Meet Earthen Sea

Sometimes you just need some dark, drone-y, dub-y, techno goodness to really put you in a mood. A dang good mood, at that.

Enter Earthen Sea, the solo project of non other than Jacob Long — post-hardcore, post-punk rocker turned ambient master. 

Those familiar with Long’s previous punk days may be surprised by this most recent release, Grass and Trees. This lush dub-techno album is all the right kinds of shadowy and foggy and weird. It’s chock full of sonic and luxurious textures guaranteed to lull, and blur, and soothe. 

Below, Long gives insight into the civility of disliking cats, the influence of D.C.’s music scene, and reminds us that “borders” are a construct. 

a Mad-Lib by, Earthen Sea:

PRIME TIME GOSSIP

Handsome BRUCE and his co-WEAVER, the FOAMY BARBARA raised KNEES when they were seen kissing SLOWLY at the screening of their PALE TV movie. The SMOOTH couple deny it's a
romance; they say they are just RASPY friends. Here's another BLUE tidbit... love must be in the SHOE. DALE EARNHARDT and EMILY who had only HARSH words for each other last week, were seen holding CUPS and whispering in each other's FINGERS at this week's benefit for adopted SHOES.

Would You Rather…

get a full back tattoo of Garfield or Alf? Please explain why. 

Garfield…because Garfield is the best plus hating Mondays and loving coffee and lasagna is relatable.  Plus Alf didn’t like cats which is just uncivilized….

Some Questions with Earthen Sea

What motivates you to keep making music?

Beyond simply saying its something I’ve known and done for all my life and don’t see myself not doing its hard to say but it is something that I never grow tired of and there is always something new/exciting/interesting/stimulating/etc to do, learn, explore in the wide world of musical expression.  But basically I wouldn’t really know what to do with myself if I didn’t spend a good amount of my time involved in creating music…

How did your background in the DC music scene influence your current sound?

In the same way that all experiences have an influence on who you are and become.  Outside of that…in many ways it maybe did not obviously have a direct influence on what the music I make now sounds like specifically but it definitely had a profound influence on the how of approaching making music and taking responsibility and believing there to be the possibility of a space to create exactly what you want to create on your own terms.  Also in my time there I was lucky to be surrounded by a large group of people who were interested in a wide range of music and who were open to allowing that wide variety of things to seep into their music language/expression and that is something that resonated with me then and does to this day…

The most recent album, Grass and Trees, is both pared-down yet immensely complex. How do you go about creating this balance and/or juxtaposition? 

First of all thanks for that…I certainly spent some time thinking about the former (paring things down/simplifying to get to the “point” of what I wanted my music to be)…As for it being complex…that certainly is not something that as an end result interests me much in music…however I have found for myself in creating music especially as it gets more bare bones and “repetitive” I need to create ways in which it changes throughout a piece in ways that may be perceptible or not but at the very least are felt…not just “repeating” endlessly…so I did spend a good amount of time developing ways of processing and using effects to bring that idea to life…but as with any creation balance is key and being able to see what is helping to drive a piece towards being what you want it to be vs. if you are just doing something because it is a cool trick or you’ve spent all week working on it is to me a key or creating good music…

If you had to eat food that was only one color for the rest of your life what color would it be?

Ha….this has been an ongoing running joke in some ways through various parts of my life but I would probably be happy to eat just brown food (in all of its shades) for the rest of my life and be happy…potatoes, mushrooms, meat, bread, rice, etc…

Your 2019 album Grass and Trees feels at times exploratory, organic, and spontaneous. Is this reflective of your creative process?  

I would say so generally….to me it sounds organic for a couple of reasons….primarily because the sound palette I have chosen to use lately is largely acoustic percussion/drum samples, my voice and field recordings…often these sounds end up effected into something partially or totally unrecognizable but at the same time they are there “grounding” things….as well I have attempted in creating the rhythmic or sequencer backbone of these pieces to make something that, to me at least, has a certain feel that I can only describe as “breathing” or maybe tidal as well…a certain ebb and flow that is constant but unforced…As for being spontaneous that is definitely something that is built into to how I create.  I generally sketch something rather quickly….spend a lot of time getting into details on a micro level but then when it comes time to create an actual song it is done as a live take….I like to create a structure of how I am approaching the song in my head but I need to have the openness of allowing a piece to go wherever it goes once I hit record…

What is one thing you would want to change about the music industry?

This may be rather flippant but I am happy with where I am at in the “industry” honestly.  A label that I have loved for a very long time is putting out the music that I make and allowing me to create what I want to create in my own way on my own time.  Couldn’t ask for much more than that…

How did you get into electronic music?

In a weird roundabout way, I have the NPR classical radio station, Details Magazine and Nirvana to thank for it…Basically I grew up playing violin from a very young age and because of that my parents would have classical radio on all the time at home….when I got to a certain age and metal/grunge/punk took over my interest in all things musical my parents tried to keep me interested in violin by any means possible….and when one night I heard Phillip Glass for the first time on the radio they started pushing the idea that I was “into” him to keep me interested in exploring that music….at the same time I had found out about a lot of other music by reading various Nirvana interviews after they blew up….anyway around when I was 16 or so Details had a 2 page spread that was a family tree sort of thing of “Ambient Music” on which the couple of names I recognized were Phillip Glass and Dinosaur Jr (who I loved via Nirvana)….from that family tree I found much other music I loved but specifically it led me to Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient vol 2 which definitely hit the spot and led me down the path to more and more electronic music…

What the ideal scenario for someone to listen to your album? 

Ideal might be hard to say….though it is probably a headphone album in one way or another…though with a nice sound system it could be great as well…but yea probably on a good set of headphones sometime in the evening or late night…

If you had the power to turn into one other person whenever you wanted who would it be? What would you do?

Honestly I’m pretty happy being myself…

Who was the first audience that you ever played? How did it go?

Well first audience would have been playing a violin recital when I was super young….however first audience playing music that I had written was a show in high school with a band I had with 2 friends….we rented out a space and played like every song we had written and cover we had learned….I don’t really remember much from it…I think it went over well?  Who knows though…I think it went well?  Funny thing being I was always very nervous about playing violin (especially solo) in front of a crowd but I have never felt that way playing my own music…it has always just felt like something I should be doing…

What is the most comfortable pair of shoes you own?

Well, I tend to only have 1 pair of shoes at a time (minus winter boots and some hiking shoes I wear for work…which are comfortable as well) but I really love how comfortable a pair of slip-on Vans skate shoes are after about 2-3 weeks of wearing them everyday…

If you could live in any era of time when/where would it be? What would you do?

It would be interesting to be the age I am now at times when I was growing up say the 80s/90s if you had the memory of living then as well since you could experience things in a very different way…but overall I’m just happy to be here now and trying to stay in that mindset as much as possible…

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

Just trying to keep on keeping on and making music and art, pushing myself to learn new things as much as possible, skateboarding as many days as the weather allows, hoping to travel more and more and doing that while playing music as much as I can…Also as much as possible remember any “borders” whether physical or mental or otherwise are creations that do not need to exist or at the very least need to be challenged as to their validity whenever possible.