I'll have a Karmacino - Sebbi's Karma

I am 17 years old. I live in Surrey (which I can't stand), having moved here about 8 years ago.

I have lived in Wales (twice - once in the North, where I was born, and once in the South, where I had my first memories). I have lived in Leicester (twice) and Germany before moving here.

I was doing the International Baccelaureate in Kings College Guildford, which wasn't really a college, it was just a school sixth form that called itself a college in the middle of the deprived part of Guildford. I ended up hating the course, the school and all its contents and dropped out. My highers were English, Music (which was a really badly run course) and Physics (which was probably the main reason I dropped out coursewise) and my standards were History (the only highlight of being there), Italian Ab Initio and Maths. (google International Baccelaureate, if you want to figure out how it works, I can't be bothered to explain it).

Since dropping out I have focussed on my theatrical and musical persuits. In March we put on a play (Cantebury Tales) and next Spring we'll be performing Macbeth.

Music is my life at the moment and has been for the last 2 years or so. I am in a band called the Impressionables and yesterday we finished mixing our debut mini-album, which we're releasing on our own label. It's called Symbiotic and we recorded it with a friend of ours who's also a producer and has a home studio (how convienient) so basically we got it done, red tape standard for really dirt cheap.

The band has been around since 2004 and started as a form of therapy. The band's first gig was nearly exactly a month after me and my long-term girlfriend had split up completely.

Opinion of me is very mixed, lots of people think me erratic, others outspoken, others think of me as abrasive and many think of me as "a little stuck in his ways but a very nice person".

I tend not to get involved with it all, I try to be as true to myself as I can be and what people think of me, that's what they think of me.

I believe in honesty as one of the most important things in life. I'm sick and tired of people being "nice" or whatever. I would much rather someone tell me I'm the biggest dickhead they've ever met, if that's what they think of me, than they smile politely when I talk to them. I try to be as honest as possible myself, but sticking to that, can admit that it's not the easiest thing in the world and that I will hide things and be fake myself sometimes.

That's all for now.

Much Love
Sebbi

 

Where abouts do you live in Surrey? What do you hate about it most? And where do you see yourself living one day?

 

I live in Epsom, which I guess isn't the worst part of Surrey really. It's better connected public transportwise than most of it and it's sort of on the border between the outskirts of London and the suburbs. Whenever someone comes to my house from, say, Guildford, I always notice how Londony my area must seem to them and if one of my friends from Kentish town comes to stay they refer to where I live as "the country".

We get our water from Surrey Water, it's pumped away by Thames, we have an 020 phone number but are one stop away from being in the London travel zones.

I think my problem with Surrey is just how up itself it is. Everyone is just so... polite. I remember noticing something seriously wrong having moved down here from the Leicester. Down here everything goes on behind your back, and speaking your mind is very rarely seen as acceptable. Down here people are prejudice as well. I remember the first time I saw a Sari since moving her (which was about 5 years) and thinking "ah, that's what's missing, the Indians!" In my school photo from year 11, there was only one non-white face and people here think of foreigners as scum generally.

At the end of the day, Surrey is a pretty dead place, especailly for a 17 year old. No decent music scene in this part (actually west Surrey does have a good scene but that's a 1.5 hour train journey away), everything is so expensive it's untrue. And there are no young people. It feels like you're living in a world designed for pensioners but with all these plastic "youth schemes" that are designed to make it look like young people have something to do.

As far as where I see myself living - I think I would like to either stay in London or move back to Leicester. I would like to have kids someday and I think the city is a great place to grow up.

Truth is, I have no idea where I want to live later on in life - having moved about so much I haven't got anywhere that holds a great place in my heart really. I'm the type of person not to settle really, which suits my wanting to have a career in music. At the same time, I would really like to settle somewhere, I think there's a strong chance I'll travel for a while and then suddenly find somewhere and go "this is home!" and that's where I'll stay, but I have no idea where that'll be.

Much Love
Sebbi

 

what part of music affects you the most? take that any way you want.

what is your earliest memory?

what would you honestly, truely feel if someone called you the biggest dickhead they had ever met or words to that effect?

 

I was thinking about asking you to specify what you mean until I read the second part of that.

It's very hard to pin down what exactly it is about music that affects me so much. Truth be told I don't really know. There are probably many different things that by themselves aren't the be all and end all but in the grand scheme of things make a huge difference.

I guess to be technical it's things like, if something's well produced it can make a huge difference, or if a line is phrased right but I think at the end of the day it's whether it moves me or not.

Music, for me, is a way of getting all the shit inside and letting it out so that I can be a little bit more free and happy with who I am without feeling like I'm the prison for a caged demon or a bottle of vitriol. When I hear something that is just really honest, that's what I find most moving.

Which is why I love Nirvana so much and Muse, it's so raw and powerful. It's pure energy put into sonic form.

Yeah ok I enjoy listening to music that's fantasically well produced because you can listen to it with producers ears and go "oh yeah - that bit was good!" but at the end of the day, that's not why I listen to music.

Which is why I tend to prefer singer-songwritery stuff like Damien Rice, David and Nicholas Hirst over Tool or Coheed and Cambria (both bands released amazingly well produced albums but I didn't notice much about the actually emotional content).

I don't think I have a particular moment that was my first memory, it's more of a haze that gradually got clearer and clearer.

Earliest memories are from South Wales. Things like going on walks, or being strapped in to the child seat in the car, or pottering around the house we lived in. I remember a couple of seconds from a Birthday party once, and playing with Fruit Corners trying to get the sugary fruity bits into the plain yogurty bits.

My first memories aren't really of events, more of places.

It would probably be a bit mixed:

part of me would laugh
part of me would feel defiant
part of me would just say "fair enough then"
part of me would feel dejected and upset

It's happened before that people have said that about me, if you were asking me this if it hadn't happened I would probably say "I would be fine, I wouldn't mind, people can think what they think about me" but because it has happened I know that there is the part of me that just wants to be accepted and loved and that doesn't like being called a prick.

Much Love
Sebbi

 

an oh so important question that i ask too much- what instrument(s) do you play?

in your opinion, which album(s) has the best production?

lots of brackets.

hmm, that'll do for now, im finding it difficult to phrase questions and stuff

 

I play every instrument in the standard "rock" line up competantly; the weakest one being drums, but essencially I call myself a guitarist.

I also play piano fairly well; not amazingly but fairly well - I'm self taught for piano, I printed some guitar tabs off for songs I wanted to learn on piano and just went through it note for note (if that's the third fret on the E string and that note's an E then that... one, two, three THAT NOTE... and if that's the second fret on the A string... etc). Gradually it got more efficiant and I could go - "right, that's a G major so *plunk* that must be that"

I used to play flute a long time ago - I got to about grade three and then gave up. At the end of the day; due to my dyslexia, I doubt I will ever be able to read music well. I can read music but it's a really slow labourious process, and reading a bar or two phrase can take 5 or 10 minutes. Every flute teacher I've had has the emphasis on reading sheet music whereas I discovered more recently, if you give me something to play, I will generally manage it by ear FAIRLY well.

On top of all that I sing.

Productionwise some of my favourite albums include:

most of the Radiohead backcatalog (esp. OK Computer [Nigel Godrich] and The Bends [John Leckie])
( ) by Sigur Ros (Ken Thomas)
Final Straw by Snow Patrol (Garret Lee)
The Shrek soundtrack (Marylata E. Jacob - not my favourite album for musical content; not awful for it either but anyway - the production job is impeccable)
In Utero by Nirvana (Steve Albini)
Showbiz by Muse (go John Leckie!)

 

i love the shrek soundtrack, well not allllll of it, just some of it!

have you listened to anything by steely dan? my a level music tech teacher was obsessed with the production on their albums!

 

Nope never heard of Steely Dan, what's he like?

 

i dunno, i was just amused at the enthusiasm of my teacher.

but i think its quite kewl music, kinda rockish

 

I listened to some earlier - wasn't too impressed really.

 

Who are your heroes and why?

Would you want to be a hero?

 

what's your fave album by sigur ros?? Had a listen to your music its really good, do you tour about and stuff??

oooh and whats your best advice to a band thats starting out? (our singers abit of a dickhead hes always hungover or stoned when we practice)
hmmm nuff questions for today.. got me some nasty tonsilitus *sobs*
mazzie xxx

 

Hands down it's ( ).

I love A New Beginning as well but I don't think it beats ( ).

( ) is like a single 71 minute song, beautiful and heartrending. I don't know how to put into words how much I love that album, I think it's actually my favourite CD ever, even beating The Bends and OK Computer.

Just... wow! Just thinking about that album makes me tingle.

Touring is something I would to do but we don't really have the funds for it. That said there are a couple of (ridiculously dedicicated) fans in America who have said (seriously) that they're willing to take the financial risk to bring us over there and do a 2 week tour.

I think they're nuts but at the same time, thinking about their business plan, I wouldn't try it personally but it's not a bad one.

I think that aside, I would like to do some mini tours first - there's this thing my producer's band is doing; you book a venue, you fill it, you keep all the money that's made from it. You book 3 bands from around the country to support.

They all do the same.

To be honest, even if we could afford it, touring's not the next step. I think the next step is consolidating the existing fanbase so that we're in demand for gigs rather than pushing really hard to get people along and finding a long-term deputy drummer (monsiour Morrant is off to Lincoln Uni).

Work hard and enjoy it.
Remember that at the end of the day its all about the music but that if you want to get anywhere you need a business plan.
Be friendly to anyone you work with.
Remember that just because you're in a band, it doesn't make you better than anyone else.
Believe in yourself.
Try not to be too petty with eachother.
Don't waste time when soundchecking - just get in, do what needs doing and then get off.
Be true to yourself.

I don't know if I have any heros. I don't really tend to put people in such high esteem because everyone, no matter how great, is human.

When I was a kid I loved Superman though. I had the polyester suit that I ran around in all day throughout a lot of my childhood - those were the days.

Seriously though, the people who have directly or indirectly touched my lives in a really great way - my Aunt, my guitar teacher, my R.S. teacher I had in year 10, Brian Molko. All of those people have affected the way I walk along my path and I'm really grateful for that.

Yes and no.

I was watching the Placebo DVD and there's a bit when a fan in mexico is like "Brian you're the greatest" and he replies, sounding slightly tired "Sometimes maybe" as if to say "errrrrr... not really".

I would really love to touch people the way I've been touched myself (oh god - just remembering that school of Rock joke; pushing that back into the crevices of my mind), but at the same time I don't think I would like for people to build of a static image of me, good or bad.

Like monsiour Cobain said "I'd rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I'm not"

Much Love
Sebbi

 

The people you mentioned touching you (damn inappropriate inuendos to hell), what did they do (argh) and in what ways have they shaped (in the clear on that one I think) your life.

 

I don't want to sound like an arrogant tosser by saying this but I've always been a deep thinker. I've always really explored ideas very intensely and become very passionate about things. I've sworn it'll be the death of me to be honest.

Anyway - those people (excluding Brian Molko - he's a musical hero, which is slightly different) have really responded to that side of me and really nurtured it.

My aunt is an ordain Buddhist nun (or Bikkhu if you know the Sanskrit) and she's been a really strong presence in my life. She said that what she remembers most from me as a kid is having a really vivid imagination and I think she did a lot to nurture that. I wonder how creative I would be if it wasn't for her influence to be honest.

My guitar teacher again, nurtured my imagination and creativity. He was more than a guitar teacher though, I also saw him as something of a spiritual mentor. We constantly had to keep reminding ourselves that our time together was teaching time and chatting about life, the universe and everything wasn't a guitar lesson. There were times when I would be really down and he would just say "So how was your week" and let me spill for a bit before starting the lesson. His perspective really shaped the way I look at things. He taught to say "Well, I am looking at it like that, but I don't have to, I can also look at it like that!"

I think he was very instrumental in that I've turned out, fairly (but not completely down to earth and balanced).

My R.S. teacher is year 10 played a very similar role to my aunt. By the time I started having him for R.S. I was really really interested in world religions especially Buddhism. I was reading the Tao Te Ching and the Pali Canon and things and I didn't really have anyone to explore it with (I wasn't in regular enough contact with my aunt), and then I mention the Buddhist points of views to debates in his class and soon we're chatting about Hinduism together. Turned out he was a regular meditator, guitar player and was sending his daughter to a Steiner School. Again - he saw I was a deep thinker and helped develop that.

Much Love
Sebbi

 

i think ( ) is the most amazing cd ever and beats the bends and OK computer hands down, although they're amazing also! do you ever visualise things while listening to ( ).
i'm wondering because me and my friend both have had the same sort of imagery popping into our minds while listening to some of the tracks... it would be creepy if you also did!!!! maybe it's subliminal or maybe ive got too much in common with my mate.. i don't know many people who listen to them.

so what ideas have you become passionate about?
mazzie xx

 

What's it like to have faith?

 

If I'm honest. I've forgotten.

I was never strongly theistic ever but I did believe in something and I sort of still do but it's just thread of belief.

A couple of years ago, I had a pretty major breakup which set me on the road to depression which I won't say I've quite recovered from, but after about 6 months or so I gave up on faith.

Not quite sure what to say. I really really can't remember what it's like having faith. I think I miss it though.

Much Love
Sebbi

 

What's the best thing you've ever done?


What's the worst thing you've ever done?