Crannk Interviews Seas Of Conflict -

Seas Of Conflict are a metal band out of Hamilton, New Zealand, They have developed a solid reputation and following with their uncompromising sound and exceptional live performances through out New Zealand, with Seas Of Conflict having already supported bands like Antagonist Ad, Make Them Suffer, Stray From The Path and Thy Art Is Murder.

Seas Of Conflict are really set for a big year with an upcoming tour through New Zealand with fellow NZ heavyweights Alien Weaponry, A new single “Monachopsis” released last week and more releases slated for later in the year. Jai That Aussie Metal Guy recently got the chance to ask the guys a few questions for Crannk.

Q: First off can you tell us a little about Seas Of Conflict. Who are Seas of Conflict and how did Seas Of Conflict form?

A: Seas was formed as a high school band back in 2011/2012, our guitarist Declan and vocalist Kody were jamming with 2 others, entering local talent quests and playing the town’s hardcore venue. Their passion for Seas has never budged once so now, all these years later, we’ve settle a stable and committed line up who all share the same vision! We now have Alex Mott on bass and myself (Nic Martin) on drums!

Q: What do you feel are some of the influences that have helped shape and inspire the sound of Seas Of Conflict?

A: I think early on for the boys it’s fair to say it was bands like Parkway Drive, Architects, early Northlane, as well as the “bigger” local metal bands at the time (Antagonist AD comes to mind). These days things are very broad. We all enjoy pop/hip-hop/alternative genres just as much as rock and metal but I think our sound is a bit more shaped by the wave of progressive metal/rock we have aplenty right now; The Contortionist, Tesseract, Gojira, the list is far too long to get right into here hahaha!

Q: What first inspired you into first playing Music and then into The Heavy Metal Scene?

A: Personally, my dad has always been in rock/metal bands as well as hosting a metal radio show over here. So I’ve always been immersed in a musical upbringing. I think for the band it was more of a natural gravitation towards the passion, the rawness, the loudness that we all witnessed at other band’s shows; as opposed to deciding “hey we wanna ‘do’ heavy metal”.

Q: The New single from Seas Of Conflict is “Monachopsis” can you tell me about what that track means to you?

A: It’s a track that really highlights the growth we all felt going from just a local band with a shitty home-recorded EP to an act that was taking itself seriously with music that we all loved so dearly. It was the first track we wrote after releasing our (better) EP ‘Vestige’. We kind of channeled all our excitement and knowledge from that studio experience into the song and really took our time with it!

Q: I also heard you’ve been sitting on this track for the last couple of years can you tell me a little about the recording and production process and why you waited till now to release this amazing track?

A: Basically, our former guitarist Michael had demoed out the skeleton of the track, we had the foundation all there but it kind of got put in the stockpile as we worked on more and more new material. When the time came to return to the studio in August 2018, we had 2 brand new songs locked in and Monachopsis was the obvious third choice as all of the pieces were already there, we just had to sprinkle some studio magic onto it and put it out to the people as a nice “transition” piece to whet the appetite for what’s to come!

Q: So Seas Of Conflict are no strangers to touring already having supported some huge bands in your home country of New Zealand and you also have an upcoming tour with Alien Weaponry who are also receiving a fair bit of media at the moment can you tell me a little about the upcoming tour?

A: Yeah we spent a lot of 2018 supporting bands like Twelve Foot Ninja, Stray From The Path, Counterparts, Make Them Suffer, Silent Planet…the list goes on but we’ve jammed with the Alien Weaponry boys a couple of times now; they actually approached us asking if we would support the entire NZ run so it was a no-brainer! We’re really looking forward to playing in the South Island for the first time ever, and we’ll be playing even more new material, so it’s going to be hectic to say the least.

Q: And is there any chance of Seas Of Conflict making their way over to Australia for some shows in the future?

A: Most definitely! We’re trying to make the stars align so that it’s a worthy trip for everyone involved. In a perfect world we’d score a sweet support slot on a tour somewhere, even a smaller club-run would be huge for us to spread the word. But we will jump on the first GREAT opportunity!

Q: And How do you feel the state of the Heavy Metal scene is going in New Zealand is at the moment?

A: I think it’s easy for people to say “shit” because there’s such a small population of people who listen to metal, and our venues are small. But there is definitely no shortage of decent up-and-coming metal bands from all over NZ who are covering pretty much every corner of the genre! Too many bros to shout out particulars but the bands we gig with are almost always surprisingly great.

Q: So what else have Seas Of Conflict got planned at this stage in 2019?

A: We have our heads down in the trenches chipping away at a debut full-length release; things are feeling better than ever before and there is a nice theme that keeps coming up across the songs with the more time we spend on them. We have 2 songs nearly ready to go; we just want to film some next-level videos for them and make a real treat out of that project. Plus more shows and hopefully jumping the ditch over to Australia at some point as well!!