Bio

Late last year The Holy Sea returned to the spotlight with the release of the double-A side singles ‘Bad Luck / King of Palm Island’ and national tour. They received unanimously high praise for both the songs and their live shows right across the country.

The release of the band’s new album ‘Ghosts of The Horizon’ was delayed by a few months earlier this year, but now, almost 12 months later, the band are happy to announce the album will be in stores in the last week of September, with a national tour from October 2nd. The new album is a stunning work that has the hallmarks of a landmark Australian album. It’s an album as grand and sweeping and complex as its muse, this promised, yet conflicted land of Australia. The stories it holds are rich and evocative, delving deeply into the national psyche.

Haunting and expansive, it’s a brilliant foray into the rich Australian folk-rock tradition that brings to mind the band’s influences such as The Triffids, The Go-Betweens, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Paul Kelly and The Drones – but these are inspirations that have been imbibed and transformed into a sound that is uniquely and beautifully, The Holy Sea.

About The Holy Sea

Critical acclaim is something The Holy Sea have achieved consistently since ‘Blessed Unrest’ their debut release from 10 years ago. Praised for their ‘moody genius’ and ‘provoking depth,’ The West Australian was moved to declare that ‘occasionally there is a schism in the musical world, a tremor of greatness.’

Their second release ‘A Beginner’s Guide to the Sea’ took 7 years to see the light of day. The intervening years saw frontman and main songwriter Henry F Skerritt move east from Perth to Melbourne to pursue a career in curatorship and art history, all the while performing solo or with keyboardist Dan Hoey.

The Holy Sea evolved to the current line-up of guitarist Victor Utting, drummer F. David Bower and bass player Andrew Fuller (since replaced by Gavin Vance) in 2007, performing regularly around Melbourne before reaching their full contingent with the addition of backing vocalist Emma Frichot and multi-instrumentalist Gareth Skinner. The release of ‘A Beginner’s Guide...’ which Drum Media called “evocative, rousing, brilliant!” saw them create a word-of-mouth buzz, backed up by strong live performances they had honed in Melbourne.

That buzz increased when the band were invited by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds to appear at the inaugural All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in Melbourne & Sydney. As Beat Magazine’s Simone Ubaldi noted, “It was a good way for the old guard to anoint The Holy Sea as the new authentic poets of Australian folk-rock.”

After ATP, the band set to work on their next project, ‘Ghosts of The Horizon’. Unlike ‘A Beginner’s Guide...’ which was mostly a product of Skerritt’s solo period, the songs for ‘Ghosts...’ were composed and arranged as a band, although the lyrics remain Skerritt’s. Veteran producer Dave McCluney worked with the band in what was very much a collaborative effort.