost became a social worker, which was amazing, but extremely difficult. I think I almost stumbled into accounting too. I’m really lucky that I get to spend all my time making music now.

7. What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned recently?

That Cape Breton has historically been experiencing simultaneous immigration and migration since its founding (in other words, people are always coming and going in mass). I’ve been really into Cape Breton history lately.

8. If you could hit the “delete” button on anything related to music (a song, artist, trend, whatever), what would you delete?

I hate lazy lyrics. Delete. Delete. Delete.

9. What’s your favourite thing to drink?

Good, black coffee. Oh, and Scotch.

10. Finish the sentence below and please elaborate on what you mean:

The east coast music scene … is my home.

11. What’s the next thing you want to accomplish, musically or otherwise?

I want to bring In My Bones everywhere with me. I love being on the road, meeting new fans and playing shows. But my heart is already into my next album… which currently exists only in my head but I’m very excited to start working on it.

Catch Carmel at any of the following dates:

May 22 – Vintage Bistro, Hampton, N.B. (8:30 p.m., $10 tickets available at the door)
June 5 – 2 p.m. featured performer at Music Nova Scotia’s Open Mic at The Carleton, Halifax, N.S.
June 24 – 6 p.m – Wentworth Perk Coffeehouse, Sydney, N.S., w/ Norma MacDonald
June 26 – 8 p.m. – The Barn, Margaree, N.S. w/ Norma MacDonald

Check back to EastCoastNoise.com next Friday for a chat with: Andrew Sisk of Share

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