What are your names?
Billy, Meg, Peter, Josh and Matt here!

What is your genre of music?
Well, we like to describe it as Indie / Funk / Grunge / Alternative, but feel free to call it whatever you like!

How did you come up with the band’s name?
A lot of people ask us this question and the honest answer is we can’t completely remember, so I’m guessing lots of beer?

Give us a little bio about you as a band and individuals.
We started way back in 2013 as a pretty standard 3 piece rock band, but then we decided to get a little weird and add some flute and trumpet. We’ve been playing as I Set The Sea On Fire for about 4 years now and it’s been so great. We make music that we love and have the chance to go to places like South Korea for festivals, so what’s not to love? We take a lot of influence from loads of different kinds of music, from indie and grunge to funk, hip hop, jazz, jungle, electro swing and pretty much everything in between. It sounds weird, (and it is!), but people seem to enjoy what we make so we must be doing something right!

Your set to release your new single ‘Iodine’, tell us more about that.
Iodine is really one of our favourite songs, but we haven’t really had the chance to play it as much as we’d like. It’s one of our softer, more emotional tracks so we prefer to save it for more intimate environments. Iodine means a lot to us both as a band and as people and it’ll be great to hear what people think!

Will we see an EP or Album this year?
We’re hoping to put out a string of singles this year, building up to a new album next year!

If so what can we expect?
We’ve added a lot more experimental sounds into our new tracks, taking influence from lots of different genres. We also have one track in particular that we think people are going to LOVE.

Do you have any gigs or festivals coming up?
We’re playing The Great Escape in Brighton this week, Liverpool Sound City at the end of May and then Tramlines in Sheffield in the Summer! However, we do have some other slots that we can’t quite announce yet!

What made you want to start making music?
I don’t think any of us can really remember a time when its not what we wanted to do. Its quite strange really, I think we are just naturally drawn towards it… But then again I suppose teenage angst played its part back in the day.

Do you play any instruments?
No, we’re a completely acapella band. Yeah, we have pretty much the standard band set up but Meg plays flute and Matt plays trumpet!
Where do you see yourself in 5 Years?
As long as we’re still making music, anywhere is good for us.

What are you up to when you’re not making music?
Sounds like an obvious answer but I guess living our lives, It’s the fuel for any good record. But honestly most of the time their isn’t a quiet moment, we’re all working on I Set The Sea On Fire or our own individual projects.

If you could collaborate with one UK Artist or band who would it be, and why?
Its got to be Florence Welch. Easily one of the best performers and songwriters to come out of the UK in the last 20 years. We had the pleasure of seeing her show at the Sheffield area a couple of years back… Still got goosebumps.

if you could collaborate with one US artist or band who would it be?
Probably Arcade fire. We love that really heavily instrumented sound and how each album is an evolution from the last. Would be a dream come true!

Was there any song or artist in particular that influenced you to start making music?
We all have very diverse and contrasting backgrounds for music that inspired us when we were growing up and I think that is what gives us such a unique sound. For example Josh is very influenced by funk and he’s played with jazz bands and orchestras, whereas Matt grew up playing in Punk and Ska bands. So I guess as a collective there definitely isn’t an artist that stands out as our main influence.

What’s the best advice you have ever been given? Any quotes or sayings that you always stick by?
Most of the advice we have been given has been really tacky, smushy stuff about following our dreams and never giving up, but honestly that’s the best advice anyone can give you.

What advice would you give to aspiring musicians not about the industry and just as an artist?
Urm… Probably something tacky and smushy about never giving up on their dreams. Also don’t be discouraged if you don’t get interest from huge labels or radio stations, the way forward for most bands right now is a more ‘do it yourself’ approach to music, for instants we make all our own music video on pretty much zero budget and to begin with we were a little worried about the public’s reaction but people seem to love the homemade charm to it. Music waits for no one, just got something out there and see what people think.

You work with Alya Records, how did that come about?
We started working with Alya Records in 2015 when we were getting Tastes Like Funk ready to release. Alya Records showed interest in us and it couldn’t have come at a better time really. We released Tastes Like Funk with their help and we went from there!

Do you have social media accounts so your fans can follow you?
Sure do!
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