San Cisco
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San Cisco

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“The boys were friends in high school…I went to a different high school, but I’d known Jordi since we were really little. Jordi and I were both playing in different bands throughout high school. Then I think we were about 16, and we decided to have a jam together, and I liked his songs. He’d won some recording time from doing solo shows…and then he just invited all of his friends to be part of the recording – and that was Nick and Josh, and then we all started jamming together.”

What’s that saying again? Oh yeah, the rest is history. After uploading their ever popular track, Awkward, onto the program, triple j took it upon themselves to spread the track as far as they felt it could go. Inevitably, it went far, and for four jamming-buddies, their worlds as they knew them changed – all from a song that they, themselves, didn’t think would make the cut.

“We didn’t expect it…not when we came up with it in the studio and were listening back to it after we’d recorded it. I didn’t think that it would be big, but – I don’t know, I guess people find something in it that they relate to, which is another thing that I find really weird because I didn’t relate to any of it when we first wrote it. I think that it’s just kind of nonsense. But yeah, I suppose that it just kind of clicked with people, and I guess triple j played it a lot, and timing was really good for us…I’ll admit, it’s just really catchy. I get it stuck in my head after rehearsing it. We just wanted to do a duet – Jordi and I…that sounds really corny,” Scarlett laughs.

After a few little nudges from their producer urging Scarlett to use her charming feminine vocals on a track, as well as some song rearrangements, the band was good to go.

“We were in the studio; we’d played our producer the song that we were originally planning to record, and he was like ‘Nah, I’m not really feeling it.’ And we [agreed with him] – we didn’t really like the song in the end, so we decided not to record it, and then he said that we should come up with something new. So then we just thought that we’d come up with a story that we could tell. Jordi had some lyrics – but nothing to do with the stalker, or even a relationship. He did have that one line which was the only one that related to the rest of the song. But yeah, we just thought that we’d make it about a toxic, unrequited love in a relationship. It might be the texting thing, actually. Maybe that’s why people can relate. But, apart from that, it’s just something kind of silly.”

“I think it’s a given that, if you start a band and you have recordings, it’s like you just upload them on Unearthed to see what comes of it.There’s so much music on there, which is another really cool thing. But yeah, we didn’t really expect to win it or to be discovered from it, but I guess that’s how new music’s really uncovered these days from Unearthed. I think that triple j’s really at the forefront of that – they’re the real tastemakers in Australia. We were just lucky that they found us.”

From their humbling beginnings, the band has gone from strength to strength, with their countless live performances and remarkable success over a track that, initially, they were even a tad apprehensive on. Incorporate into that story a successful tour with The Jungle Giants amongst their countless other performances and recording sessions, and it’s easy to see why San Cisco are one of the latest musical fads to take Australia by storm.

“Recording is always really, really good for us. We tend to grow in a really short amount of time. With our producer, we’ll just explore so many new things and new sounds, and come up with cool little bits of songs that we hadn’t really thought of before. So yeah, creatively, they’re definitely the highlights.”

“I think it gets easier when you know that you’re rehearsed and ready for the show. But every now and then, you’ll have things that…you know, there’ll be technical difficulties, or there’s just something beyond your control which can make the gig unpleasant. But, for the most part, I think that we’re definitely getting a bit more confident with our live show, and we haven’t had much trouble replicating the songs that we’ve recorded, which is definitely another good thing.”

For a band still so young, with numerous varying vintage and modern musical influences, solid friendship and free spirits, it doesn’t take a genius to see why people around Australia have jumped on the San Cisco bandwagon.

BY SIMONE ZIADA