John Hassell likes good puns. "Police arrested two kids yesterday," he began, "one was drinking battery acid, the other was eating fireworks - they charged one, but let the other one off." Although he claimed to have heard this joke from a comedian performing next door, his quick delivery suggested that he had had this one memorised for some time. George Nicholas and Alex Cameron managed to smile - a polite and acknowledging smile, which suggested that Hassell had told this pun before. Hassell had one more. "How do you make a duck sing soul music," he asked. "Put him in the microwave until his Bill Withers."

Hassell, Nicholas and Cameron (collectively known as Seekae) aren't comedians, nor are they related to the American comic Louis C.K - "no relation, just coincidental," Cameron clarified.  The mood in the small green room was relaxed and convivial as Hassell and Nicholas drank Japanese beer. (Cameron abstained from drinking as there was no whiskey on hand).  The trio were seated on a light-blue couch and behind them was a faux white brick wall, which added weight to their title as the pioneers of the "ghetto ambient" genre.  On the other side of the wall, a number of YouTube personalities were performing, accompanied by the infrequent and uniform screaming of a large group of preteens; Nicholas described the performers as terrible.

Cameron, the vocalist of the group, was wearing an unzipped leather jacket and a cap with his own surname written across the crown.  Under the visor were a pair of clear-framed, pearl-shaded glasses, which in a way matched his shoulder length hair and loose light-blue jeans.  Hassell, in contrast, is short-haired and was wearing a black Le Coq Sportif varsity jacket that featured the words 'future classic', the name of Seekae's record label.  Nicholas was dressed as if he was about to go for a run, having opted for a pair of black tracksuit pants and a blue hoodie.  In a few hours the trio would be performing the final show of their Australian tour.

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George Nicholas and Alex Cameron met at primary school and were soon performing together in a school band, with Cameron playing the trombone and Nicholas playing the flute.  Eight years later, the pair coincidentally reunited at Schoolies, the famous week-long post high school Australian holiday.  Realising that they shared a similar taste in music, the pair, joined by Hassell, began composing 8-bit music and remixing a number of songs.  "We didn't really know what were doing," Cameron now reflects.  "We didn't really discuss anything, we didn't really talk about direction, and we didn't talk about what our objectives were.  We just recorded music on a computer and it was just a collation of all the different ideas that we had that we thought sounded good."

The name Seekae is extracted from C.K., which are the initials of Commander Keen, a popular video game from the early 1990's.  Commander Keen was Seekae's original name until it came to their attention that they were sharing it with a Scottish band.  "In retrospect, I am happy that they took it," Hassell said.  "We should send them a thank you letter."  Though the name Seekae is easy to pronounce, the band admits that some people have had trouble searching for them on Google - common variations include the initials 'c.k' (resulting in Calvin Klein) and 'ckae' (resulting in an Urban Dictionary entry, which defines 'ckae' as 'the new spelling for cake').

It could have been worse.  When Hassell, Nicholas and Cameron started writing music together in early 2007, they took influence from a number of post-rock bands, including And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.  The inclination of these bands to use long titles influenced the trio and, for a short period, the group was drawn to the idea of naming their band The Sound of Trees Falling on People.  The name eventually became the title of their debut album.  "I'm quite glad we didn't call the band that," Nicholas said.  "I think it was just a stupid title".  Cameron also dismissed the name, stating, "when you think about it, its quite horrendous, really. It's quite confronting if you were to witness a tree falling on people."

Seekae released their 2008 debut album, The Sound of Trees Fall on People (or TSOTFOP, as it is often abbreviated to), through their own label, Knitting Club Records. The album, which included vocals from Ivan Vizintin (now of That Feel), got Seekae significant attention.  The group then successfully applied for a $7,040 grant from the Australia Council's music board, which had at the time been running a contemporary music initiative focused on supporting experimentation within "popular music".  The grant contributed to the production of Seekae's second album, +Dome.

As Seekae became more popular, each member pursued a number of side projects. Hassell performed under the monikers Vorad Fils and Peon.  Nicholas performed under the names Hensen, Jensen Brewster, and for the last two years, has been remixing songs as half of the duo Cliques.  The most intriguing side project has been that of Alex Cameron as Alex Cameron.  Featuring scars on his face and leisure suits, Cameron could be described as confrontational and occasionally resentful.  Last year he performed at The Iron Bear for South by Southwest and the preview for the performance had one short sentence:  "stick it up your arse, I'm the new guy in town".  It was his earlier street performance though that caught the attention of the Austin public, with one passer-by uploading a video onto YouTube titled "angry singer incredible performance at sxsw".

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It's difficult to place Seekae into a genre.  Glitch-pop, trip hop, downtempo, electronic, electronica, ambient, 8-bit ambient, ambient post-rock, post dub-step, and IDM (which stands for intelligent dance music) have all at some point been attached to the group.  The trio are, nonetheless, opposed to musical categories.  "Putting [music] into a category really stifles your thought process on the kind of music you want to make," Nicholas said.  "If I constantly say I represent a genre, we wouldn't then be allowed to change as musicians or to grow as people."  In a form of protest and mockery, the trio created their own genre, describing their sound paradoxically as "ghetto ambient".  Audiences and music journalists failed to appreciate the sarcasm and Seekae were soon labelled "Sydney's ghetto ambient trio" .  "You can't call us that," Cameron now says, shaking his head. "We just made that up."

If there is one way to describe Seekae's sound, Cameron suggested, it would be "potentially popular". To achieve this, the trio took two big steps last year.  The first came in August when the group signed to record label Future Classic, the home of chart-toppers Chet Faker, Flume, and Flight Facilities.  The second came two weeks later when the trio released the first single to their upcoming album, The Worry.  The single, called "Another", was a sign that Seekae were shifting towards the use of vocals, with Alex Cameron as the lead.  (The first sign had actually come in 2012 when the group made their live vocal debut at the Sydney Opera House with the song "Yech").

The idea of releasing indistinguishable records and songs has long haunted Seekae.  And they have spent much of the last six years ensuring listeners that they weren't Boards of Canada "rip-offs" (as one blogger suggested) and that they had something new to offer.  "The first two records sounded completely different," Nicholas explained.  "We wanted to make this record sound even different, so I guess the easiest way of achieving this was making non-instrumental music."

The use of lyrics has given Seekae the opportunity to convey messages and ideas more directly.  "With vocal music, you can really hone in on something and be more specific about what the fuck you are talking about", Nicholas said, grinning.  Cameron was particularly excited about writing lyrics for The Worry.  "We didn't want to go half way and hide behind too many vocal effects or convoluted ideas," he said.  "We wanted something really clear and stark and even brutal."  The use of lyrics has also given listeners the chance to interpret the group's messages and ideas; when Cameron sings "I want another girl", fans are left to wonder whether he is longing for infidelity.

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Tickets for the performance were sold-out and some desperate fans took to Gumtree that morning, with one fan willing to pay $110 for a ticket (the face value was $28.70). The trio walked onto the stage slowly and then positioned themselves behind their equipment - Cameron stood behind the drum kit, Hassell picked up the guitar, and Nicholas - the self-described grandmaster - stood behind a laptop, ready to process the various signals he would be receiving throughout the night.

It was easy to distinguish the die-hard Seekae fans from those who had recently caught on, the former ecstatic when the group finished the night with "Centaur",  the fourteenth song from TSOTFOP.  Though it was when the trio began performing the song "Another" that the large audience became ebullient.  And as Cameron sang the chorus - "I want another girl, I want another girl, I thought that you should know" - the group found that for the first time in their careers the crowd was singing along.