For a lot of fans your split came surely a bit surprising after your second release "On Fire, With Love". Can you give again a small résumé why you chose to finish the project Seachange.

Dan: We all knew that collectively we would not be able to commit as much time to it as we had done previously.  Seachange happened because we were all able to play together frequently and intensively, as well as all sharing a belief in what we were trying to do.  I think the belief was probably generated from us being able to be together to write/play; once that was not possible it became too difficult.  One thing I am very proud of about Seachange was that it was always whole-hearted. 

James: Lots of reasons really, for me Seachange was always all or nothing and when we started getting older and people's lives started changing in different ways, the band started to become less of a priority and I just couldn't deal with it being part-time or a hobby.  Also, and it's not very rock and roll to say it, but we've barely ever made any money through Seachange and I hit 30 years old and realised that for all the good artistic intentions in the world, I had to find some way of making money: I want a family: I want a garden to grown vegetables in.  So I decided to leave Nottingham and move to London.  I'd wanted to move to London for a few years, mainly to be closer to my family and once I'd left Nottingham and arrived in London I realised that I couldn't keep playing with Seachange and with sadness I left the band.

Simon: It was a shame, but it was the right thing to do. We couldn't really keep it going without it becoming something different.

Neil: Basically we didn't sell enough records to make a living out of
it. It's always been something we've taken pretty seriously and we
thought we'd rather finish it than do it in a half-arsed way.

Is it a decision that makes you sad these days as you compiled "The Stars Whiteout" or is it something you recognize in an unemotional way?

Dan: Emotional reactions about Seachange hit me at random times.  The release of this compilation was never supposed to be a significant moment in any way…it doesn't make me sad really, just reflective.

James: Yes, It makes me sad, but also very happy. Ok we made some mistakes along the way and I have a few regrets, but ultimately I think we were a great band and I'm proud of the songs we wrote and the shows we played. Many of the most emotional experiences in my life came from being in Seachange.

Simon: I don't think we regret the decision but there's no doubt a part of me would have loved to be able to make a living out of Seachange.

Neil: It's sad of course but on the other hand we had a much better
time of it than most bands do- most bands don't even get to put a
record out!

Were you disappointed about the reactions on the second album and the numerous positive critics for the first album? You didn't find a label to release "On Fire, With Love" in GB, so you did it on your own.

Dan: I wasn't really expecting to find a label to release the second record in GB, although according to the music-biz grapevine, there were people interested in some stuff…with the benefit of having a bit of distance on the whole thing, you pretty quickly realise how much of it was out of our control anyway.  Um…I was actually more bothered by the negative criticisms of the first album than any for the second. 

James: I have a feeling that Stephan (our amazing press officer) only sent over the good reviews, also I can't read German, and so I just assumed that all the reactions were good..! I was unhappy with some of the production on the first Album and so for me, "on fire, with love" was a personal journey – I wanted to produce something that I was really proud of and that would stand the test of time, which I think we did, and to be honest I don't really give a shit what anyone else thinks of it. The NME gave Lay of the Land 2/10 and described it as "something only a mother could love" ironic really, as my mother didn't really like it. Once you've had a review like that you generally stop caring about other people's opinions. You have to do it for yourself.

Simon: Some comments were very kind, some got it right and some were just plain wrong but that's always going to be the way with the press. It would have been nice to get more reviews for the second album in this country but it wasn't to be.

Neil: Obviously you always want brilliant reviews for everything, but..

You played your final gig in Germany, which is not normal for a British band I think. How came the special relationship with the German audience? How did you experience that last Seachange-gig?

Dan: We've often wondered why things seemed to go better in Germany…German audiences are very patient?!  The last gig was weird, sad, and fun all at once.

James: I don't know really, people in Germany seem to get what we do. We had great support from the press and from the fans, also from our labels, firstly with everyone at Beggar's Banquet/Matador on "Lay of the Land", and then the huge support we got from Glitterhouse for "On Fire, with love".  When we got offered the Rockpalast show my first thought was "play Superfuck one last time on TV? Oh yeah!" It was a great day and an extremely emotional moment – I loved it.

Simon: Things just seemed to  click in Germany, in terms of the people working on the record, the audience and the music. We didn't experience that anywhere else in the same way so, yes, it was very special. The last gig was very emotional and a wonderful send off.

Can you name some high- and some lowlights for the history of the band? Do you regret anything or would you do something the other way if you had the chance to?

Dan: Highs:  flying from New York to LA on tour, that Munich Amphitheatre gig, those moments words 'fitted' with chords others had written, hearing Adam playing guitar in the cellar, the others letting me get away with it. 

Lows:  Oh Jesus!  Being in the ambulance absorbing that NME review on the way to Glasgow to play to about 5 people!  Johanna leaving, Neil joining…there are many, many more, but fuck it, no regrets really. 

James: So many.. Playing before The Notwist at Immergut festival and looking out at the crowd to see a load of people crowd surfing was pretty special.  Also when Steve Malkmus came to our first gig in New York and freaked Dave out by wandering up to see what guitar pedals he was using – that was cool. Visiting Niagara Falls when touring the USA.. So many amazing moments.. Regrets.. Well, perhaps we should've taken a bit longer over our second record for Matador…

Simon: Highlights – playing and swimming around the world,  meeting Steve Malkmus, Matador karaoke, Glitterhouse's massive house party - OBS, Rockpalast,

Lowlights – Newark modified car festival

Jo: Highlights: Salt beef on rye before playing the Bowery Ballroom  - meeting Steve Malkmus – getting the perfect  violin sound for 'Come On Sister  in an echoey hallway after 6 hours of trying – Immergut; nothing can describe the feeling of looking out into that crowd –  getting to know each other in vans – driving into New York with Althea and Donna  on the stereo…

Lowlights: waiting – being asked by interviewers who slept where – waiting – getting to know each other in vans – waiting –too much cigarette smoke and  late nights for a country girl – trying to work out when to call it a day, and how.

Neil: Highlights: getting the last note of the last song of the last show right.

How came the idea for "The Stars Whiteout"? The recording of your final gig "Disband in Bonn 2007" already seemed to be an adequate end.

Dan: You are absolutely right, the final gig was an adequate end!

James: We were supposed to have The Stars Whiteout ready to be released at the same time as Disband in Bonn, however I got busy doing other things and never finished mixing it, so the fact that we're finally releasing it so late is mostly my fault. A few months ago I found a bit of time to go back to the recordings and generally we thought that there are some great songs here and we should put them out.

Simon – It was supposed to come out sooner but we never got round to it.

A lot of articles about sinking CD-sales and insolvent independent-labels have been written over the past years. Radiohead started a big public debate, what do you think of the whole topic?

Has this been an argument for releasing "The Stars Whiteout" in a different way?

James: We threw lots of ideas around about the best way to release The Stars Whiteout, and giving it away for free just seemed the best way of doing it. We just want people to listen to it; we never expected to make any money out of it.

Neil: I actually think that the whole Radiohead thing was a massive
cop-out really and really quite disrespectful of their fans. The
quality of the MP3 they offered for download was incredibly and almost
unlistenably low, so the only way to get at a proper copy was to shell
out for the 'proper' release. It just felt like a trailer for the CD
release in the end. I ended up feeling cheated for being honest- I
paid £5 for something which was essentially worthless, and I only
listened to once (though I was listening basically to the AMAZING
Shocking Pinks record on repeat constantly at the time anyway)

I also think that, although it opened a debate, the model they used
(even if they had done it properly) is only one available to people
who already have a fanbase of some description- it's not a model for
new bands trying to build an audience... who would care?

 What Trent Reznor did with the recent NiN material or Saul Williams
with the 'Niggy Tardust' albums seemed to me a much more honest
approach to the whole thing, but to be honest I think the days of
people making money off of records are numbered now. Bands will have
to make money off of live shows, which is hard, given the expenses of
touring with a rock band.

I think that there is a future in recorded music, but the technology
has to catch up- basically music is now like water, not food, so
paying 'per unit' no longer makes sense. The only viable way for
people to pay for music now I think is a subscription model, perhaps
rolled into people's telecoms/ISP bill. If individual plays can be
tracked and artists paid for each play then this might actually be the
best thing ever to happen to the music industry as it would mean that
people would have to put the emphasis on making albums which get a lot
of repeat listens- at the moment if you make a classic album that
someone listens to 1,000 times the artist gets paid the same as the
artist who makes the throwaway record  which gets listened to twice
then binned- everyone only buys each record once at the moment (or a
few times at most!),

If you have look on the potential on the songs on "The Stars Whiteout", it seems ridiculous that these songs shall be B-sides, while so many unspectacular bands get record-contracts. Do you feel treated unfairly of the so-called "music industry"?

Dan: I don't think those songs are representative of any unfairness or bad treatment (although I'm glad you like them), but more generally, yes, we were probably treated a bit unfairly.

James: I think some of the songs on The Stars Whiteout are up there with the best songs Seachange have written, Personal Assistant is a great pop song and August Storms holds a very special place in my heart. I could rant about how the record industry is full of idiots and sheep, however we got to put records out and we got to tour around the world, so I reckon we got treated pretty well! I know several great bands that can't find a deal but have amazing songs that deserve to be heard by a wider audience… I think we were very lucky that we got as far as we did.

Simon: Yes and No. We had a better experience than plenty of bands. I don't think there is this big old stereotypical "music industry" out to get you, it's much more complex than that. My experience is of a very intoxicating and confusing situation in which you try and take the best advice and make the right decisions but the reality is that there are so many things out of your control. Sure, some people try and exploit that, but I think they are in the minority, we're lucky to have worked with a lot of really good people especially in Germany. 

Neil: No way! To be honest my experience of the 'Music Industry' is
generally of a lot of really nice, passionate and devoted people.
Maybe we've been lucky... if we had been more of a cash generator
maybe we would have seen more sharks but I guess since we weren't the
only people who wanted to work with us were people who were into it
for the music....

Still almost all of you are involved in new bands, can you name the projects you joined after the split and there was talk of some Seachange members keep on working together. Any results yet?

James: I'm in The Grave Architects which is pretty much made up of members of Goldsounds (they appear in many Seachange recordings, with lots of backing vocals and the odd keyboard part www.myspace.com/soundsgolden ) We're about to release our first single and have nearly finished our album www.myspace.com/thegravearchitects. We'll hopefully come and play some shows in Germany sometime next year…

Neil: Dearest.... with Dave, Daniel, Simon and our good friend Seb.
It's coming along, slowly. Don't know if we'll do any records but who
knows. I've just finished my album as Line, which is coming out early
next year now (http://www.myspace.com/mynameisline). I think it's pretty good but it's very different from Seachange, being kind of electropop love songs.

Simon – Dearest. We're working on it.

Independent from that, how many years do we have to wait for the reunion? :)

Dan: It's more likely our children will form bands together than us reuniting as a band!  Who knows…?

James: "Reform (for money) in Bonn: 2012" featuring all the hits plus some new classics!