Gracetown San Cisco

Indie pop quartet San Cisco were formed during 2009 in the city of Freemantle in Western Australia. The bandmembers -- guitarist/vocalist Jordi Davieson, drummer/vocalist Scarlett Stevens, bassist Nick Gardner, and drummer Josh Biondillo -- met during high school. Davieson and Stevens played together in the Real Life Animators and the Flairz before they decided to all play together under the name King George. They soon changed their name to San Cisco and in 2010 released their first EP, Golden Revolver. The ultra-poppy title track gained a fair amount of airplay on the top Australian radio station, Triple J, eventually being nominated for the station's Unearthed J Award. Its popularity led to the band being signed to the legendary Albert Productions, the home of the Easybeats and AC/DC, among other Aussie acts. Their second EP, Awkward, was released in 2012 in Australia, though in a confusing move, an EP of the same name containing four songs from both the band's releases was released in America by Fat Possum later that year. The group left Albert Productions and Fat Possum, and moved to major-label RCA for their self-titled album, which was released in 2012 in Australia, and in the summer of 2013 in North America. Writing for the next record began in hotel rooms and in vans as the group toured the world promoting the album. Returning home, they enlisted the help of producer Steve Schram, who pushed the bandmembers to work harder and invest more of themselves in the music. The results of their hard work showed on their second album, the more sophisticated and emotionally diverse Gracetown, which was released by Island City Records in early 2015. However, prior to the album's release, bassist Nick Gardner accidentally shot himself in the foot while rabbit hunting, an accident that precluded him from joining the band on much of its Gracetown tour. By the following year, they were back in the studio and returned in 2017 with The Water, featuring the single "Hey, Did I Do You Wrong?" ~ Tim Sendra