Sea Fever

Sea Fever are a Manchester five-piece formed in 2019, whose members’ musical family trees run through some of the city’s most celebrated bands. The group is fronted by Iwan Gronow (vocals, guitars), formerly of Haven and Johnny Marr’s bassist for more than a decade, alongside singer Beth Cassidy of Section 25. They are joined by New Order’s Tom Chapman on bass, guitars, synths and programming, and Phil Cunningham on guitars, while Elliot Barlow, formerly of Brix & The Extricated, powers the band’s pulsing beats.

For the band, coming together felt inevitable. “We’d wanted to work with each other for ages, so when we finally sat down in the studio, the band just seemed to come together naturally,” they have said. “It felt like we were really free to explore the kinds of music that have always inspired us. We dug right through the record crates of our minds to shape the sound of Sea Fever.”

The result was their debut album, Folding Lines, released in 2021: ten tracks capturing the sound of a band working instinctively together, at once exciting and timeless. Largely created during lockdown, it featured the singles “De Facto,” “Crossed Wires,” “Folding Lines,” “Under Duress” and “Built To Last,” with New Order’s Stephen Morris contributing additional drums. The band explored unusual sounds throughout, from guitars played through synths to a string quartet and a hammered dulcimer.

In May 2025, Sea Fever released their second album, Surface Sound, on Cosmic Glue. Described by the band as “an album full of hope and melancholy,” it sees Iwan and Beth confirming their roles as vocalists and lyricists, and the group growing ever more cohesive as a collective.