Seattle Peach first saw Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head play at Chop Suey back in the Club Pop days. They’ve been on my radar ever since, and it has been awesome to watch their progression from wide-eyed young kids to slightly older, slightly wiser kids as their career took off. The band changed their name to Brite Futures last year following an inevitable cease and desist, but much remains the same. Their extra boppy new album, Dark Past remains true to the band’s signature brand of posi-core electro rock. It’s anthemic and upbeat, super duper sparkly and fun for fun’s sake–in Seattle’s gloomy overcast and at times standoffish music scene, it’s a brave thing to do. And it’s selling like hotcakes! Last month it was one of the best selling local albums in the city.
Seattle Peach grabbed a quick moment with Luke Smith to talk style, growing up and fantasy shopping sprees. Check it out below:
How would you describe your day to day style?
It’s kind of exactly how I dressed in elementary school (or how I imagine I did). Sharp with some messy. Some rock with some prep. A little funky, and not afraid to experiment. Mostly I just wear jeans and a striped t-shirt with colorful socks. I wear too much navy blue.
Yes, but the gap is increasingly shrinking. Onstage I can reflect a little more of the bold, vibrant side of my style. Like, bright or interesting color combos and pattern mixing. It’s gotta have a little whimsy mixed in with kick-your-ass. Sorta like how our music sounds, I think. I love wearing vests onstage because it’s a lightweight way of adding another layer beyond a t-shirt. I’m also really into wearing studs and leopard print, something I’d never do in “real life.” Most of the time in my day-to-day I don’t feel like attracting that much attention so I’ll go with more chill colors, collared shirts, and cardigans. My go-to winter wear is jeans and a black pea coat.
We used to be a lot more anal about coordinating, even to the point of near-uniforms, and now we just check to make sure we’re not wearing the same color pants or any items that are too similar. Expressing our own personal style within the group is important because we all have very different personalities and are featured at different points in the show. We’re kinda like a perfectly assembled boy band. Before a show someone will start grabbing something they’re excited about from their bag and everyone else will take little cues from that. We also help each other out like, “maybe you should try a different shirt Shaun, the Western rhinestone look isn’t really working today.”
It’s been such long road of trying to find our style. I don’t know if we’ll ever linger on one look too long. We started out with the more obvious sweatbands-and-workout-gear-type clothes, and then moved to coordinated all white looks (notably with tasseled 3/4 baseball shirts). We had a neon phase. We had a glitter and craft supplies phase. We had a brief gypsy-inspired phase thanks to Claire’s sister making us clothes. Now since we’ve found more personal style we’re leaving it more up to the individual. It’s a little more grown up, but we still go with whatever’s fun and interesting, like mixing colors, patterns, and eras that shouldn’t go together but somehow do. I really wanna do a goth phase just for fun and to freak people out.
I love looking at pics of 70s and 80s bands like David Bowie, Queen, Prince, and Split Enz. They weren’t afraid to be really, really weird and take chances. It’s hard to pull that off these days. Excess is not in vogue. Some of my fashion icons would be Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Kanye West, Mark Ronson, Theophilus London, Willow Smith… and Ryan Gosling is always impeccably dressed.
I have a custom-made white denim jean vest adorned with all sorts of gold pins and chains and a patch of sequins on the shoulder. I love that vest, and Claire’s sister made it for me. I’m also really into my teal “towel fabric” cardigan that I got from Joyrich in L.A. It’s a perfect mix of a little weird and a little classy, just how I like it.
That’s so hard! It’d probably be somewhere I haven’t been yet like Toyko or Paris but I have no idea what shops… probably all the expensive designer stores and curious little boutiques. I’d need a good local fashion guide. If I could choose, I’d go with my homie Kanye or my fashion babe crush Alexa Chung. My weakness is shoes so I’d definitely be looking for as much studded/colored/striped footwear as possible. A cool shoe and sock combo can make any outfit instantly cooler.
Photos by Chona Kassinger.
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