Musicians have been using H2O as a form of metaphorical imagery basically for as long as the two of them have been around – forever, really. Whether it’s Bruce Springsteen’s seminal LP The River or The Go-Betweens’ bittersweet final album Oceans Apart, there are a myriad of different emotions and thoughts that spring to mind with titles that allude to water, water everywhere.
When it was announced that Perth indie-pop kids San Cisco would be naming their third studio album The Water, one could have safely assumed they were simply following in this time-honoured tradition. Truth be told, it was actually done to throw listeners off the scent.
“The title was actually from Scarlett [Stevens, drums/vocals],” says Jordi Davieson – the band’s primary vocalist, rhythm guitarist, keyboardist and lyricist. “It’s one of the tracks on the record, and she really liked this concept of having a separate identity to the music and its themes. The idea was to have the album art, the album title and the music itself all be separate things. The other names we had in the works for the album all had some sort of connection or pertinence to the themes addressed on the album. By separating everything, it allowed everything to kind of exist in its own realms.
“The Water, as a title… I mean, I like the ocean, but it’s not about our affiliation with the water. It’s about imagery and identity – it’s about what you think of when you think of the water. It’s meant to be used as a contrast to the songs on the album.”
The Water follows on two years after the release of Gracetown, which debuted in the top five of the Australian ARIA charts. Whereas that record was adamant about reshaping and redefining the band, The Water sees San Cisco – Davieson, Stevens, guitarist Josh Biondillo and bassist Nick Gardner – hone in on their fundamentals and focus on their key strengths. It’s an intentional, purpose-driven move that Davieson feels really has brought out the very best in the band.
“For this record, I feel like we wanted to bring it back to what we were in the beginning,” he says. “We wanted to really make it sound like a full-band record, but just a little more savvy. It had to be back to basics, but it also had to show a bit of maturity – the kind of album where everything is in its right place.
“We worked so much on the last album trying to stretch out into all of these different genres, so I think when we sat down and talked about what we wanted to do next, we had a pretty clear focus and idea of what we’re good at. From there the game plan was simple: ‘Let’s do that, but even better.’”
The Water was recorded over several different sessions – some of which would go for weeks at a time – in the band’s native city. Behind the boards once again was acclaimed Western Australian producer Steven Schram, who has worked on both of San Cisco’s previous LPs. Rather than rushing in and attempting to perfectly recreate full-form ideas, San Cisco instead formulated the bulk of the record within their studio sessions, building and dismantling songs as they saw fit.
“Pretty much the whole record was written in the studio,” says Davieson. “There were a few tracks that were completed lyrically on my own, just writing in my bedroom. The bulk of it, though, was written as we were recording with Steven over the course of about eight months. It was hectic – it was really intense, but I think it worked really well. It definitely worked well in getting a snapshot of what was happening in my life over the course of that time period.”
At the start of that year, I had a pretty major shake-up in my personal life. I was really just pissing in the wind.
Attempting to pry further into that somewhat loaded sentence bears next to no fruit from the man behind the music – as Davieson will insist, it’s all in the music if you listen closely. Perhaps, with such questioning song titles as ‘Hey, Did I Do You Wrong?’ and ‘Did You Get What You Came For’, one is able to draw their own conclusions. What he will say on the record, however, is that The Water details a considerable amount of his recent personal history – both for better and for worse.
“At the start of that year, I had a pretty major shake-up in my personal life. I was really just pissing in the wind – I was a pretty loose cannon. I didn’t really know what I was doing. I slowly got my moral compass back into play and sorted myself out. When I listen back to the songs that I was writing and recording at the start of that cycle, I immediately get a sense of how different they were in comparison to what I was writing towards the end of it. It’s amazing how much changes over the course of a single year in your life.”
With The Water finally out in the world, San Cisco are set to take the record out on the road for an extensive run of Australian tour dates, starting in Adelaide and winding up with a weekend at Perth’s illustrious Astor Theatre for some hotly anticipated hometown shows. It’s a lot of gigs, meaning a lot of time with the innermost personal moments in the band’s discography. That’s not something that’s lost on Davieson.
“There are definitely songs that I’ve been singing up onstage where I’ll come to a line that takes me straight back,” he says. “I’ll remember exactly where I was when I wrote it, and what I was thinking about – everything that was going through my mind at the time. That’s pretty crazy when that happens – it brings you back to a very different time in your life.”
It’s easy to forget that, even though they’re each still in their late 20s, both Davieson and Stevens had an incredibly early start in the world of music. The former was 13 when he began playing as a guitarist in The Real Life Animators, while the latter was all of ten when her original band, The Flairz, started playing rock’n’roll. It’s suggested that, given how young both he and Stevens were when they first started playing in bands, Davieson has more or less grown up in public, with each stage of his life being documented through the trajectory of his musical career.
“I dunno about that,” Davieson replies with a laugh. “I dunno if we’re that famous to be considered ‘in the public eye’, to be honest. I will say, though, that I do think a lot about our songs. I often think about how what I’ve written impacts on the people I’ve written about – because it is always about someone. I’ve never been able to write songs about nothing. I don’t tell the person that I’ve written about them, but I think they would know.
“I wonder at what point the secret’s out – do you confess, or do you just keep playing the songs and deny everything?” Davieson laughs, before concluding: “Something to think about.”
The Water is out now through Island City/MGM. San Cisco play the Enmore Theatre on Friday June 2.
This article was originally published on The Brag.
