Rescheduled show. Statement from the band:
Today we’re really pleased to be able to announce all rescheduled dates for the special Album Launch shows with our Record Store buddies and live music venues up and down the country. Thank you for your patience whilst these shows were being rescheduled. We wanted to wait until we were absolutely sure they could go ahead, hopefully reducing any rescheduling confusion for everyone. 🙏
These special launch shows can’t come quick enough for us, we’re bursting to get out there and play all the songs from the album for those of you with these Launch show tickets/wristbands x Please continue supporting your local record store and live music venues. 🙂
Indie 4-piece Sea Girls are the band ready to bring back real raw excitement to the music scene with their high-energy performances, jagged love songs and British take on the Kings Of Leon and The Killers vibe.
In the greatest tradition of indie bands, Henry Camamile (lead vocals, guitar), Rory Young (lead guitar), Andrew Dawson (bass) and Oliver Khan (drums), all met at school in Leicestershire. The four friends bonded over a shared love of music citing influences from Bloc Party to Foals.
At the time, several of the members were in different bands but after Henry managed to secure a small gig through pulling in as many favours as possible, Sea Girls – named after a misheard lyric from a Nick Cave song – were born in 2015.
The charismatic Henry recalls: “It was basically us and a few other people in a very small room. We’d never performed in public before but we just gave it everything and that was when I knew this was the only thing I wanted to do.”
The band continued to keep going with Henry writing songs obsessively – documenting the growing pains of his life; from having his heart broken to burying his sorrows in partying – into brilliant anthemic songs from All I Want To Hear You Say and Damage Done to Too Much Fun.
Broken and Kerouac-esque lyrics aside, it was however, their insane live performances as the band toured round Britain that kick-started a massive following and mutual love with fans. Their debut single, Call Me Out and a four track EP was released in 2017 followed by a second EP, Heavenly War, in 2018 featuring the singles Heavenly War, Lost and What For. A third EP, Adored, was released soon after.
The buzz had started in earnest. They performed at Reading and supported Foals on tour. The unsigned band were included in the BBC’s Sound of 2019 poll as well as predicted to be one of the most successful acts of 2019 by the NME, The Independent, Time Out, Radio X and Dork. Wonderland Magazine described them as “set for greatness”. They were signed by Polydor in May 2019, allowing Henry to give up his job as a bar man to focus on being a musician full time.
He says: “All of us were slogging away doing various jobs but the focus was always the band. Our first single was recorded in a mate’s little recording studio above a burger bar which wasn’t exactly Rockfield. We’d be all crammed into the smallest vans touring anywhere, anyplace that would have us and now we are actually going to be in proper studios and proper tour buses which just feels incredible.”
Now comes the band’s #3 charting UK debut album, Open Up Your Head. Their songwriting has elevated, with frontman Henry stepping into the spotlight as a genuine storyteller for his generation. The album is fit to burst with colourful melodies, guitar and synth hooks – an explosion of joyous indie rock held together to reflect Camamile’s darker songwriting on topics such as a previous traumatic head injury, the anxiety that ensued, and resulting adolescent vices. In accessing those darkest and least comfortable parts of himself the record becomes one of hope.
‘Weight In Gold’ is a poignant song on the record that reflects the moment Camamile seeked help. “It was written in a moment of calm after I decided to change my life. It was a realisation and was written after I decided to turn my life around. To reach out and open up my head.”
Other standouts include the mammoth ‘Do You Really Wanna Know?’ which also bears huge significance for the album as it’s about “hiding in plain sight – about my mindset. I wrote this right in the middle of writing about my head injury and how my brain had changed and how I was annoyed that I didn’t feel the same and I wasn’t on form anymore. This song is saying ‘let’s not talk about it’”.
‘Forever’ demonstrates Rory’s talent for creating big sounding rock music. “At one point we considered calling the album ‘Forever’ because of it. The foundation of the song carries you and it feels incredibly important”, Henry comments.
The boys, the bastard sons of The Killers & The Strokes, have created a debut body of work, including songs from lead guitarist Rory Young, that are stunningly uplifting, ferociously reflective, delicately vulnerable, and most importantly – brutally honest. Charting at number 3 in the UK album chart, and number 1 on the UK vinyl chart, has cemented the band as a tour de force, leading the way for British guitar bands.
He admits all his writing – and their performing – comes right from the heart. “I don’t buy all the love and flowers stuff. Real relationships fall apart, you get hurt and you have to deal with it so you do what you have to do to get over it. I think what has really saved me is music. We’ve worked so hard to get here. We’re so clear-headed about where we want to go, where we want to be and what we want to say and I don’t want to let anything knock us off track. 2020 is going to be a massive year for us. Bring it on.”
Sea Girls’ #3 charting debut album ‘Open Up Your Head’ is out now via Polydor Records
