SEEKAE

Sydney-grown live/electronic trio Seekae are turning heads for being one of the most forward-thinking music acts to come out of Sydney right now. That might seem like tall praise however the group have garnered admirers for producing albums that are fresh in composition and mature in their delivery; in particular, last year’s fanciful drop +Dome. Since then they’ve been impressing audiences with their engrossing and all-enveloping live performances on the domestic live circuit as well as having the privilege of touring the US, Japan and Europe.

So now the boys are one of the select few acts that are representing Australia at the upcoming light, sound and ideas extravaganza that is the Sydney Vivid Festival.

“It’s a great honour, we were pretty amazed when we were invited,” says band member John Hassel. “It’s awesome to play along side artists like Sufjan Stevens, Karen O and Modular. It really inspired us to put the string thing into action”.

‘The string thing’ Hassel refers to is the inclusion of an eight piece orchestral section to the group for the Vivid event. The lads have been working towards expanding their live performance through integrating more live instrumentation and orchestration rather than relying so heavily on laptops and sequencers live.

“A lot of the music we play is done by DJs. We wanna show ultimately that we can do it live. Whether it takes five years or 10 years or we may never achieve it but that’s the aim”.

Additonal to the unique stage show that the group is developing is the light and visual component that is characteristic of all acts on the festival bill. “We’ve got a nuts lights guy named Gordon. There’ll be crazy strobes and things so epileptics best not come,” Hassel jokes. “We describe what we want and he [Gordon] puts it together and sends us a plan and we go back and forth that way until we like it.”

It seems clear why the local lads have landed on the Vivid Festival’s radar. The young group are just as ambitious as the festival itself, open to expanding the breadth of their live show and pushing the boundaries of what’s achievable on stage with the right collaborations. “It’s a long show,” adds Hassel. “There’ll be new songs with singing which we’re trying for the first time and older songs having new arrangements. It’s almost an entirely new show.”

May 27, 9:30pm, Sydney Opera House, $29+BF, vividsydney.com