The Middletown North band, Baby Seals, are having a release show for their newest ep at the Red Bank Rehearsal Studio on June 17th. The band is made up of Seniors Joey Sullivan playing drums, and John Murray switching between bass and guitar, with sophomore Cosmo Gallaro who attends Christian Brothers Academy on keyboards. Doors open up at 7 pm and tickets are $10, available for purchase from Sullivan or Murray. Opening act Off Top, a local rap group, will be setting the tempo for the show, in the lead up to Baby Seals taking the stage.

In the band’s own words they play a fusion of music, mixing together jazz and hip-hop. Their sound is similar to that of the band Flying Lotus, however Murray and Sullivan both said, “ We try finding our own sound. Our goal is for people to enjoy something they might not think they would enjoy.” This seems to be working as the Baby Seals have grown in popularity over the course of their time at North, becoming one of the biggest local acts in the area.

Baby Seals have a relaxing sound if you listen to their songs on SoundCloud. When asking if their live shows were similar, Sullivan said they are anything but relaxing, “Our shows get pretty wild, people mosh and are moving around for most of the show.” 

When asking what to expect song wise at the performance, Sullivan and Murray both said, “Expect to hear songs off the new ep and some new jams, possible (collaborations) and some covers of modern rap music.” Baby Seals have covered songs from Kanye West and other modern rap at previous shows in the past with tremendous praise from attendees. One of those attendees, Senior Kevin Felice, said, “The crowd got very excited when they announced they would be playing a Kanye West song and then they began to play and throughout the duration of the song the audience moved to the rhythm of the song.”

Many people do not know the story behind the name, Baby Seals. When the band was covering alt-rock songs, and just starting to play gigs the name was given. Murray said, “We had this guitar player Chris and he had this awful looking chin strap. His dad came downstairs and saw the chin strap and said ‘shave that thing you look like a baby seal’. So we used baby seals.”

Since both Sullivan and Murray are graduating, the future of the band is interesting. Both Sullivan and Murray are going to Temple University, and plan on continuing the band while at Temple even though Cosmo will not be there.

To get constant updates about Baby Seals, follow their twitter @babysealsband and instagram @baby_seals_band