Seed Toss - Sound In The Signals Interview

I recently had the opportunity to interview Max of Seed Toss. We discussed musical influences, writing and recording new EP ‘Safe And Sound’, artwork, collaborating with Setterwind Records, releasing music on physical formats, and more. Check it out below.

First, thanks for the interview.

Of course! Thanks for taking interest in our band.

I really like your new song “Heard You Say”. I think it sounds like a nice mixture of Emo and 90s alternative rock. Can you tell me about writing that song?

The song is a little bit about how challenging and exhausting life can sometimes feel when you’re out there trying your best and tries to portray how inner dialogue and difficult relationships can impact one’s self-confidence.

I was listening to some old Superchunk albums at the time, which is a big influence for Seed Toss in general, as you can tell by our band's name. One day a riff started popping inside my head with a vocal melody as it sometimes happen. A friend of mine was living a difficult situation with a relationship he was in and how it was affecting him. At the same time I was feeling overwhelmed by some aspects of my life. The lyrics kind of popped into my head once I started playing the acoustic guitar and were aimed towards having scenic imagery describing a bigger picture that incorporated both stories.

<a href="https://seedtossmtl.bandcamp.com/album/heard-you-say">Heard You Say by Seed Toss</a>

I notice the song has some sonic differences from your previous music. What were you drawing from or inspired by with this new music?

The goal with Seed Toss is to go with the flow and not overcomplexify the writing process. It is the outlet that I use to write about less tragic stuff than what I do with Spite House, in some way. I would say that this release has a more serious approach and subject matters than the first one, even though there is always still a secret joke lying in the concept of the songs or the lyrics.

As you noticed, we try to combine a little bit of everything 90s in our sound. As much alt rock, indie rock, power pop, etc. so as long as a song seems catchy and fits this vibe, we are usually down to start practicing it.

Your new EP ‘Safe And Sound’ comes out March 1st. What was the writing and recording process like for the EP?

The writing process for the 2nd EP was similar to the first one in that some songs were worked as a band, some others were brought at practice almost completed. We added John as 2nd guitar after writing the first EP, so his input was very valuable. He also brought new riffs that were heavier than what we would maybe think about on the first EP. We also spent more time in the practice room building some songs from scratch which was something we did less on the first EP.

We tried to demo and preprod the songs as much as possible, then we recorded them all in the room, overdubbed guitar parts, added some acoustic guitar parts, vocal harmonies, etc. I am a music producer in Montreal involved in punk and hardcore. So we used my recording spot and I mixed and mastered the project.

I really like the artwork for the new EP. I think the colors are really eye-catching. Who designed the artwork and came up with the concepts for it?

Taylor Madison of Superheaven/Webbed Wing was someone I wanted to work with for a while. He has great taste and talent regarding anything that has a 90s Aesthetic to it. He understood what we were going for immediately and we were stoked on the result of the artwork he created for us.

You signed with Setterwind Records for this new EP. How did you ending up working with them?

I played a Detroit show with Spite House, where I met Jacob from Silktail/Setterwind Records. We kept in touch and he told me that he liked the Seed Toss first EP. I sent him the 2nd one and him and Luke were down to help us putting it out. They've been of great support thus far which is really cool.

They’re releasing a cassette for the EP. How important is having physical media like CDs, cassettes, and/or vinyl to your band?

While tapes and other physical formats might seem useless to some people, I feel that putting music on a physical format is an important step and additional effort in bringing your music to life that adds another dimension to the release.

I like to see artworks in person, I like to look at the choices of colors, layout, fonts, etc. that a physical media integrates and how it serves the vision that a band has of its project. I also like to play tapes of releases I've recorded for other bands or my own bands. To me, it feels like a project reached its final form once it's in a physical format. Holding the release you've created in your own hands is something to be proud of and has a special meaning for me.