Seward debut track “Sweet Kick”

Seward debut track "Sweet Kick". The song comes off Seward's forthcoming release 'Second Two: Chapter Home'

Quote from the band about SWEET KICK:

“It all happened an average Monday nite of a sunny January, back at the early opening shows at the 12 years old WTF Sessions in Jamboree Club Barcelona. We were _there, youthful, unknown_ playing the first song we ever performed on a stage together: Its name was Sweet Kick. When we finished the very last note, no one clapped. There were two or three minutes of silence, respect, tension… Magic. We didn’t know that was about to happen again and again in our shows, that sacred dance of silence, chaos, harmony and noise cohabiting in a same singular body growing, fighting and developing, where there’s no more borders separating the members of the band and the many different characters of the audience… We will never forget that moment. Sweet Kick is our first breath.”

Barcelona’s Seward are a four-piece band. They ascend from delicate acoustic beauty to dissonant chaos, from atmospheric samples to scrunching wreckage. Pablo plays synths, effects and guitar, Adriano sings, Jordi plays bass and Juan is on drums but the band use banjos, wind-up toys, samples, whatever comes to hand to realise their incandescent vision.

Their third album Second Two: Chapter Home and first for Naim Records (home of the Mercury Prize-nominated Eska) It’s the follow-up and third part of a trilogy of albums that began with 2011’s Home: Chapter One and continued with 2014’s Home Was a Chapter Twenty Six. Mixed and mastered by regular collaborator Matt Pence (Midlake, American Music Club, John Grant) at his Denton, Texas studio The Echo Lab (“He’s always been part of the band. He really gets it. He’s a scientist, amazing!” Seward say), it’s their definitive album. Second Two: Chapter Home encompasses so much and demands to be heard in its entirety.

In places Seward evoke Radiohead, in others, Tom Waits or Godspeed You Black Emperor. There are echoes of Jeff Buckley’s celestial vox and the transcendence of Arcade Fire or cult band The Books. Hints of jazz, rumours of folk, Kosmische, post rock and touches of electronics. All is bound together by the singer Adriano’s voice, it’s an expressive instrument with singular phrasing, dancing dexterously in-between the music, changing style and delivery but always a deeply emotional presence.

Formed after meeting at the regular WTF jam session at the Jamboree club in Barcelona – four musicians who instantly knew they must become a band when they started playing together – each member brings a distinctive identity to the project that melds into the unique Seward sound. “All the musicians in this band are from very different scenes,” Seward say. “Theatre, experimental rock, poetry. Juan came from traditional Brazilian music. Jordi played with flamenco singers. The influences are completely different. It could sound like some bands, but we’re more influenced by our lives. Other things that are not music.”

“It’s different characters talking like any performance, movie or theatre show,” Seward say. “We really like the idea of the audience taking part in that story and imagining what’s happening next.”

Seward’s album will be released on Naim Records.

Track listing: 1 – Sesame 2 – So Too Soon 3 – Life 4 – Sweet Kick 5 – A Summer 6 – This Amount 7 – 1o1a 8 – Question Marks 9 – Capture Spirals [Bonus Track]

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