“We’ve had a few weeks off here and there where I took a chance to get away from everything and go very far north, camping,” he says. “That was really the only chance I got to have a real reflect on what’s been going on.”
Davieson is speaking from his hometown of Fremantle where the band have finally returned to start work on album number two. “We have pretty much until March off, which is great. It’s to write the next record.”
San Cisco explores a range of moods and branches within the pop-rock realm, taking in everything from power-ballad crescendos to scuzzy mod-rock. Davieson indicates they’ll again look to employ this level of experimentation when constructing the new record.
“I think the goal is to write good pop songs and whatever genre or form that comes in that’s just how it will be. We’re not really setting out to write one sort of music.”
Writing music while entangled in the touring whirlwind can be a challenging venture and Davieson hasn’t been able to get much writing done this year, however, he has tried to stay receptive to any beckoning lyrical inspiration.
“I think you really draw from everything that’s going on around you. Obviously music – [in] new music you can see how people are tackling things. And old music – the way people put things lyrically. I think you really have to look at everything,” he says.
The experience the band have gathered from living and traveling the world together this year will also inevitably influence the perspective represented in the new material.
“When you’re living with the same five people for a whole year you learn a lot about yourself and them and just people in general. We’ve been seeing a lot of the world, been seeing a lot of different things that I never thought I’d see and I definitely hadn’t seen before the first album, so I think it’s going to be very different,” says Davieson.
Spending extended periods living in close quarters with your onstage companions can indeed be a challenging arrangement, however, Davieson assures that they’re still enthusiastic in each other’s company.
“At the beginning there were a few growing pains but now we do it really well. We know when to leave each other alone and what we like to do. We still hang out on the weekends when there’s no music or anything to be done, so it’s good.”
Although San Cisco remain independent in Australia, US label Fat Possum handled the release of their record overseas. Evidently securing backing from the revered label has boosted their fortunes internationally, with the band just wrapping up a considerable headline tour of the States. Davieson says that American audiences really started to take notice of San Cisco after a support tour with The Vaccines early in the year.
“We did that tour with The Vaccines and then went to Europe for a month and then came back to America to do the headline tour and the crowds that were coming along were like twice the size of anything we’d played to beforehand. It’s usually on the coast, New York and San Fran and LA – and Minneapolis, smack bang in the middle. Those crowds are pretty similar to what happens in Australia, so it’s pretty cool when we go there.”
San Cisco have also taken off in the UK and Davieson admits the extent of their rising global following is a consistent surprise to the band.
“The songs didn’t really take to radio so it’s just been a sort of organic progression, through playing the shows there. We had no idea we’d be doing anything in America or the UK but the record label seemed to think it was going to happen. It didn’t happen to the extent that they were predicting but it’s still great over there.”
Next week’s Queenscliff Music Festival is San Cisco’s final live engagement for the year. QMF’s all-Aussie lineup is bolstered by many young bands on the up, such as The Preatures, The Murlocs and Eagle & The Worm and Davieson is ecstatic about the strength of Australian music at present.
“The Australian music scene is so good right now and I don’t know how or where it’s all coming from. The Preatures are just killing it and The Jungle Giants are doing their thing and we saw Last Dinosaurs on the weekend in Singapore. There’s just so much good music coming out of Australia and I think it’s really pushing each band to do better and better and it’s a really good thing.”
Marvelling at the achievements of others can instigate a hugely productive form of creative competition. Davieson realises San Cisco aren’t the only quality band in Australia at present, which he believes could impact positively upon their next album.
“I’m actually a bit competitive and it’s really good because you’re not trying to do better than what they’re doing. You’re just trying to put the most effort [in] and strive for excellence, but you’re obviously not trying to copy each other because that just doesn’t work.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
