For your aesthetic pleasure

Ben Green doesn't see himself as a singer yet. The Washington native launched his musical project, SEAS, almost by chance when he added vocals to his instrumental recordings. 

"I feel weird saying it," said the guitarist-turned-vocalist, who will perform at the Black Cat on Thursday with his band. "I've always considered myself as a guitar player."

As a member of the now-defunct band Fairweather, Green was familiar with the process required to achieve success, having toured the country and released three records with his former group. However, he did not have a clear goal in mind when he began posting his instrumental songs on MySpace.

"The first incarnation of SEAS was some guitar music I was working on," Green said. "It was sort of cinematic, and I worked on those pieces for a little while. I'm not a versatile singer, but I decided to give it a shot. I recorded some tunes and started singing, and it took off from there."

Due to his lack of experience as a vocalist and songwriter, Green felt writing lyrics was the most difficult aspect of the song creation process.

"The lyrics and the vocals are always the last thing to come about," Green said. "I don't really sit down with a acoustic guitar and write. I hear a rhythm or a chord changing in my head, and I try to craft it around a full production idea."

Once Green had developed a set of songs, he assembled a group of friends from other bands and began performing live at venues in Richmond, Va., and the Washington area. Green's work caught the attention of one of his friends, who manages the Decoration Day Recordings label in Richmond.

"I had six or seven compositions in the same thematic vein, and a friend asked if I'd be interested in doing a record with him," Green said. "That kick-started the whole process for me. 

"I got a little bit more focused, and the rest of the tracks came a lot easier to me at that point. It came together really well, and in retrospect, it was easier than I expected in comparison to other experiences I've had in trying to create a record."

SEAS' debut album, Now My Home is a Beech Tree, was released in January and draws inspiration from the work of the late John Fahey, a fingerstyle guitarist and also a Washington resident. Despite the lack of stylistic similarities, Green channeled the feelings and aesthetics of Fahey's music into his own.

Using what Green calls "surreal narratives" and natural imagery, Now My Home is a Beech Tree is an album about the unreliability of memory and the fragile relationship between actual history and human recollection. The album's title originates from the final line of the last song, which is a reference to a legend Green once heard from his sister.

"The title references a story about something that may or may not have happened in the town I grew up in — a suicide pact between two students in the '70s or '80s along the railroad tracks," Green explained. "I don't know if it ever occurred. It's about that and things that are prevalent in my memory."

Green's first efforts as a vocalist have been demanding and have required a great deal of creativity. 

"[The album] has been coming along for a while now," Green said. "I've exhausted myself for this record, so I'm not ready for anything new. I just want to get comfortable with the group that's playing with me and just play a lot of shows."

SEAS will play at the Black Cat on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door.

sthaper@umdbk.com