Sea Wolf

by Stewart Mason Much like Iron & Wine or many similar indie outfits, Sea Wolf is the project name of a sole singer/songwriter who drafts in other musicians as the occasion warrants. That singer/songwriter is Alex Church, a California native who looks to local authors like John Steinbeck and Jack London (whose 1904 novel The Sea Wolf provided the band name) for inspiration. Born in the small former gold rush town of Columbia and raised by a musically inclined, peripatetic mother (in his bio, Church claims to have spent a year living in a tent in the French countryside as a child), Church attended the prestigious NYU film school, then settled in Los Angeles and formed the indie rock band Irving in 1998. As one of three songwriters in Irving, Church soon found himself with a clutch of songs that didn't fit the band's dreamy '60s-inspired psych-pop sound. Church and various friends played a handful of Los Angeles gigs as Sea Wolf between 2003 and 2005, when Church made a batch of home recordings that he completed in Seattle with Irving's producer Phil Ek. Signing with the indie label Dangerbird Records, Sea Wolf released their debut EP, Get to the River Before It Runs Too Low, in the spring of 2007, with a full-length album following. To tour behind the record, Church assembled a stable lineup with himself on vocals and guitar, Aaron Robinson on guitar, Lisa Fendelander on keyboards, Theodore Liscinski on bass, Aniela Perry on cello and Byron Reynolds on drums.