Pool Of Sound - Sea Witches

Based in Liverpool, Jo Herring and Laura Caldwell met in 2007 through mutual friends and started playing music together pretty much immediately. Jo had just started playing bass and guitar and Laura was a huge music fan without having really played properly before, but as soon as they met something happened and it became clear they wanted to spend a lot of time together writing songs and learning to play. Incredibly prolific in their early days they came up with a huge number of songs very quickly, some of them they still play, some are on the back-burner, and some, like 'Stars' were reborn to feel like new again. That’s largely down to them having a new line-up which saw Tilo Pirnbaum joining the band on drums in 2012, when they entered the studio to record their first EP 'Spacegun', which received positive reviews and helped secure a loyal and diverse fanbase. Then Jamie Jenkin was recruited on guitar in 2014 and so after seven years in the making, the line up was complete and the band were ready to take their music to a wider audience. Prolific songwriters, they work collaboratively, with each member bringing a diverse set of influences. The band played regularly in Liverpool, where they performed at Sound City, Music Week and the Green Party Conference as well as hosting their own nights supporting other well known bands like 'Eagulls' and 'Giant Drag'. They then began to play outside Liverpool, securing gigs in Manchester and London.

Becoming known as one of the most exciting bands to emerge from Liverpool’s music scene, they signed for Edge Hill University’s The Label Recordings run by Carl Hunter of 'The Farm' and assisted by media students. An experiment that has led to huge success for previous signing Hooton Tennis Club, who are now with Heavenly Recordings. The four piece make dirty pop music that simmers and seethes with an attractive malevolence. Punchy as well as expansive, they have a certain eighties goth vibe about them, as well as the ‘Epic angst disco’. Their single 'Stars' is brooding and full of dark reverie and passion, with their off kilter artistic backgrounds glinting through into their songwriting, with both craft and delivery having an element of the unusual enchantment about it. In 2015, music blog Getintothis said, 'With a new single out on Label Recordings, Getintothis’ Paul Higham enjoys 'SeaWitches' distinctively gothic literate art-rock jangle. As their performance at Liverpool Music Week remains fresh in our minds... Vibrantly creative, the band’s sound is characterised by its diversity as each member brings their own influences to the group. Earlier single 'Space Gun', the standout track of their Liverpool Music Week set, established the band’s credentials. A brooding, dark and unsettling slice of gothic pop that recalls the likes of 'The Cure' and 'Siouxie and the Banshees' as it builds in mounting intensity over its eight minutes. New song, 'Stars', offers a melodic and sprightly contrast to the dark depths of 'Space Gun'. The song is underpinned by a distinctive guitar jangle that recalls 'The Smiths' and their C86' contemporaries. It's a pop song, for sure, but it has a profoundly arresting lyrical message delivered by Jo Herring in a dreamlike reverie. "The sky has no stars" suggests a future bleak without hope, contrasting with the band’s likely career trajectory'. 

In October 2016, their Facebook page stated, "We are supporting 'Dream Wife' on Tuesday at Arts Club for Liverpool Music Week! We are playing at 8.15pm sharp! If you would like a free ticket let us know ....This will be the last time we play this year, we are going to take some time to finish some amazing recordings, write, and hone our new sound, so if you haven't seen us with our new line up and all new songs then the time is now ... ..It may even be the last gig we play as SeaWitches...."

A line-up change saw 'SeaWitches' as Jo Herring, Laura Caldwell and Sophie Nicole Ellison. Although they seem to have been on the fringes of the Liverpool music scene for quite some time now, lurking in the shadows whilst perusing their own musical path. The big surprise is that their latest release the 'Tear Back the Sky' mini album/ EP is in fact only their second official release. Somebody once described them  as 'experimental folk' but their output to date sounds nothing remotely like 'folk' to our but more a mixture of dark menacing literate art-pop with vaguely Gothic undertones… imagine a less petrified sounding early incarnation of 'The Cure', jamming with the 'Bunnymen' with female vocals. It’s a mesmerising sound deep enough to dive into and get lost amidst a maze of twisting melodies, weaving angular guitars and reverberating Hooky meets Simon Gallup bass slavos.

In May 2021 Jo Herring posted on their Facebook page, " Hey there old friends! Just wanted to share this...I played 2 old unrecorded 'Sea Witches' songs and 2 new ones of mine for Smithdown Social Club a couple of months ago... This was my first ever Solo gig! Look forward to doing more! My set starts 20mins in ... Sending love out to you all " Jo was performing with Dom Bryan and Ade Jackson.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/02/pool-of-sound-blue-saint.html