Sea Girls

Sea Girls are a London quartet who evoke an anthemic, early-2000s indie rock sound. After building a fan base and support from BBC Radio through a series of EPs, they hit the U.K. Top Five with their major-label debut album, Open Up Your Head, in 2020. While maintaining a consistent lineup, they returned to the Top Five with 2022′s Homesick and 20024′s Midnight Butterflies, their first independent release. Frontman and chief songwriter Henry Camamile, drummer Oli Khan, lead guitarist Rory Young, and bassist Andrew Noswad originate from Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, and Kent, but initially met while playing in each other’s bands at school. All four went on to study at different universities and regrouped in London as Sea Girls following completion of their courses. Chosen for its ambiguity, the band’s name was inspired by a misheard lyric in Nick Cave’s brooding “Water’s Edge.” While previous musical endeavors had been much more textured and groove-based, as Sea Girls they consciously chose to bring the song to the forefront, aiming high with the kind of big choruses on which the Killers and Bastille had built their reputations. The formula was an instant success, with the lead track from the group’s debut release — June 2017′s Call Me Out EP — enjoying plays on BBC Radio 1, which led to multiple inquiries from festival bookers. That autumn Sea Girls issued the singles “Lost” and “What For” as teasers for their Heavenly War EP, which appeared in January, accompanied by a U.K. headline tour. Their June 2018 EP, Adored, preceded their first appearances at Reading & Leeds Festival, an event that they’d visited as fans in prior years. The band saw out 2018 with the stand-alone single “All I Want to Hear You Say,” and the new year saw them placed on the BBC Sound of 2019 shortlist, exponentially increasing their profile. After the playful “Open Up Your Head” was issued in February 2019, Polydor came calling, and Sea Girls’ debut major-label single, “Damage Done,” was released by mid-year. In addition to returning to Reading & Leeds, the festival season saw the band play at Truck and Benicàssim before going on to support Foals in Russia. Following the release of the confident and optimistic “Violet,” December brought their first visit to the U.S., where they played dates in New York and Los Angeles. Being named “Ones to Watch” by MTV the next month brought another positive start to the year, and March’s Under Exit Lights became the group’s fourth EP. Open Up Your Head was chosen as the title of their debut full-length, which ultimately hit the U.K. Top Five in August 2020. Characteristically, Sea Girls didn’t stand still for long. September brought new material, the single “Accident Waiting to Happen,” which was featured in the off-road arcade game Dirt 5. Further tracks emerged — December 2020′s “This Is the End” and February 2021′s “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart” — before they embarked on a U.K. headline tour in April. August’s pensive and confessional “Sick” appeared before further live dates were fulfilled, while “Again Again” and “Hometown” closed out the year. Recorded in Brixton, South London, and California with producers Larry Hibbitt, Cass Lowe, Jonny Coffer, and Jacknife Lee, the band’s second album, 2022′s Homesick, featured each of those three singles. It proved their staying power, matching their debut’s number three placement on the U.K. album chart. They went the independent route for the release of the concert album The Hometown Tour Live in mid-2023. It captured a show the previous year at Alexandra’s Palace in North London. Arriving in June 2024, their third studio album, Midnight Butterflies, was the inaugural release on their own label, ALT Records. It nevertheless debuted at number five in the U.K. Its many collaborators included producer/songwriters Oli Jacobs (Taylor Swift, Peter Gabriel), Daniel Bryer (Niall Horan), Nick Hahn (Rita Ora), and Matt Schwartz (Yungblud), among others. ~ James Wilkinson