Words by Amar Gera //
It can’t get more wholesome than this…
If there had to be one thing the Aussie music scene is revered for, it’s the crazy emotional reach that comes easy to our bands. The ability to connect. It’s no small feat, and it emanates an intoxicating sense of community that transcends all time and place. But one band that gets nowhere near enough credit for the beautiful memories it’s responsible for is Fremantle’s San Cisco. They’re literal dream-walkers of the local indie-pop scene, curating the upbringings of countless souls with catchy songwriting, musical complexity and emotional vulnerability. Yet, for all of their creative shades and skins, they still have that wealth of spiritual resonance that caused so many of us to fall in love with them in the first place.
Their latest album Between You and Me (out today) might just be the three-piece’s best work yet. Best mates Jordi Davieson, Scarlett Stevens and Josh Biondillo venture more inward than ever before, exploring the ins-and-outs of relationships in all of their indescribable wonder. It’s a warmly-crafted hub of reflection, and just goes to show there’s no depth or crevice the family-of-three won’t go to for their fans. It’s clear they’re the sharpest they’ve ever been, but more importantly, it’s just awesome to see how close they still are a decade on from their debut. Between You And Me is a straight-up sublime meditation on San Cisco’s love for each other, their fans and life itself, and is mandatory listening to soothe the soul.
We got to catch up with Jordie and Scarlett from the band to pick their brains on the record, get a glimpse of their sibling shenanigans and get their thoughts on why they’ve thrived in the Aussie music scene for so long.
Check it below.
There seems to be a real emphasis on ‘Give and take’ throughout this album. Is that something you guys have learnt from being in the band? Or just in your own lives?
Scarlett: It’s definitely a bit of both. From observing relationships around us, romantic and platonic, but also relationships within the band.
Jordi: There’s a lot going on, cause we’re all really close friends. We’ve all known each other for so long but we’re also in a professional capacity together and have to conduct ourselves accordingly [laughs].
Being in a band that has toured across the world and done just about everything there is to do, what have you had to give and take throughout the years?
Scarlett: You sacrifice a lot by being in a band. I’ve had to skip out on a few friends’ weddings.
Jordi: I didn’t get to go to university!
Scarlett: Incomplete university degrees.
Jordi: [laughs]
Scarlett It takes its toll on relationships when you’re touring a lot.
Jordi: Yeah, it’s not a very natural way to live. It takes a toll on your body as well.
Scarlett: We have really intense work schedules and then nothing at all [laughs]. That being said, we also have a very chill touring schedule these days.
Jordi: Yeah, around the stratosphere it’s pretty chill for us and then in America and Europe it’s a bit gnarlier.
Now, congrats on ‘Between You and Me’! Listening to it I got the vibe that you guys have undergone a lot of personal growth and have really strengthened your relationships with each other since 2017’s ‘The Water’. Is that accurate?
Jordi: Definitely! I think as a band the three of us are really like in the best spot we’ve been in in ages, just working with each other and being on the same page. I think that synergy definitely comes through on this record.
Scarlett: Yeah, where other times we’ve kind of put each other ideas down, we’ve learnt how to kinda uplift and help each other more now. It was definitely a very positive experience making the album.
Jordi: Yeah. I mean, there were really hard times but overall it was like, a lot more growth and moving forward than anything.
You’ve said that you’re all equally invested in this record, and it isn’t a feeling you guys have really had since the first album. Was there a specific moment where you realised that was the case? And why do you think that is this time around?
Jordi: I think I really started to feel, like for Gracetown, I really felt like that. But I think when we got to Mullumbiby and started finishing off the record, I was listening to songs that I’d been writing for like two years, and I kept having those moments of like, “Oh, those are good lyrics” or “Oh, I like that.” And, I hadn’t really felt that so much with our last record. And then, as we worked together, the three of us, we all just became so invested in the whole thing. No one was really tapping out being like, “All right, you guys just do this song beause I don’t really get it.” Everyone was on the same page and going in the same direction, and it –
Scarlett: Giving it plenty.
Jordi: Yeah, and it just felt like it made for a really, I don’t know… Just felt really good. To be doing it all together like that. Like a team.
I wanna dig into the tracklisting. Scarlett, ‘Messages’ is a really cool sort of therapeutic session between you and Jordie on a tune for all of us to see. When you initially saw Jordi’s lyrics and ideas for the tune, what were your first thoughts?
Scarlett: Yeah, I really liked it! I didn’t realise it was about me at first, I was like “Oh, this is great” [laughs]. And then I got to sing it and I sort of talked about… I kind of drew on being a bad friend but also just like looking at friendships around me and knowing when to let go of friendships, kind of exploring that a bit more. But yeah, that song went through lots of kinda incarnations.
Jordi: It started off sounding like a Mac DeMarco song and I actually sung it. And then it just got supercharged when Scarlett sung it and changed a bunch of the lyrics and got it to where it is today.
Was it at all uncomfortable sort of having a dig at each other on a song? I’m guessing it took a lot of understanding on both of your parts to come to a good middle ground.
Scarlett: I think we’re used to it. Jordi’s always making… He’s a very keen and wry observer of everyone around him.
Jordi: [laughs]
Scarlett: So you never know if it’s about you or one of his other friends. But I should have known it was about me because I am useless with my phone. And I get this feedback a lot from friends [laughs].
Jordi: [laughs] But the rest of the song isn’t about that, the rest of the song is about, like, protecting yourself from toxic people, which Scarlett isn’t, she’s just shit on her phone!
Scarlett: And kind of how relationships and friendships fade and fizzle out, and how, it can be really awkward. But it’s also about how it can also be a really positive and constructive thing.
Jordi: Yeah, and I feel like it happens a lot more than people think or talk about.
On ‘Shine’ there’s a lyric “Friends or fame you chose the latter.” Was that about a specific person? Or just a general nod to the rockstar lifestyle?
Jordi: Ah, “Friends or fame, and you chose the latter.” Yeah that, that lyric is about someone that I know. They were so keen to just be a pop star that everything else around them kind of fizzled. And I think that all the shit around you is where you get your good songwriting from, so you can’t really let it just fizzle. And yeah, I just think like, when you’ve been in the industry as long as I have [laughs] you see –
Scarlett: You see a kid get sucked into that.
Jordi: Yeah, and you see people come up and you can tell they’re people that are really genuine and they’re just there because they’re great at music and they’ve got a great story to tell. And then there are the people that are just sort of climbing that ladder. You can pick them apart pretty quick.
‘Between You and Me’ is such a beautiful way to end the album and it sums up the intimate feel of it so well. The whole record just feels like it’s on a totally different level emotionally to past releases. Why was that the case this time around?
Jordi: I think just because we have been writing over such a long period of time. And it’s kinda happened in our mid-to-late twenties when real shit really starts to happen in your life personally. And I think a lot of stuff sort of happened to me, and I just put it into songs, because that’s like all I really know what to do. And those records before then, I was just like in high school you know.
Scarlett: Yeah, I think life was just sort of happening to us in our early twenties, and now we’re taking responsibility and kind of taking control of our lives rather than it just being this thing that’s happening to us.
Jordi: Yeah, and I really wanted it, like I personally felt like The Water was not a very personal record, and I really wanted to jump into this one headfirst, and really lay it all on the line. So I think that’s part of it as well.
I also wanna say congrats on landing a spot on the Wave Rock lineup next month. How excited are you guys to be returning to the stage for an all WA lineup?
Jordi: I’m so excited. We’ve been wanted to play a festival for ages [laughs]. And especially now since we haven’t been able to play for so long. Just a shame it’s sold out so quick, none of our friends bought tickets [laughs].
Do you remember the last proper show you did?
Scarlett: Last show we did… When, when was it?
Jordi: Whoa. I don’t know!
Scarlett: [laughs]
Jordi: The last show we did… I don’t even know anymore!
Scarlett: Was it down south? It must have been.
Jordi: Well what did we do? We came… I actually don’t know what our last show was that we did [laughs]. I reckon it might have been down in Marne.
I was watching a vid of you guys playing ‘Awkward’ at the Metro Theatre way back in 2013, and it was so sick to see how far you’ve come since then. How do you look back on those early days?
Scarlett: With great fondness.
Jordi: Yeah, I look back on it thinking, like, how crazy that was and how much I didn’t appreciate it. Like obviously I appreciated everyone and everything that was going on, but that was… it was quite a crazy time in our careers and I just sort of was like, “Yeah, this is what happens when you play in a band”. But looking back on it, we really got some amazing opportunities and we were very fortunate with how it all sort of played out, and how it set us up for the position we’re in now.
How do you think you’ve all grown since then? As a band and as individuals?
Scarlett: Like we were saying before, this is probably the best we’ve been to each other [laughs]. We used to fight like brothers and sister. But I guess we’re more self-aware now.
Jordi: It’s more like we’re on a team.
Scarlett: It feels like a team. A united front. We still have our moments. But I think we just, we’ve been through a lot together. There’s been many ups and downs, but we’ve come out the other side. Like we’ve been a band for ten years. And we don’t hate each other, which is a really good thing.
Jordi: Yeah, I think as well, the hardest thing about being in a band is the relationships. Like making the music is the easy bit. Because there’s so much creativity and ego and passion and all this stuff in there. But then, being able to have all that between three people is no easy task. But when it works, it works really well.
Lastly, you guys have been on the scene longer than most bands, yet you’re still thriving and your tunes feel just as relevant. Why do you think that is?
Jordi: I think it’s just pop music.
Scarlett: Yeah, I think there’ll always be a place for pop music. And also just the fact that we’ve kind of grown with our audience and pushed ourselves, but we’ve kept the elements that’ve worked for us, and those lyrics that resonate with people. People can find their own meaning in our lyrics and I think that’s really… Yeah, it’s about connecting to people.
Jordi: Yeah, that’s exactly what it is. That’s why I think it works. It’s because we can connect with people, and not just the one demographic of 15-year-olds from when we started. That age group’s been able to grow with us, and we’ve kept writing music for them. And for us.
San Cisco’s new album ‘Between You and Me’ is out now. You can buy/ stream it here. For our WA friends reading this, you can sign up for the Wave Rock Weekender waitlist here see San Cisco live at the end of September.
