San Cisco

Australian four-piece San Cisco's self-titled debut album is a teenage riot of love, pain and short attention spans. They've got everything covered, from surfing to mixtapes, friendship to videogames, and it's all there in short, sweet bursts of jangly pop joy. It tackles the rites of passage and the relationships we form and break in our primitive years and underneath the upbeat musicianship are the heartfelt lyrics of someone trying to find their feet. It's impossible to resist their infectious buzz.

It was inevitable that these four school friends would become a band. Music was always in their blood. Jordi Davison (19, guitar/synths/vocals), Josh Biondillo (21, guitar/synths/vocals) and Nick Gardner (20, bass) were at the same high school in Western Australia as Scarlett Stevens (20, drums/ vocals) was being schooled just down the road. They eventually came together in their first incarnation, King George, in 2009. But the story of San Cisco goes back even further than that. Jordi and Scarlett have known each other since birth. "We all grew up with our parents passing down their musical tastes," explains Scarlett, whose dad owned a venue. "And my dad would take me to Scarlett's dad's bar to see bands," adds Jordi.

The two started making their own music at a very early age, but it took a while for them to get together. By 12, Jordi was performing as a folky solo artist ("I did a Jack Johnson cover," he admits), while Scarlett was in her own band, The Flairz. During this time, Jordi got together with Josh, and eventually borrowed Scarlett to record their first ever demo, the song that would become "Rocket Ship". Their chemistry worked and the gig offers started to pour in -- Nick came on board to play bass, and King George was born.

But King George quickly outgrew their sound. "We completely changed everything. We were learning what a hook was, figuring out how to turn shuffles into drum beats," explains Nick. "We changed a lot of our gear, and we were listening to new music and learning more about songwriting," adds Josh. The band wrote two songs, which saw everything coming together, and in that moment, they knew they were ready for a new identity. "Josh wrote 'Girls Do Cry'," says Jordi, "and I wrote 'Golden Revolver', and we thought, this is cool. They were the first songs that were properly San Cisco." This was at the end of 2010.

The name doesn't mean anything, and deliberately so. It's a collection of sounds that operates as a blank canvas for the band to project anything they want onto. They had a near miss with a couple of options -- Flippin' Burgers and Aztec Holiday were in the mix -- but a survey of friends and fans on Facebook settled on San Cisco. "We like it because there's nothing attached to it," says Jordi. "It's nothing to do with the city. We haven't even been there yet!"

San Cisco worked on finessing their sound throughout 2011, recording a video for "Golden Revolver", releasing an EP and playing crowd-wowing sets at Big Day Out, Big Sound, Laneway and Fuse Festival. They say their hometown has been a fantastic place to grow up loving music. Though, as is always the way, San Cisco are already attracting enough buzz to get them called sell-outs -- almost a rite of passage in itself. Their song "Awkward" was voted into the top 10 of triple j's Hottest 100 and the video has scored over 4 million plays on YouTube. "If you get a bit of commercial success people say you've sold out," shrugs Scarlett. "But if you were so worried about being cool, you'd never do anything."

This enthusiasm is all part of their charm. They're too young to be jaded and too excited for any seen-it-all-before weariness. They recorded their debut album in the winter of 2012, walking nearly three miles to and from the studio every day. But the chilly winter mornings did little to affect San Cisco's take on bright, indie-pop. Only two of its 13 songs clock in at more than three minutes. "They're pop songs!" they all shout, in unison. Scarlett elaborates, "Like we didn't know! That was the plan! Some are punky, some are surfy. We even tried screamo," she jokes, "but I can't scream and drum at the same time."

Since signing with RCA in 2012, San Cisco have completed three successful tours of the US, including appearances at both CMJ and South By Southwest. In January, the band was invited to open for The Vaccines on their U.S. headlining tour, which allowed them to play in front of thousands of people each night. Their own U.S. headlining tour followed, which included sold out dates at Bowery Ballroom in New York and The Troubadour in Los Angeles.

With a killer debut under their belt, the future looks bright for San Cisco. This self-titled debut is a collection of the band's thoughts on life, growth, relationships and love all tied together with infectious drum beats, slashes of synth and bright catchy hooks. The thirteen songs perfectly capture their sunny outlook on life. "We want to make the music we think is cool," Scarlett says, simply and concisely, which is exactly what San Cisco are great at.


For San Cisco, there has been very little waiting around. The four-piece have followed their own path since emerging from Fremantle, Western Australia, a few years ago. From humble beginnings of weekend jams to being nominated for a 2011 Unearthed J Award and landing themselves at #7 in triple j's Hottest 100 countdown the band have a natural chemistry, growing organically into their own mold to create their sophomore EP, "Awkward."

Lead single 'Awkward' is an unmistakable pop gem featuring the vocal talents of both Jordi Davieson and drummer, Scarlett Stevens. Penned in the studio one afternoon, the song was voted in to the top 10 of triple j's Hottest 100 and scored almost 1,000,000 plays on youtube.

Following on from their success of their debut EP, "Golden Revolver," San Cisco returned to the recording studio with Steven Schram (Little Red, Little Birdy and Cat Empire) in Melbourne to delve further into the songs they had perfected on stage and in the backyard shed. The finished product is their sophomore EP, "Awkward" featuring five tracks of indie pop goodness, showcasing Jordi's turn of phrase and Josh Biondillo's varied influences in his music writing. In its entirety it is an eclectic mix of indie pop with dashes of rock and slashes of synth. Each member of the band brings a different influence to the table from their diverse and eclectic palate of indie, rap, hip-hop and jazz.

Schoolmates Josh and Jordi bonded over their love for skateboarding and the water, but what brought them together was their passion for music. While Josh is the music man coming to the table with the arrangement and melody, Jordi will talk over the top delivering a slew of words that grows into his in-depth lyrics fantasizing about the world. Add fellow schoolmates, bassist Nick Gardner and Scarlett Stevens on drums and San Cisco came to fruition.

The five-track EP is a statement of intent for a band on the cusp of something big. The energetic and upbeat 'Rocket Ship' plays out Jordi's dreams about leaving everything behind that you know and trust to uncover and discover what may become.

The irresistible 'Lover' shows off their buoyant and bright song-writing with each verse following the progression of a relationship. A rousing cover of the Arctic Monkey's '505' adds a new dimension to the EP, played out like a science experiment between Schram and the band one afternoon in the studio. Taking the tempo a little more downbeat is the closing and emotively powerful song, 'Reckless', true to its lyrical content that "Reckless is fun when you are not the one that gets hurt."

Penning tunes for some time, as well as amassing an assortment of instruments, band mates Josh and Nick have accumulated numerous instruments that they repair, rebuild and add to their collection. The intricacies of these instruments that they repair and play become more a part of their knowledge and growth as musicians, experimenting with new sounds.

Having already graced the stages of Big Day Out, Laneway, Fuse Festival and Big Sound as well as a selling out their first national tour. San Cisco are heard on airwaves around the world gaining airplay on triple j, community radio in Australia, London's XFM station, college radio across the USA and Flux FM in Germany. San Cisco have set themselves apart from their counterparts with the depth of their song-writing and their bright catchy hooks.

With all this in place, it is little wonder that San Cisco already have some stalkers of their own. The "Awkward" EP out now through San Cisco's own record label Island City Records independently through MGM.