It’s a blissfully sunny day in often-rainy Manchester and I have the day off from my 9-5. You’d think I’d be out having a pint, or frolicking in a meadow, but no, I am inside my basement flat staring at my own reflection in the laptop screen. Why? because I am waiting for Seb Lowe and his musical cabinet of political-punk-rockers to join a Teams call with me so I can discuss their new single ‘A Westerner Walks Into a Bar‘. The sun can wait for now.
Seb Lowe are a four-piece band who are based around Greater Manchester. Their namesake began his music career while still in college during the Covid-19 pandemic, spending his days writing politically charged songs from his bedroom.
Those songs, with some encouragement from family and friends, eventually made their way onto Tik Tok, where they have since been seen by millions of people all around the globe, launching Seb, and now the group, into stardom. The power of social media, eh?
They have performed shows with some massive names in music such as Paul Weller, Blossoms and Squeeze; all while tirelessly releasing records to an ever-expanding fanbase. Recent singles such as February’s ‘Here Come the Aliens’ resonated significantly with a U.S. audience, marking a huge growth in the bands influence overseas.
Their sound can range massively depending on which track you listen to, varying from dance music to folk music, and indie-rock to punk. One common theme of their songs are the sharp, witty and incisive lyrics which accompany them- exploring topics such as class, the monarchy, racism and the rise of the far right.
Seb Lowe also have some big festivals on the cards for 2025, such as Truck, Neighbourhood Weekender and YNot, as well as a landmark hometown show in Oldham in June. There’s definitely a lot to look forward to for this young band.
They join and I am greeted by Kate Couriel (violin), Joel Goodwin (drums), Ben Etches (guitar), and of course, Seb Lowe himself (frontman/songwriter/name of the band). We spend a minute introducing ourselves and then the questions begin.
So, Seb, what inspired you to make this song?
“I think it’s sort of a response to the cultural movements of the UK and a lot of western countries at the moment, this scary shift towards the far right and how on a smaller level that’s kind of been left unchecked, growing into this much more sinister thing. The song moves from kind of difficult to notice political apathy into something much darker. I see a lot of similar things to that going on at the moment and it’s just quite scary really, so the song tries to address some of that, although not all of it.”
I’ve seen this new song described as folk-punk, I know you don’t really have a set tone for your music, but would you say this is a genre you find yourself in a lot of the time, or is not as simple as that?
“A lot of the time yeah, that’s probably in part due to the fact that a lot of the songs start out acoustic and because of that they have that kind of folk-punk thing going for them and in this song we stuck to that, but in a lot of our other songs we kind of trail off into something else.”
Kate- “If you look at ‘Here Come the Aliens‘ which we released last month, that’s much more rock-y, whereas this tune is still very much focused on the acoustic guitar. It starts out as just guitar and vocals and we spent a lot of time trying to figure out different elements of this song. Because of the violin as well that kind of feeds into the folk-y description of us as well.”
Did you deliberately strip this song back to make people focus more on the lyrics or was it purely a stylistic choice?
“It was deliberately stripped back, we did build it up originally, it sounded a bit too ‘sleazy’ at first, it sounded like a Fifty Shades of Grey song. It was a bit wild, a lot of the production techniques in there were things you would more often use in bigger sounding indie-rock songs, but it just didn’t really fit the vibe. I think we’ve had like 3 or 4 arrangements of it. One of them sounded like a sea shanty, another one was like a sleazy 50 shades song, until we realised it sounds best on an acoustic guitar. I think we sped it up slightly as well.
Sometimes, being in the studio, it’s really easy and you just know what the song is going to sound like, you could almost chuck anything at it and it works, and who knows why that happens. ‘Here Come the Aliens’ was that, this was not that type of song. It can give you big problems to solve, which I suppose is part of the fun really.”
Was this one of the more challenging songs you’ve had to make, or have there been worse?
Ben- “Maybe ‘Make Me Your National Anthem’, that was a barrage of absolute bullshit for three days, just launching parts together thinking it just doesn’t work.”
Seb- “There’s been times we’ve left the studio and been like ahh.. ‘I just wanna give up on this song’… But you pull through!”
Kate- “Mr and Mrs human race too.”
Ben- “Oh Yeah! That was one of those. I think Kate had left or something and me and Seb were sat there at like 11 o’clock just tapping through Splice until we came across this sample, which was like a big riser that we used in the chorus, and then we were like ‘that’s it!’ I deleted all of Joel’s drums off it and then we made it into a dance track, and that was when James Skelly came in and did his magic on it.”
How did you all meet?
“It’s sort of come in bits, I met with Jake who rang me out of the blue, well not out of the blue, I think we had emailed before- he didn’t just steal my number.
I was on Tik Tok and we spoke, and then I met up with him, and that’s when I met Ben for the first time. We recorded like twenty songs in a day on acoustic guitar, and made a couple of Tik Toks in his little home studio, and even then it was still a good while until we turned it into a band. Jake knew you two (Ben and Joel) and I don’t actually know what he said to you two, so you’ll have to enlighten us.”
Joel- “Errm I’m racking the memory here- I met you, I had a practice room in Stockport, and you were practicing for a gig weren’t you, on your own. I remember thinking this guy needs a band, like, he looked sad being sat on his own. Anyway, Jake went ‘Seb wants a band for this next gig do you want to do it?’ And I said ‘yeah, sound.’ And that’s it really, the rest is history.”
Kate- “I was last, Jake asked me if I wanted to do a gig with the band, and I said no because I didn’t really know where a violin was going to fit into all of this. But we tried it, and then we did the Jamie Webster show, and I’d never done any big gigs like that so it was a bit of a shock to the system. Then the next week we went on tour with The Blossoms, so it was quite a lot to take in.”
I went to see comedian Stuart Lee last month, who is very political, he said onstage that ‘it’s getting harder to make satirical comedy because the world, and politics itself, is becoming more and more of a joke’, do you find its similar with music. Is it harder to write these kinds of songs when the world is more crazy or is it more the opposite because there’s so much to draw from?
“It’s hard to pinpoint where inspiration comes from in that way, it’s this weird fucking thing of like sometimes ill just go weeks, and the world will do what the world will do and nothing comes, and then sometimes you’ll see something directly that’s just absolutely fucking insane and just feel the need to write something about it.
It just sort of happens, it’s really hard to grasp when you feel inspired or what inspires you. When you speak to other artists and other people who create things it’s so interesting how differently everyone goes about writing and how they get inspired and what kind of sparks it, it does really seem to be different for everyone.”
Speaking of inspiration, I know you started writing songs during lockdown, how was that time for you?
“At the start of COVID, and I think most people will get this, there was a real lack of direction, it’s quite hard to wake up knowing you can’t go outside and also try to string some sense of a life together. I was also dead young and y’know, I was sort of into the idea of hardly doing college work and all that.
I spent most of my days picking up a guitar and writing songs, it wasn’t until the end of Covid that I had written a load of songs by virtue of having nothing else to do. I had family and friends around me pushing me, like ‘go on social media, go on social media’, it took a while to get over that initial embarrassment to put myself out there, to get over that like 17-year-old-boy thing, and then I did it and it took about 16 videos or something like that- that sounds like a very specific number, I don’t know if it was 16- between 15 and 20 videos.
A video did kind of well, and at this point Covid had started to loosen, and it’s the stupidest thing, but I remember walking into college thinking people might have seen this video and being really scared if people had. But no one had seen it, I soon realised that’s not quite how that works.
The video itself was for some shit song that we haven’t released and that doesn’t have a name, but shortly after that it was ‘Upper Class’, which we have released, which did quite well. Then almost immediately after that, it was ‘Kill Him He’s a Socialist’, which is still up there, people are still listening to it. It just sort of went from there really, the chaos of all that.”
You’ve mentioned in past interviews how coming through on Tik Tok has sort of shaped how you formulate your songs, they have to really grab attention and be snappy and punchy. Now you are more established, does that still affect your work, or are you free from the Tik Tok constraints?
“It’s interesting, I think last year, maybe two years ago, I did find it really hard to kind of strike a balance between wanting to write short songs and being able to cram as much information into a song as possible. But then for some reason, this past year, I’ve kind of just naturally felt more comfortable doing that, and really just enjoyed writing.
Whether that is a load of information crammed into a song, or whether that’s a slower song, y’know, I think my song writing has just become a lot more free in a sense, and the songs are probably slightly better for it- I hope. Y’know, we’re in the studio doing all kinds of stuff.”
You talk about class a lot in your songs, and how there is an unfair divide between the wealthy and the working class. Recently, there was an article published about how a number of winning artists at the Brits went to massively expensive private schools, do you think social media and coming up the way you did enables a better representation of working-class artists in the future?
“I mean, social media is definitely a bit of a leveller, however, at the same time, unless there is a genuine, substantial change social media can only do so much. People can still pay for ads; labels can still force their way into playlists- and stuff like that.
Connections and finances still have a massive impact. Don’t get me wrong, social media goes a good way to sort of change that but how long will that last, I don’t know.
Plus, once you get past that, a music career is a very expensive thing to fund. You have to pay for tours, and pay to make the content in the first place, like music videos and photoshoots. There’s just so many expenses which are difficult to swallow if you’re not from a background where you can afford it. So as much as social media does a bit, it doesn’t do enough.
What was it like growing up in Oldham? I know in the past you’ve mentioned you have taken inspiration from a wide range of artists from Sinead O’Connor to Eminem, but are there any Manchester bands that have inspired you growing up?
“Most of what I listened to came from my parents, from my mum I got Sinead and Bowie, and from my dad I got Led Zeppelin and Eminem. I think as far as inspiration from the local scene, the Oldham scene, sort of like Barclay James Harvest and Inspiral Carpets.
There’s obviously been hundreds of Manchester bands over the years, but that’s something I’ve definitely gotten into later, but I think Ben and Joel probably have a slightly different experience with Manchester music.”
Ben- “My dad is the typical 90’s lad through and through, Adidas Classics, baggy jeans- you know, listens to Oasis and loves the Stone Roses, so I grew up on Manchester music. I even still get inspired by bands from Manchester because there’s a lot of good music coming out of the city at the minute, and Liverpool too, that’s only a stone’s throw away.”
Seb- “So yeah, there’s a lot of good music coming out and I think it’s definitely on the up again, there’s a lot of bands coming out of Manchester that are coming out and writing amazing music and inspiring other musicians.”
So out of this current crop of up-and-coming talent who would you say are ones to look out for?
Kate- “You’ve got to say The Guest List, they’ve supported us a bunch of times now and they’re coming out with some really good tunes. We just went to their gig at Band on the Wall recently and some of the newer stuff they’ve got coming out is top notch.”
Seb- “They’ve got this like Stroksey-Radiohead combo that is just absolutely gorgeous.
The supporting band for that show, The Florentines, were so good, and I think they’re like what, 16-17, which makes us all feel dead old. They were fucking unreal.
Me and Joel were just stood there watching it absolutely blown away. There’s so many though, too many to count. And there’s so many times where we’re in the studio and were referencing x y and z.
There’s a lot of people that we’ve done stuff with, but a lot of names escape us, Arkayla are good and Madame Claude, they’re from Saddleworth too. The bass player used to live three houses down from me, they’re a ska band and they’re really fun.”
Northern bands often seem to have an identity through the area they’re from, which lots of southern bands don’t have. You have mentioned in the past that a consequence of being a northern band can sometimes be that you are gatekept by your own city because you’re so loved and identifiable through that place that it’s hard to get recognition elsewhere, are there any steps you are taking to ensure this doesn’t happen to you, or is it a case of crossing that bridge when you come to it?
Kate- “It’s happening quite naturally. The last song, ‘Here Come the Aliens’, seemed to connect quite a lot with American listeners.”
Seb- “For the first time ever, we had more American listeners than British listeners, which is just mind boggling. I think, mentioning social media before, that’s actually, weirdly, a bridge to do that, because the way that the algorithms work, however they do work who knows- I wish we did, the way that they work, they just show the music to whoever might wanna listen to it and that is irrespective of where they’re from.
So yeah, it’s pretty wicked in that sense. And on the flip side, having that local base that largely comes from gigging a lot and just getting out there.”
You guys are making politics cool, compressing it into catchy tunes, rather than a long, boring podcast with a man in a suit rattling off opinions for hours on end. When did you realise that you wanted politics to feature so prevalently in your music, and is that part of the reason you all work so well together, do you share the same view of wanting to continue to be political in the music?
Kate- “I mean, yeah, when you go to the gigs, I think that’s when it really hits you, because there’s a whole community of people who all feel really passionately about this- and the music, it sounds really cringey to say, but it brings people together and gives them a space to be angry about what’s happening.
I mean, I’ve always been quite politically aware, but since joining the band, alongside everything else that’s going on in the world, with the rise of the far right, and stupid people, I’ve become much more passionate about it personally.”
You’ve said in a previous interview that if it all goes to shit, you’d consider becoming a chef, I’m not wishing it to all go south for you, but as an alternative career plan have you ever thought about politics, potentially mayor of Greater Manchester?
“I think I’m probably a bit far gone now, I’ve probably said too much. I think when I was younger, going up through school, it was always needling in the back of my mind, and y’know, I’ve got family members, my sister included, who are very interested in all that, it’s something we’ve always spoken about, so it’s no wonder that when I first started to write songs my head just went in that direction.
I don’t think I’d be quite cut out for it, I’m not surgical enough in my thinking and I’ve almost definitely said too much in my songs.”
This is an open question to everyone in the band- who is your favourite artist you have played with?
“I’ve got two, Paul Weller, it’s one of those things, like, someone calls you and says you’re supporting Paul Weller, that’s just fucking mind boggling for a million different reasons, and then Squeeze too.”
Kate- “Oh my god, their gig was outstanding, it was unbelievable to see.”
Joel- “Squeeze was brilliant, and I’ve always enjoyed playing gigs with The Blossoms, especially the show they’re doing at the moment with the big gorilla Gary, super theatrical, and it’s really cool.”
Ben- “I’d probably say Paul Weller as well, because as well it was Kelly Jones’s new band Far From Saints playing as well, and Paul was such a nice guy, he came in and made sure everyone was okay.
Kelly Jones was the same too, he stood and had a chat with us for ages. It’s mind blowing to think that we’ve gone from some shit practice room in Stockport to now being stood next to Kelly Jones and Paul Weller, it’s a bit surreal really.”
On a similar vein of questioning, what’s your favourite song of yours?
“I think about it regularly, but it’s a hard question to answer… Oh I know! ‘A Westerner Walks Into a Bar!’ it’s only going to get better too! Every song we put out from now, from this moment on, is going to be the best song we’ve ever put out!”
Ben- “I still like ‘Cavalryman’, that’s a good one.”
Joel- “I thought ‘Love Bomb’ was one of the funnest songs to do, there’s videos of us just fucking around in the studio for like two days trying to make a song sound like Boston was a funny thing to do, that weekend we did ‘Mr and Mrs Human Race’ too, those two songs I thought were really enjoyable to do.”
Seb- “Not even just saying it, but I genuinely think the unnamed song which may be coming out after this one we’ve just released is up there. Not even just saying that. I can’t give you any more info than that, but watch out it will start trickling in…”
You’ve got a few festivals and things on the horizon; what does this summer hold for you?
Kate- “I mean we’ve got a headline show coming up which is in Seb’s hometown, Saddleworth. on the 20th of June I think.”
Seb- “It’s proper local show as well. The last one we did, which was before Kate’s time, was a tiny pub in Saddleworth, but it was fun. It will be good to do a proper hometown show, because other than that we haven’t really done one.”
Can we expect to see an album at any point this year, or is that not even being considered at the moment?
“It’s a firm ‘were just not sure’ currently, we’re having fun and putting out songs for the time being, just enjoying ourselves.
Since we’ve been talking music for the best part of an hour, it feels only right to end with this, what is everyone’s current favourite song?
Seb- “I’d say ‘Starless live in Mexico 2017’ by King Crimson, that’s the version and that’s the song, and wow, it is perfect! you have to wait for like eight minutes in and then it gets really good.”
Kate- “I would say, I’m pretty obsessed with Noah Kahan, I think his song writing is impeccable and ‘The View Between Villages’ is an incredible song.
Joel- “Anything by Rush is pretty good, and ‘Spirit of Radio’, that’s a class tune, class album, Rush, anything Rush. I’m not wearing my Rush t-shirt unfortunately it’s in the wash today, it was starting to go a bit green, so I had to wash it.”
Ben- “I am just looking through my Spotify now to try and come up with an answer, maybe ‘Us’ by Regina Spektor, that’s one of the best songs ever, yeah that’s it for me.
It’s been lovely talking to you all and I wish you all the best on your, hopefully, long, continuing, voyage into stardom.
“Yeah, we’ve got a long crawl ahead of us!”
Check out Seb Lowe on tour.
1 May Thu
O2 Academy Brixton @ 19:00
Kula Shaker,Ocean Colour Scene
London, United Kingdom
24 May Sat
Neighbourhood Weekender 2025 @ 12:00
20 Jun Fri
Seb Lowe at Uppermill Civic Hall @ 19:00
Uppermill, United Kingdom
21 Jun Sat
Delamere Forest @ 17:00
BlossomsDelamere Forest
Northwich, United Kingdom
25 Jul Fri
Truck Festival 2025 @ 12:00
Steventon, United Kingdom
