San Cisco surface again on new single ‘Skin’
San Cisco are slowly surfacing back into our ears with their latest single ‘Skin’, taken from their forthcoming fourth album. ‘Skin’ stands San Cisco’s vehicle in moving towards a zappy, impassioned chorus, enmeshed amongst mellower elements, inducing nostalgia.
In the tender track, San Cisco project the vulnerabilities of unrequited love, also highlighting the notion of fleeting love. A snippet into the world San Cisco concocts on their upcoming album, the record is “a good record to put on when you’re driving”.
We chat to lead singer Jordi about their recently completed ‘Skin’ tour, their latest single and what to expect from their fourth album. Of the new album, Jordi says “I’m excited, but maybe I’m just an arrogant dickhead”. Check out our conversation with Jordi below.
San Cisco introduced the beginning of the ‘Skin’ era, embarking on an intimate nation-wide tour.
Your show at The Espy last week was fantastic, and it was lovely to get to hear a mix of the new and older songs together.
How was that show for you guys?
It was great! This whole run of shows has been so much fun to be playing the new tracks and spreading our new tracks. For quite a while we’ve been playing the same songs, so we’ve been loving it.
Adding momentum and structure to the show was achieved with minimalism, simply by performing in matching outfits.
The coordinated outfits in the singlets looked to give the show an added purpose too. Is that something you’ve been trying to refine in these intimate style shows?
Yeah! It wasn’t a huge conversation, but Scarlett has always been pushing us to dress up a little bit more, so we did it and are running with it! I like it because it’s like a costume. It helps me perform… You put the costume and you’re getting into character and trying to be a rock-guy.
Is that cohesion you’re bringing into the live set something that’s going to be noticeable on the upcoming album?
We spent pretty much two years writing this next record and a lot of the songs started in the living room on guitar with Josh. I have a real connection with all the songs. The Water was pretty different in writing approach. Some of the songs I really connected with on The Water, but not as many as is on this record. Every song on this next record take me back to a very real place.
How was the stripped back environment this time different from how you wrote ‘The Water’?
When we wrote The Water,we went into the studio; Josh, Scarlett, I and our producer Steven [Schram] and started writing songs. I didn’t really have any lyrics, just a couple… We would just list some stuff and be writing and recording at the same time. For this next record, I would fully sit down and say, ‘hey guys, what about this song?’ and then play a full song on guitar.
Then, [the band] would be like, ‘okay, let’s do that with it’. We would even have demos we would record at our home studio and bring that to the studio with the band and work off that demo session. The vocal take on a song called Gone that will be on the record was one I recorded at home. Then we finished the same vocal take in Mullumbimby when we were there doing the record… It’s been quite a journey for a lot of the songs.
Does that help guide your song selection and which tracks make the album?
The way we do it is by working on a song until it’s awesome and finished, or it hits a dead end. Then, we leave it for a bit, and come back to it. If it keeps hitting a dead end and there’s nothing super special to any of us, we just leave it. If there are parts that we’re like, ‘I really like that and I want to get this across the line’, we’ll strip it down and take a whole other run at it. At the end of the day, the songs that are on the record are the ones that we finished and were happy with.
San Cisco have had an expansive journey this year, heading to New York again and broadening their national and international tour dates.
Does that change your outlook lyrically, or your recording process?With touring, we’ve been to America [before], and I think the first time we went there, that really changed my outlook on the world. That was on the Gracetown record. That’s when I really was thinking about other shit around the world and travelling.
When you do Australia, each time you experience some stuff and you do some things you wouldn’t do at home. It’s really great. In this last tour to America, my girlfriend came with us, which was so nice. That changed the whole experience. Instead of just being on tour, we would also go out and do nice things… It was almost like a bit more of an adventure.
Less of a working feeling to it?
Yeah! Because I wanted to have a good time, it forced me to find things to do and appreciate things more, instead of just existing in a new city and leaving it.
That’s interesting that before your fourth album, you’ve gotten to that stage where you value soaking in what’s around you!
I think about when we were younger and blowing up and getting more popular and touring a lot. I never really appreciated it, but it was fucking crazy. All the places I’ve been able to go, and all the things we’ve been able to do, but we just kind of [toured]. Now I think, I don’t know about the other guys, but I’m starting to realise and appreciate what it is, because it’s crazy.
What’s been the best moment of the touring, or recording process this time?
In the last few days of recording in Mullumbimby, we had a big whiteboard with the tracks we’d been recording and what needed to be done on each, and we finished it. I was just looking at the whiteboard and I was like, ‘we’ve done it’. It’s quite a scary, stressful and anxiety-filled thing being like, ‘we have to write a whole record that needs to be good’ for two years.
[We were] kind of freaking out about it. We finally finished it and were really happy with it. You don’t really know if it’s going to be any good, or if people are going to like it, but in that moment, you’re like, ‘nah, I think this is going to work!’
‘Skin’ centres around a punchy, driven hook, given weight through the rest of the track’s more slowed down, mellow and graceful construction.
The positive reception the latest song ‘Skin’ must make you feel more comforted in the work you’ve done toward the album.
Can you talk about the change you’ve gone through there, and building that new environment?
Originally, Skin was fast. It was really fast and had a different chorus. Scarlett and Steven, our producer didn’t really like it. Steven [suggested] slowing it right down, which is actually how it originally at first was.
It originally went really slow, then fast, and then we went back and slowed it right down. We changed some of the instrumentation and then I started singing these lyrics I had from the fast version, but just sang them over the slower version with different melodies. It all came together, and we were all like, ‘we haven’t done anything like this before’. I’m really into it.
Do you feel any nerves after you realise that this is such a divergence from the sound you’ve delivered previously?
I don’t know! I feel like I have a good feeling of when things are going to work. With Skin, I was a little bit like, ‘this is different, and it might not work’, but my gut told me it was going to be good.
Sometimes you think, ‘what happens if it doesn’t work out?’, but touring it and doing all that after [release] is exciting, because they’re all songs I love and have a strong connection with, so I just feel really keen to play them to people. Me and my friends have heard the whole record at two o’clock in the morning at kick ons.
A stand-out show moment was Jordi introducing a song saying, ‘this one goes out to all the fucked-up relationships’, yet the audience was filled with couples attending together.
Do you notice that antithesis, or notice other reactions to your songs that stand out to you?
That’s definitely one. Every time I say that, everyone is like, ‘Yes! We are fucked up!’. It’s so true. Even the happiest fucking couple has their shit. It’s something that people don’t talk about enough. Every family is fucked up. There’s no such thing as a normal family, or a normal relationship.
That one, definitely people connect with. It’s a little sweet spot, with clear-speak and just calling out something for what it is, without being too harsh or judgemental because everyone is thinking it… [Just] embracing our big fuck ups. You’ve got to do it otherwise you’ll just be sad.
San Cisco performed an unreleased song, Flaws, as a stripped back guitar ballad.
Is that how we’ll hear the song on the album?
No, but pretty close. Scarlett and Josh are playing on it, but it’s the same sort of speed and vibe. It’s just a bit lusher.
Newly accompanying ‘Skin’ is the release of their retro and colourful music video.
How was the process of filming the ‘Skin’ music video?
It was cool! We did it with a girl called Freya [Esders], who’s in Melbourne. We shot it all on film, so we had to get all the shots, and it was a more time-consuming filming [process]… It was a really good team and we loved doing it. We nearly got chased by a herd of cows in a paddock that we jumped into to do a bit of filming. It was pretty hectic.