SeaBath, one of the newest bands in TT, is making musical waves across the country.
The four-member group consists of lead singer Amy Li Baksh, guitarist Damir Shorab Ali, bassist Aaron Low Chew Tung and percussionist Dexter Banfield.
The band says its genres include indie-pop, roots a fusion of Caribbean music, among other things.
Shorab and Low Chew Tung have known each other since childhood, but the rest of the crew met up during their adult lives, through music.
Banfield is the nephew of Gerald Banfield, former drummer for late musician Andre Tanker. He is also Newsday's webmaster, who manages the paper's website.
He told Sunday Newsday, "I would just go and watch him practise and I’d try to play what he was playing, and I realised, ‘Hey, I could do this!’"
[caption id="attachment_1033405" align="alignnone" width="1024"] SeaBath performs at Stages On The Avenue. - Jordon Briggs[/caption]
Low Chew Tung started off playing guitar about 20 years ago, but added bass to his portfolio about ten years.
"I’ve always had music around me. My brother is a musician, my dad wrote and arranged songs…I had no inclination to do it until I saw some guys with rock T-shirts playing guitar," he fondly recalled.
After that he stuck with it as it was fun.
Shorab said he, too, grew up in a family that loved music, recalling his father blasting music every time chores had to be done.
[caption id="attachment_1033409" align="alignnone" width="828"] SeaBath members with Gilloteen producer Dominik Gryzbon (centre) - Jordon Briggs[/caption]
"From classical to Chicago to the Bee Gees…It kind of just became part of your being."
It is Baksh who calls herself the newbie of the group. While she’s been writing songs for at least 20 years, she only recently began singing.
"I did my homework and made sure I start learning the actual craft of singing."
Last year when she, Shorab and Banfield met up for a jam session, the idea of the band was born and they officially began that journey in March 2022.
"We all like music and then we played a little and said: ‘Well, that sounded good,’" Baksh said, laughing.
And as simple as it sounds, that’s all it took.
One conversation with the members would make one realise they’re very much a family.
The name SeaBath, they said, "felt like the connecting current between all the music we’re doing."
The rest of the band still isn’t too keen on one of Baksh’s previous name suggestions – Corbeaux Against Spongecake. But she promised she’d somehow try to incorporate it into a future song.
Currently, they have a single, Gilloteen, from their upcoming EP, Songs for Rainy Season. A reference to the beheading device which originated in France, the guillotine, the single is about the modern-day working experience and "how divorced that is from what people are passionate about and want to do with their lives," the band explained.
[caption id="attachment_1033408" align="alignnone" width="1024"] SeaBath members pose for a photo. - DAMIRSHORABALI[/caption]
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