The Sonik Seeds - Milo, Leeds - 7th May 2012

I introduce to you, fantastic new rock n roll band, The Sonik Seeds.

Formed by a quartet of students based in Leeds, this group employ a fresh and welcome approach, with a noticeable 60s style. 

Having met The Sonik Seeds and many familiar faces downstairs before hand, I think it's safe to say we were all a little curious to see what this new band had to offer. Making our way to the upstairs of Milos, we found ourselves crammed like sardines in a packed out cubby hole performance room, however, it deemed the perfect setting for The Sonik Seeds homecoming gig. Infact, their second ever live show, with an excitable buzz surrounding it. 

The Sonik Seeds take to the stage and start with a catchy, tightly rehearsed number, English Rose displaying talents way beyond their years. It's quickly apparent to see that the band's performance has easily won over several members of the packed room, and rightly so. 

Playing a wonderful set of six songs, from intricate interludes to punky beats, it comes as no surprise that The Sonik Seeds receive such a warm reception here at Milo's.

The highlight of the night for me however, was the second song of the night, Hello Devil, a delightful showcase of their 60's tinged garage melodies and electric riffs. I urge you to check out their work and if you can, go see a live gig, they're definitely a band to watch out for in 2012 and beyond. 

Following their week of gigs, I caught up with The Sonik Seeds and they were gracious enough to do an interview. If you haven't heard from them yet, here's a little introduction to the band I expect you'll be hearing a lot of in the future.

Getting to know... The Sonik Seeds

Q. How did the Sonik Seeds begin?

It came about from a joint interest in playing music really. All four of us were into the same stuff and one day we realised a band could be formed from the instruments that we could play between us.  

Q. Being new to the industry, what's the reaction been like so far? 

It's been great! The two gigs we have had have been well received. The debut Sheffield gig has seen us invited back for gigs at a later date in the town. The second gig in Leeds on Call Lane was amazing, we were blown away by the support and reaction.  Playing live, we have had a very much almost punk attitude.  Collectively we are new to the game so our low tech approach lets us maintain a raw rock and roll sound so that we can get on with what we want to do.  At the moment it’s a ‘beg steal and borrow’ approach to gear and equipment.

Q. You've been described as having a "60's throwback style" who would you say have been your main influences both musically/lyrically?

Musically the main influences are bands from the 60's. Beatles, Stones, Sonics to name a few. Also the Kinks, in our forthcoming demo, parts of the song were recorded on a Harmony Rocket Guitar and Elpico Green Amp (the same set-up used on a lot of the Kinks records.) Although having these influences from the past, we still want to bring something new. Its all about moving forward with great influences.

Q. What is your songwriting process like? Is it the words that come first, or the music?

The song writing process is pretty simple. The lyrics are written by Josh which are accompanied by loose chord patterns and riffs. The songs are born out of acoustic experimentation until they are taken to practice. It’s in practice where the songs come together. We all know our direction so it all seems to click.

Q. I must say, how on earth have you managed to squeeze recording/practicing with student workloads?

It was a welcomed distraction from all the work to be fair, a way to blow of steam in some cases. Music is a great passion of us all so it wasn't hard to drag ourselves away from work. 

Q. What should we look forward to in the upcoming year from the Sonik Seeds?

More gigs! and lots of them. We are currently trying to sort out more gigs in Sheffield and Leeds. We've also got the new demo which is available as a free demo via. our soundcloud. It's all looking promising.

Q. You recently recorded some demos at The Crystal Ship studios in Sheffield, what was that like? 

It was unreal! We really sorted out our sound there and we're definitely going to get back in the studio there to record soon. Recording and mixing our songs was George Moran of Miles Kanes band. He really brought out the best in our music, we owe him a lot for that. He likes the tunes too and came to check out our first gig.  It was also nice of him to show us the city after. We'd like to thank Tim Hampton of 'Bromheads' too for being kind enough to let us use his studio! 


You can find two recently added demos from The Sonik Seeds on their Soundcloud, recorded at Crystal Ship Studios by George Muran. If that's not enough, be sure to visit their Facebook and Twitter.