After two years of silence, San Cisco is back with a new take on their old sound.
Since releasing their debut album, ‘San Cisco’, in 2012, the highly successful, Fremantle quartet have been the go to group for catchy, summer anthems, and their latest release ‘Gracetown’, promises to continue this tradition with an added dose of something a little darker, thanks to a slight change in the collaborative process. “Myself or Jordi [Davieson, singer] will have a lot more of a vision for a song and we can take it a lot further than we used to,” guitarist Josh Biondillo says.
“In the past it used to be just words or chords or a riff that we would jam out and then a song was born whereas these days we kind of develop it a lot further and then either Scarlett or Jordi will bring their own elements to make it sound more like San Cisco.
“Some songs kind of write themselves and a lot of them lend themselves to different elements and kind of figure themselves out. And then sometimes you need to really be taking the reins, you need to schlep it out and figure out what goes where.”
The change in sound is understandable; the four are at a considerably different point in their career than they were with their 2012 release. Since the release of their ‘Golden Revolver’ EP in 2010, the band’s trajectory has blown up, signing to Fat Possum Records in the United States, the first Australian group on its books, and by doing so joining the likes of The Black Keys and Dinosaur Jr.
Image © Matt SavNow, with the release of ‘Gracetown’ and the already warm feedback it is receiving, they are showing no signs of slowing down. No longer a group predominantly popular within the adolescent set, San Cisco has been busy wooing overseas audiences with their take on the Australian sound, which, according to Biondillo, is as varied as it is groovy. “I don’t think there is a strong Australian sound because there are so many different sounds that come out of Australia.
“You know you’ve got things like Tame Impala that’s like psychedelic rock, Chet Faker and Flume who are quite dancey and beatsy and we’re kind of indie pop so there’s no one, Australian sound. But also that’s one of the good things about the internet is people know what they like and they tend to hit it up pretty well wherever they come from. So people can find what they like within that.”
It seems this predominantly 'dancey' sound within Australian artists is affecting Biondillo’s own preferences within ‘Gracetown’, with the catchy single ‘Run’ and the dreamy ‘Super Slow’ being his picks of the bunch. “I’ve been listening to a lot of dance music so the more dancey songs are the ones I get to connect with, you know I love ‘Run’ and I really like ‘Super Slow’. But I’m so schizophrenic and bipolar in what I listen to I can’t choose one.”
The 13-track record has been released in various formats, and marks the group’s first foray into vinyl, a venture high on their wishlist. “We really wanted to have it on vinyl and I can tell you it’s my favourite format, you know it’s not just words on a screen it’s an actual thing you can put on your shelf.”
With the past three weeks spent touring nationally with Groovin’ The Moo festival, a Splendour In The Grass date in July and then their own national tour (May), the first in Australia in over a year, Biondillo admits that touring, while not his favourite aspect of his work, has “good things about it”. “They’ve [touring and studio time] both got their own things I enjoy about them but I think my heart definitely lies in the studio. You know, I don’t know if live music is my first instinct but touring’s got good things about it as well because you can hang out with your friends and see different places.”
For Biondillo, it seems where the group sits now is exactly where he wants to be. “I’d love to keep doing what we’re doing, just to make music that people can dance to and enjoy live.”
Written by Eva Phillips
San Cisco Tour Dates
Thu 14 May - Solbar (Sunshine Coast)Fri 15 May - Coolangatta Hotel (Gold Coast)
Sat 16 May - The Triffid (Brisbane)
Sun 17 May - The Triffid (Brisbane - under 18s)
Wed 20 May - Club 54 (Launceston)
Thu 21 May - Hellenic (Hobart)
Fri 22 May - 170 Russell (Melbourne)
Sat 23 May - Max Watt's House Of Music (Melbourne - under 18s)
Sun 24 May - 170 Russell (Melbourne)
Fri 29 May - UOW Unibar (Wollongong)
Sat 30 May - Enmore Theatre (Sydney)
Fri 24 Jul – Splendour In The Grass (Byron Bay)
