Seafarer Shows their Hiding Places to a Wider Audience

Sometimes you don’t know something was missing until after you’ve found it. Take Chicago’s indie-psych-folk rock quartet, Seafarer. The addition of another guitarist; collaboration with recording engineer Jake Westermann; and most of all Hiding Places, the EP he helped create; have come together to give this band the sound and the direction they were looking for. Hiding Places, released in May, will be re-released to spread the kaleidoscope of sounds they achieve – rock, folk, psych, pop – to a wider audience.

Patrick Grzelewski (Vocals/Guitar), Eric Sneider (Bass) and Matt Spies (Drums/Percussion) had played in another band together and out of that group they formed Seafarer. Grzelewski says of their three-piece days, “Being faced with the limitations of a three piece dynamic and the opportunity to write a whole batch of new material proved pivotal in shaping and fully realizing a unique aesthetic. Taylor came along at just the right time, when the group was missing something that seemed completely intangible.”With Taylor Wood in the mix, the group’s songwriting changed. Seafarer began creating songs together and more organically, developing music without forcing it into a mold.


Seafarer took these songs to Engine Studios in Chicago, and worked with recording engineer Jake Westermann to create a cohesive aesthetic for Hiding Places. “Creative input from Westermann was both a new experience for us, and one of the single most important elements of the process,” says Grzelewski. “He pushed us without overstepping his bounds, knowing that we were capable of much more.” And the final piece of the Seafarer’s puzzle, is Hiding Places itself, which is full of unique gems. Songs like the mercurial and heady “The Archipelago” and even its ensuing partner, “Functional,” with its psychedelic stomp and open-ended structure, are very simply, vivid proof of a band putting all of their merits to work.

Taking all of their roots, all of their influences and all of their specific styles together and morphing them into a solid brand of good ol’ rock and roll is what Seafarer is about. Being modest and humble has always been important – Hiding Places signifies a moment where not only influences like Wilco, Fugazi and even Sonic Youth come to play – and Seafarer take their roots and put them on display for all to witness.

Hiding Places
Track Listing

1. Translation *
2. Sound it Makes
3. The Yeti
4. Watch it Flood
5. The Archipelago
6. Functional
7. Noise Floor
* = explicit lyrics