Despite roots in Los Angeles’ indie music scene, Sea Wolf is the inverse of its sunny and bustling birthplace: It is baroque folk-pop meant for rainy days and slow strolls along empty streets. Sophomore album White Water, White Bloom expands upon the successful template of Sea Wolf’s full-length debut, 2007’s Leaves In The River—swooning strings and frontman Alex Church’s restrained, clear-as-a-bell tenor remain front and center, but the band shows a new willingness to bare its teeth and show off its fangs on harder-rocking numbers. Church talked with The A.V. Club in advance of Sea Wolf’s performance Thursday at Schubas, about making records at a faster clip, lyrical ambiguity, and the creative benefits of being the new guy in town.
The A.V. Club: To the public eye Sea Wolf came out of nowhere two years ago, but you'd been working on writing and recording songs for years, dating back to your tenure as a bassist in Irving in the early 2000s. Why the long gestation period?
Alex Church: Irving was the first "real" band I ever played in, and I learned a lot from that experience. By the time I was starting Sea Wolf, I knew I wanted to approach it differently. It was really important to me to spend time developing the songs and have a clear plan of action before introducing it to other people. That took awhile, just getting enough material together that felt like it cohered and had a consistency to it where I could really envision it becoming a band. During those years I was recording with Phil Ek and at my house, just learning how to use Pro Tools. By the time that first record was done, after a couple of years working on it, I had a pretty strong grasp of what the aesthetic was and I feel that was pretty important in terms of being ready to finally go out there into the world.