It’s been odd seeing the band Sea Power getting some mainstream attention this past year. Up to now, liking their music has felt like being a member of a lovely, bizarre cult. You might find them appearing on Countryfile, recording brass band versions of their songs, or winning a Bafta for the music of the video game Disco Elysium. They have played gigs in a Cornish slate mine, London’s Czech Embassy, picturesque pubs and village halls, often with a giant dancing polar bear in tow.
It’s hard to guess where they’ll pop up next, so maybe it wasn’t that surprising to hear they had been invited onto GB News, Good Morning Britain and even Russia Today to explain why they had chosen to change the band name from “British Sea Power”. They turned down the requests, preferring to outline their position by writing an article in the less antagonistic Guardian last August. They said: “We imagined a youngster at a European festival in the 21st century looking at the programme and seeing a band name including the word ‘Hungarian’ or ‘Russian’ alongside ‘Power’. It would likely send your mind in a certain direction – quite possibly to the isolationist, adversarial nationalism that has recently taken a hold around the world. We’ve always wanted to be an internationalist band.”
