After recently returning to deliver their highly-praised new EP ‘Anywhere From Here’, Bridlington’s finest Seafret have now announced their plans for a UK headline tour, setting off in April 2023.
Taking in stops at some of the country’s most beloved venues, including the newly refurbished KOKO in London, the duo are looking to make this tour one of their most high-profile to date, fresh off the back of the sudden viral success of their 2016 single ‘Atlantis’.
Speaking about the new tour, they said, “We’re so excited to be hitting the road again in 2023! We want to see you all there so grab and ticket and let’s do this!”
Tickets for each date are on sale now, and you can see the full list of available dates below.
Seafret UK Headline Tour Dates:
April 17th Newcastle The Cluny
April 18th Glasgow Oran Mor
April 20th Leeds Stylus
April 21st Manchester Gorilla
April 22nd Bristol Thekla
April 24th Portsmouth The Wedgewood Rooms
April 25th Brighton Chalk
April 26th London KOKO
April 28th Dublin Academy
April 29th Belfast Limelight 2
Sometimes, to figure things out, you have to go right back to where you started. For duo Jack Sedman and Harry Draper, it took returning to their native Yorkshire to reconnect with the things that matter, and begin producing their best, most meaningful music to date.
Seafret formed in 2011, after meeting at an open mic night near their hometown of Bridlington. Upon the release of their debut project, Give Me Something, it was clear they were on to something. A year later, in 2015, they released their astounding Oceans EP. Accompanied by a video starring Game of Thrones’s Maisie Williams as a bullied teen, the lead single ‘Oceans’ remains a fan favourite, with over 450M collective streams. It’s easy to understand why. Sedman sings in a grief-stricken cry over lush arrangements of piano, steady percussion and acoustic guitar strums: “You know I’d rather drown/ Than to go on without you/ But you’re pulling me down.”
“Our music always has to have something real about it,” Sedman says. He recalls his dad telling him that an audience can always tell when an artist is singing from a perspective that isn’t their own. “People can always recognise real feeling.”
‘Anywhere From Here’ EP, the “Side A” of the band’s forthcoming third album, is a stunning collection of intricately woven songs that show just how far they’ve come. These are vividly realised portraits; love letters to the band’s family and friends. Produced by Draper with Cam Blackwood (Florence and the Machine, George Ezra, London Grammar), the EP pares back Seafret’s folk-influenced sound and offers something altogether that is both intimate and expansive. The instrumentation is rich and warm, while Sedman’s lyrics show a newfound maturity. “In a year your face will change/ Cos nothing stays the same/ We’re perfect at this age,” he sings. “I will miss these golden years one day.”
‘Pictures’ was written shortly after Sedman and his partner discovered they were expecting their first child. He began to visualise what life would be like as a new father, and how he’d feel watching his son or daughter growing older. “It’s that initial instinct of wishing you could freeze time,” he says. “I was thinking about holding my baby, and seeing the sunlight in the garden, being in one of those perfect moments you wish you could hold on to. And realising how fast those moments pass.”
It’s a sentiment echoed on ‘Hollow’, about the impact the loss of a loved one can have on the people they leave behind. Sedman wrote it right in the depths of lockdown, thinking about the grandparents he was unable to visit. “Everyone became more aware of how lucky they were, and what they had,” he says of the pandemic. “It was difficult not being able to see people, especially if they weren’t in a good place. And we all want to try and make the most out of every day.” The track begins with simple guitar strumming that sounds resigned to the inevitable. “Wish we could keep on running/ Go back to life before,” Sedman sings. Then comes a shimmer of percussion, and the guitar grows more determined, building into the uplifting chorus. “Obviously with everything going on, that was bound to have an influence on the mood of the music we were creating,” Draper says. “And there were other situations we were going through that were tough – people we wanted to see – and that definitely came through a lot in the songs.”
‘Running Out Of Love’ addresses those relationships that don’t make it. “That one’s more about fighting for a love that’s breaking,” Sedman nods. “When you’re fighting a losing battle. I think we’ve all been there, in a situation where you don’t realise you’re changing yourself to get someone to stay.” He was inspired by watching couples interact with one another on the London Underground, and looking through Instagram at other couples presenting themselves as “perfect”. It would be easy, he thought, to go back to your own relationship and see the cracks starting to show. “But then it’s not real life, a lot of the time.”
