May is a big month for San Cisco as the Fremantle four-piece embark on a massive, national tour in the wake of the release of their third studio album, ‘The Water’.
In writing and recording 'The Water', guitarist and vocalist Jordi Davieson says he and the band were focussed on refining San Cisco's sound.
“I felt like with [2015 album] ‘Gracetown’ we were trying a lot of different things and floating in and out of borrowing different things from different genres,” Jordi says.
“With this record we wanted to work on what we thought were the strengths of San Cisco and make them even stronger. With each record we make we work harder and harder, and so this one we’ve been very involved with it.”
Spanning diverse sonic and lyrical terrain, ‘The Water’ is very much a coming-of-age record, both for San Cisco as a band and Jordi as an individual. While it’s an important record in terms of the band’s development, it also comes from a very personal place for Jordi. “I just had a big change-up in my life earlier in the year,” he says.
“It was pretty much breaking up with my best friend and high-school sweetheart and that threw me into a very unknown world.
“The record and everything going on is me sorting out how to travel through my young, adult life by myself. Everything else grew from that; it’s not a break-up record and there are songs about lots of different things, but that was the beginning of it, ‘The Big Bang’ if you will.”
San Cisco are taking ‘The Water’ on the road for an expansive, national album tour starting this month and carrying them through to July with 20 shows across the country, joined by Thelma Plum as support. “We’ve been working on the live show and it feels like we’re taking it up a level in terms of how the set-up is looking,” Jordi says, “and we’re quite organised, which is nice.”
While Jordi is excited for the band’s return to live touring and performing the new material, he says it’s not without a sense of trepidation in light of recent vocal issues he has been experiencing.
“We’re back on the road, which we haven’t done for a while and I’m maybe a little bit anxious about my voice because that’s what I tripped up on last year,” he says.
“Pretty much all year I’ve been having issues with my voice; I had surgery earlier in the year and I’m just getting my voice back on top, which it is now but it wasn’t for a long time. I’ve got to stay on top of that sort of thing, as all singers do.”
Jordi says the live shows are shaping up to be a real treat for fans as the band takes a keener interest in the technical aspect of touring and live production. “It’s a little bit visual, nothing next-level visually,” he says.
“The technical side of things, the set-up and the best way to go about doing something is really interesting and fun to do because it’s really practical stuff.
“It’s kind of like going into battle, figuring out how you’re going to get through 20 shows without your gear stuffing up.”
San Cisco ‘The Water’ National Tour Dates
Thu 18 May - The Gov (Adelaide)19-21 May - 170 Russell (Melbourne)
Thu 25 May - Miami Marketta (Gold Coast)
Fri 26 May - The Tivoli Theatre (Brisbane)
Sat 27 May - The Spotted Cow (Toowoomba)
Sun 28 May - The Met (Brisbane)
Thu 1 Jun - ANU Bar (Canberra)
Fri 2 Jun - Enmore Theatre (Sydney)
Sat 3 Jun - Wollongong Uni Bar
Sun 4 Jun - Cambridge Hotel (Newcastle)
Wed 7 Jun - Club 54 (Launceston)
Thu 8 Jun - Republic Bar (Hobart)
Fri 9 Jun - The Wool Exchange (Geelong)
Sat 10 Jun - Village Green Hotel (Melbourne)
Sun 11 Jun - Chelsea Heights Hotel (Melbourne)
Thu 29 Jun - Prince Of Wales Hotel (Bunbury)
Fri 30 Jun - Settlers Tavern (Margaret River)
1-2 Jul - Astor Theatre (Perth)
