Tigers and Monkeys
Sea Ray
The Natural History
Ted Leo and The Pharmacists

Sea Ray

Sea Ray (Interview by Marisha Chinsky)
Anne Brewster (cello)
Colin Brooks (drums)
I-Huei Go (bass)
Jeff Sheinkopf (keyboards)
Jordan Warner (vocals, guitar)
Greg Zinman (guitar)

How was it to play outside today? How is that different from what you’re normally used to with gigs?
Anne: I thought it was really fun actually. It was surprising every time I looked around and saw the daylight. But it was nice, it was sort of like a change of pace. I liked it, it was cool.
Greg: Yeah, usually we play inside and we have all these projections and a whole light show done by Brandon Dermon. So, it was definitely a change of pace to look behind me and, rather than seeing big pretty pictures or anything, I saw boats going by. That was pretty fun.
I-Huei: It was a free, outdoor show, so it gets a different crowd. It was nice to see different types of people other than who you’re used to seeing in a rock club.
Jordan: A few of us have played outside one other time, but that was years ago. It was pretty exciting for me, and I think all of us, to play outside. It’s a beautiful venue, it turned out to be a pretty nice day. It didn’t rain, which is nice. And it’s great to play with these other bands. I love Ted Leo. Natural History, I thought it was great. Tigers and Monkeys were wonderful as well. It was exciting to see some little kids out in the audience, some dogs running around.

Did you see your dancer? [referring to a local hippy guy dancing in front of the stage during most of the day’s music].
Jordan: Yeah, yeah, I appreciate him for sure. He was trying to get the whole crowd going but they weren’t having it, unfortunately. But it was just good to see that whole thing going on.

So, you had an LP come out last year called Stars at Noon on Self-Starter Foundation [Records]. Are you working on new material?
Greg: Yeah, we played a couple new songs today. We probably have half an album’s worth, maybe a little more of new songs that we’re playing live or working on in our practice space. We haven’t gotten down to recording any of it yet. But we’re constantly arranging stuff.

I noticed the band has a lot of head movement on stage, and is that something that just sort of came about? It really gets your attention and it’s really cool to see that much movement on stage, not a lot of bands do that.
I-Huei: Yeah, we just want to try to communicate the music pretty much in any way we can. So I think the video projections we usually have are part of that, too, and I think people are coming out to see a show rather than staying home and listening to a record. I think they want to see a performance. For us to do it honestly without acting like rock stars, screaming at the crowd and stuff like that, because we’re actually pretty low-key people [I-Huei laughs]. But we just really try to feel the music and get as into it as we can and have as much fun as we can. I think moving around in time with the music is part of that and trying to communicate it to the crowd. We’re excited about what we’re doing and we just want to help the crowd maybe get excited, too. I think it’s a pretty natural thing, when you’re in front of people, it’s exciting and we just sort of bang our heads. I’m glad you think it looks cool [we laugh].

Yeah, it’s cool. Especially with so many musicians in the band, to be moving around so much it really brings up the energy. And you guys play very tight so it seems to me like the choreography of it, together.
I-Huei: It’s cool because we have a lot of different parts where the focus is maybe on one instrument or two instruments. I like to look around at the rest of the band, I think we all look at each other for cues and enjoy what we’re all playing with each other. I think it’s just a part of being in a band.

And I noticed you [Jeff] were playing the trumpet along with the keyboard at the same time?
Jeff: Yeah.

How does that work? Is that difficult?
Jeff: I think it would be difficult if I were playing the trumpet well [we laugh]. But really I’m just blowing on the trumpet and making a lot of weird notes. And that’s not as difficult as it might look. It’s quite easy actually. But to play with any level of technical proficiency would require a little more practice than I’ve put in. So, it’s more for fun at this point.

Do you have shows coming up that you want to promote?
Jeff: We have an August 21st show at the Mercury Lounge. That’s going to be a lot of fun.

Who with?
Jeff: A band called +/- [on Teenbeat Records].

Oh yeah, they’re on Teenbeat [Records].
Also one of our favorite bands in the whole world, The Mobius Band. There's also an Australian band called The Everyones on the bill. It's going to be a memorable show, to say the least.