We caught up with the brilliant and insightful In Shallow Seas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

In Shallow Seas, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

We’ve put a lot of specialized time into each thing we create – in general, we put out the music we want to hear, and a lot of time goes into each project because of this – but one of the more meaningful projects we’ve done as a band is creating our latest single Upside of Being Down.

During the creation of this song and the music video, we all had various personal and family matters we had to prioritize. Trevor and Veronica were in the middle of a move when the song was being written, and Sean’s son was sick the day we were recording the music video. Despite all of that, each of us always ensured the others that family and personal well-being always comes first – above this band – without a doubt. Maintaining that humanization and that friendship above everything else makes this such a special band, and made releasing Upside a distinct milestone for us. It reminded us that we are people first and foremost with that friend support, and we can still produce amazing music while maintaining that prioritization.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

The four of us individually have been playing music since our teen years. Trevor and Veronica played together in a previous band, as did Nelson and Sean. Trevor then joined the project Sideshow Cinema with Sean and Nelson. Years later, Nelson and Sean asked Trevor and Veronica to join In Shallow Seas, and we’ve been a band ever since. We all have individual musical endeavors – Sean raps under name Ace Da Rebel, Trevor and Nelson perform covers, and Veronica has played guitar for theatrical productions.

We’ve all said on different occasions that this band is something special to each of us. First and foremost, we’re people with our own lives that need to be prioritized, and offering that mutual, humanizing respect to each other has been one of the biggest reasons this band has succeeded. About the music, we all have the same goal of wanting to play in a way that we each enjoy to create music that we’re proud of. We don’t write based on a specific genre, or what is conventionally played, or what “has” to be done versus what we “want” to be done. We play music that we enjoy and hope that carries through to whoever listens.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Being in a band is sometimes like being in a relationship. Sometimes the other person made bad decisions that made you want to leave, sometimes you make bad decisions that makes the other person want to leave, sometimes no one’s at fault, things just weren’t compatible.

Thinking about it that way, all of us came into this band with some previous band baggage. Common themes that we had all previously experienced were not feeling like our opinions weren’t heard or respected, feeling like we were taking on more tasks than others, and feeling like our personal lives had to take a backburner to “what’s most important for the band.”

All of us – though excited to join this band – were a bit weary from the baggage of having been in so many other bands previously. On top of that, all of us are married and all of us have children, so we’re in different points in our lives than we were before. We all separately had to unlearn that baggage and we did that by supporting each other. Prioritizing each other’s families over the band, providing each other the space to feel things out and creatively try new things – over time, we were able to unlearn a lot of the negative things that we had previously experienced, and through that had the emotional freedom to create cool music.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

There’s a lot of emotional vulnerability that comes from working as a creative. Of course, all of us in this band are here because we love playing music, we enjoy it, and we want to get ourselves in a position where we can share it with the world. Non-creatives can understand that, and they can understand the basic tasks needed to get there. Practicing the craft, networking, booking shows – these are all relatively common things that music creatives specifically do that non-creatives get. There’s non-creative work to be done so that you can do the creative work.

With that said, that non-creative work means – naturally, hopefully – that more people hear the creative work. But to create musically comes from a personal space. It’s like a 5-year old creating macaroni art and presenting it to the world saying, “I hope you like it!” Our product comes from something intrinsic to us – yes, it’s a craft we practice, but it’s also a craft that comes from our beings – and this is where that journey differs from a non-creative journey. We’re putting ourselves out there and hoping that people see that and respect it, and the more people listen to our music the more we open ourselves up. It’s terrifying, but part of being working musicians means that we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/inshallowseas
• Instagram: @inshallowseasband
• Facebook: facebook.com/inshallowseas
• Twitter: @inshallowseasmd
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxTKj9DMVZJlsLD3-939efQ
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2ehn1QpWv2YTKtn2Jt1r7b?si=2dzmQ3zaSQWIuxu2FQO66g&nd=1 Bandcamp: https://inshallowseas.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits
Fab Lopez