The Sea The Sea
Interview conducted on July 17, 2020
by Dan Locke
Based in Upstate New York, The Sea The Sea, comprised of Chuck and Mira Costa, is an indie folk-pop duo frequently celebrated for their otherworldly vocal harmonies, infectious melodies, and unconventional song arrangements.
How did you discover music?
Both of our fathers are musicians. So, music was a part of both of our lives from an early age.
Since you both play guitar, tell me how you got your first guitar, and do you still have it?
My (Chuck) first guitar was a Yamaha acoustic. It was my mom’s (who never learned to play) and I found it in the attic. The first guitar I bought was a black Fender Stratocaster. In middle school, all I played was Nirvana and Metallica songs. My (Mira) first guitar was my dad’s old Takamine.
What is your current favorite guitar?
It’s an old Larrivee acoustic from the ’70s. We recorded and wrote many of the songs on the album on it.
How did you two meet?
We met at a music festival in WV. Mira was a stage manager working at the festival and Chuck was a contestant in the festival’s songwriting contest. After meeting we soon sang a song together for a Sunday morning gospel-style sing and instantly noticed the blend our voices made together.
What was your first performance together as a duo?
Our first performance together was at a coffeehouse in Philadelphia. It was more like Mira singing backup harmony with Chuck than an actual duo show. We named our band on the way down to the Kerrville Folk Festival in TX, and that must’ve been in 2011 or 2012!
What was the title of your first original song you wrote? Did you record it?
Mira co-wrote a song when she was 5 or 6 yrs old with her dad called “Monster Under My Bed”. The song made it onto her dad’s album for kids.
How the band did get its name?
“The Sea The Sea” is a cry of joy from an ancient Greek story called “The Anabasis”. As the story goes, a city-state on the ocean sent troops into battle inland where many did not survive. Those who did survive had to fight their way back home and when many thought all hope was lost, they crested over a mountaintop, saw the ocean, and realized that they had survived the ordeal. They cried, “The Sea! The Sea!” — they were home, they were safe.
Tell me about the first single “Parachute” from the new album?
There was an article I (Mira) read that connected me with the image of being under one of those parachutes that you play with when you’re a kid, and what it feels like to be in that moment when you’re underneath, everyone is running around, you’re trying to figure out where to go, and then suddenly there can be this moment that almost feels like it’s happening in slow motion where all else is suspended, and there’s calm and maybe even something really beautiful about the colors, the light. It’s about leaning into stillness. Finding clarity amidst chaos.
How long did it take Chuck to create the video for Parachute?
The video took a couple of weeks to complete. Chuck physically cut out all of the letters from old paperbacks and then hand-placed them for each frame. It was SUPER time consuming but a great way to pass time those first few weeks of the pandemic quarantine!
Are you a DIY band? Did you create your t-shirts which are inspired by the lyrics from your song “Pretty Penny”?
We are DIY in many respects. Mira drew the design for that t-shirt. We always love and appreciate working with our community of artists and creators but we are so often inspired to create things for TSTS ourselves that it often happens the way.
Are you planning to release more songs before your album is released in August?
Yes! We have two singles already released (“Parachute” and “A Thousand Years”) and have two more on the way before the full album drops on August 28!
What is your favorite track on the new album?
That is a tough one! Like choosing your favorite child 🙂 Chuck is partial to “Fall Before the Climb” right now. That track had to move through many different versions and iterations to land where it is on the album. For a while, it wasn’t clear if it was going to make it on the record. We’re super happy about where it ended up!
Mira – You are from West Virginia. What was it like to be on NPR Mountain Stage?
Well, I (and we) just have endless respect for the Mountain Stage family. They are the utmost professionals and treat everyone with kindness. They embody what the true spirit of West Virginia is to me — it’s community, it’s salt of the earth, and it’s making beautiful, meaningful things together — so it’s just a total honor to be a part of that ongoing tradition. Being on that show is a lot of fun, and you feel the connective thread that runs through the history that show has woven together.
How do you stay healthy while touring?
It’s about finding the things you need as individuals and together to be healthy, and then maintaining some semblance of a routine. We’re vegetarians, we eat processed free whenever possible, we carry our own pantry and cook on the road whenever we can, we stay hydrated, we do things like hikes and walk, and in the months before quarantine we had started swimming daily on the road—we’ve been missing that pretty intensely these last couple months. The more and more we treat ourselves like athletes while we’re touring, the more resilient we are too odd schedules, and the better able we are to bring the best energy we can to our shows every night.
What are your feelings about streaming music?
We’re fans. Not only were we early on the streaming train as consumers, our first album was quickly embraced by the Spotify community and our songs received millions of streams. So, we’ve experienced, first hand, the power of streaming as a discovery tool and a means to reach fans that would never have heard you otherwise. The payout structure can definitely be improved upon but is as imperfect as many other aspects of the industry.
Digital vs. vinyl?
Vinyl.
What are your feelings about the social uprising going on in the United States?
It’s a beautiful thing. There’s a lot to say here but we’ll just say that it genuinely feels like there’s a real momentum shift in favor of the changes we need so desperately to make this country more just, equal, fair, inclusive — and we’re committed to doing the work to keep holding ourselves up to the light to make that happen.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? And does that song mean to you?
“A Change Is Gonna Come”, by Sam Cooke. See above 🙂
How do you feel the Covid-19 virus is affecting the music business?
Right now, it’s hard to see exactly what the music business will look like when we get past all of this. No doubt it will never be quite the same. But we are doing our best to re-imagine what it means to be working musicians in these times and so far, we are confident and optimistic that it will continue to be sustainable for musicians like us.
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
We’re holding up pretty well. We’ve had access to our studio the whole time so we’ve been making lots of music. We started a Patreon page where we’re releasing lots of the things we’ve been working on beyond the album, including podcasts, covers, and re-imagined versions of old songs of ours.
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
Mira has taken up sewing and indoor gardening (we live in an apartment). Chuck has taken up stop motion animation, as mentioned in the answer above 🙂
Lots of people are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. You are doing shows on Facebook, from your living room. How is that going?
The Livestreams have been amazing! So far, we’ve focused on Facebook and a bit on Instagram but are looking to expand on that. Each time has been a really moving experience for us to connect with all of the fans that we usually see face-to-face on tour. We’ve paced ourselves with these, only doing one every few weeks, and really focusing on trying to have a great sound and video quality so that we can create an actual “live show vibe” as much as possible.
With Social Distancing being the norm, do you feel that it may be the end of music festivals?
Maybe temporarily, but we believe music festivals will prevail in the long term. If anything, when it’s safe for us all to gather together again, we may appreciate it even more deeply.
First, it was an article in the New York Times, then Rolling Stones talked about it and finally, Live Nation CEO said that concerts may not start again until the fall of 2021. Do you think this could happen?
It’s definitely possible. We’re finding ways to keep making music without the live shows for the time being while keeping an open mind about the future. Touring was a huge part of our life pre-COVID so it’s been quite a transition. There’s very little we can do about it ourselves, except encourage everyone to follow the social distancing guidelines in the meantime so we can try and get past all of this as quickly as possible.
What about Holographic concerts in your living room?
We hope we won’t have to wait that long! 🙂
Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
Our goals really are always to keep filling our lives with more of what we’re doing now — creative work, arts in education work, traveling, connecting with people, family, and friends, creating spaces that feel like home — to keep working to get better at all of those things, to keep reaching more people, and to keep finding abundance around those things that bring us joy and meaning.
Anything you would like to say in closing?
Thank you!
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