Seasaw, the Madison-based indie pop duo of Meg Golz and Eve Wilczewski, released Too Much of a Good Thing last summer, and began living the chaotic life of a band on the rise. They were well received around the country — The Nerdist named Seasaw’s debut one of the best underground albums of the summer. On March 2, they hit the Frequency before embarking on a five-week tour that includes a stop at Brooklyn’s famed Union Hall. Isthmus sat down with Seasaw to talk about their origins and plans for the future.
How did Seasaw begin?
Eve Wilczewski: We started playing music together in 2010 in Freeport, Illinois. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time — to be working at the same restaurant together. We realized that we both had this love of music, but I had never been in a band. Meg had been in a band with her brother, so she had more experience. But we just started playing cover songs together, and we realized how much we loved to play together — like the chemistry we had with writing music. Shortly after we realized we liked doing this so much, Meg moved to Madison [in 2013] to go to the Madison Media Institute.
What was it like running the band long distance?
Wilczewski: The experience was good for writing, because we had our own space. We could work on our own thing and share it digitally and come together for weekends at a time to hammer stuff out. But the move to Madison [Wilczewski followed in 2015] was mentally and emotionally a commitment to doing the band full time.
How did it change to be in the same city?
Meg Golz: Having Eve here so we can collaborate together has given us a lot more opportunity to just practice and write and create and play shows that we normally wouldn’t have gotten to because of the distance.
What are you looking forward to about the tour?
Wilczewski: It takes a lot of effort and trust to go see a new band. So going on a tour to places where we’ve never been is always kind of exciting but scary, with not knowing who’s going to take the risk to see a brand-new band. We’ve been planning this for what seems like a long time now, and we’re ready to get out there.
Too Much of a Good Thing came out last summer, and it garnered a lot of positive press. How has the increase in exposure affected your schedule?
Golz: It’s been really fun to navigate that, and the opportunities that have been presented to us have been wonderful. We were able to play at Summerfest last year and were part of the “Emerging Artists” series, and won the top prize for the day that we were there. We’ve gotten opportunities to play these beautiful Wisconsin venues that might not have been an opportunity for us without this record and that push from the press.
The second night of your tour you’ll be at the Daytrotter Downs festival with two other Madison acts, the Hussy and Vanishing Kids. It seems like Madison’s scene — which is fairly tight knit — is slowly but steadily growing.
Wilczewski: There’s a lot of collaboration in Madison, which is awesome coming from a town where there wasn’t very much of a music scene. Some of my first friends in Madison have been musicians who just invited us to play with them, and now we’re lucky enough to have some of them play on our record. It’s a very inclusive environment for musicians. And the audience, of course, is the reason why that works as well; it’s such a supportive community.
It looks like you’re going to be very busy for quite a while. How do you plan on handling that without burning out?
Wilczewski: Maybe a lot of Powerade or Vitamin Water or something. [both laugh] But we’ve both done tours where we’re playing a show every night, so we’re a little bit nervous about that, because it is very tiring. Especially when you’re staying up late and then driving to the next place. So I guess we’re gonna have to get real pumped, and then take it easy. But even though we’ve been doing this for a while, everything that’s happening for us right now is new. So this is still fresh and exciting and seems brand-new in a way. Every time a new opportunity comes, it’s just as exciting as it was five years ago.
Watch Seasaw’s videos for “Into the White” and “Ex-Girlfriend.”
