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The Sea Thieves
 One would think Zac Coligan of local two piece outfit The Sea Thieves (with Naomi Thompson) would have the upper hand in landing his band a gig every now and then as he is co-owner of the much loved music venue The Jade Monkey. Not so.
The Sea Thieves debuted there in May last year filling the support slot for Bill Callahan, otherwise known as Smog. Callahan was sold after hearing the duo's experimental folk and put them on the bill. However, duty calls and when the night became overwhelmingly busy Coligan found himself working behind the bar. "The irony of having a really good place to play is that it's like work unfortunately. The gig was great but it was so busy we ended up stocking fridges and after a few drinks it's just a pain in the butt." he says, adding that The Sea Thieves probably won't be gracing the club's stage again because of his desire to keep work and pleasure on separate cards.
Coligan is an old hat at the band thing. After nine years with locals Bergerac, a mutual decision was made to depart when The Jade Monkey opened in 2002 as devoting his time to the running of a music venue devalued his commitment to the band. In between Bergerac and The Sea Thieves, Coligan established Elderdown with Thompson and gradually and gracefully they evolved into The Sea Thieves, the moniker under which the debut for the pair is being released. 'Hiding In The Shade' is an amazing experimentation that plays with sounds of old and keeps the feel originally organic. Coligan admits to leaving the 'mistakes' and sounds that aren't traditionally musical on the final recording and thinks it adds charm. It's interesting to learn that a record with creaks and cracks that other artists would usually omit had some sort of blueprint.
"One thing I did want to do was make sure the songs retained their original melody" he states. "What I do, which is what I'm going to do for every recording, is record the guitar and vocals first. What I've found in the past, with Bergerac, I really enjoyed that and I think we did some great things, but sometimes you take a melody to the band and by the time the band had worked it, it was such a totally different song. It was a different experience singing it."
The 'mistakes' heard on the debut are influenced by the variant old style of recording that Coligan adores and, like many, he is greatly influenced by the man of diversity himself, Tom Waits. "It's great being influenced by Tom Waits because you'll never sound like him," Coligan laughs. "And you hear people who try to sound like him and they just sound like him. What I really like is those little moments that happen while recording that just stick around. Because the Jade Monkey [where the debut was recorded] is not exactly sound proof, you can hear buses on Grenfell Street and I love that sort of stuff. You can't fake that." With no available studio, Coligan saw an opportunity to take advantage of the space he is blessed with at The Jade Monkey and so at night he took his equipment into the venue and recorded by himself. This segregation from work gave him time to concentrate on what was important - the music that went on the record.
"Because people in Germany hopefully will have it, and they might never see us play live, but it won't matter, they'll have this record," he says, later adding that the interest from overseas would need to rear its head before making the hasty step of jetting overseas to tour. Coligan doesn't believe in spending half his life touring, so much so that the next recording is already on his mind with songs ready to record. The Sea Thieves will be keeping true to originality though and won't be doing the "cleaned up" second album. "I'm really mindful of that. I want to capture better sounds but at the same time I want to make sure there's lots of dirt on it."
Monika Laskowski
The Sea Thieves launch 'Hiding In The Shade' at The Edinburgh Castle on Sun 4 May supported by Girls Of Adam.
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