STACK #151 May 2017

FEATURE MUSIC

The adorable clip for single Hey, Did I Do You Wrong sets out a pretty idyllic few days in the world of the band, in which they lark about in the ocean, pack their stuff for a gig, and fly out to perform in some very horticultural Hey, Did I Do YouWrong

Photo: Ebony Talijancich

That's what's so sick about pop music – people grab it and they relate it to their life

Sunrise references “awkward conversations” amongst some textural vocal effects. Davieson

out closer Did You Get What You Came For for

all the evidence you’ll need. But Davieson’s lyrics have also noticeably matured

says co-producer Steve Schram had much to do with those decisions during the recording of The Water , but it was more a case of his holding Davieson back than slathering anything on. “They’ll leave me alone in a room for half a day and I’ll do all the vocals, but then if they leave me there for too long, I’ll just go nuts,” he says. “Put weird autotune things on, and then weird harmonies, and at one point I had 20 of me singing this part, which I knew we were never going to use but I really wanted to do it. I like vocal effects and weird, electric, robotic things. I find it really interesting and really fun to play with. Steven’ll come in, like ‘No, stop it, stop it.’ And he’ll Schramify it.” Steve Schram has been with the four-piece for years, and Davieson relishes attempting to define “this character that [they] get locked in a room with for months at a time.” He seems like something of a maestro hydra. “He’s kind of like our father, and our friend, and our worst enemy, and an evil villain. He’s like a coach… I don’t know how else we could do it, because he pushes us so hard, and we kind of need it,” he explains. “Then other times, when he sees that we’re on a roll and getting the idea, he’ll just slowly drift back into a dark corner of the room and let us do our thing.” The bandmember whose ‘thing’ has most noticeably developed with this album is drummer Scarlett Stevens, who again lends her voice to harmonies, call-and-response and back-up vocals, and her rhythmic instrumental chops are improving with every record – check

into subtle reflections, all the while still full of the wry YA

surrounds. “Yeah, that was real life!” Davieson says. “We played at the Botanical Gardens with Boy & Bear and Amy Shark. We had… Dan Craig following us around, filming everything, just being a fly on the wall for like four days.” The show was in Melbourne, but the beach scenes were filmed in the group’s hometown. “It’s in South Freo, but I don’t like that beach very much. It’s the dog beach. Phil, our manager, insisted we go to the dog beach so his dogs could be in the clip. There’s nicer beaches, and we definitely frolic in them often.”

observations he’s known for. Sometimes you might not be able to tell which is which, but Davieson believes that doesn’t matter; in The Distance there’s a lyric that feels James Murphy-like in its poignancy – “You stay you, and I change me” – but Davieson reveals that the track is actually about The Lego Movie (“I won’t go into detail because I don’t want to ruin the movie, it’s a great movie!”). Likewise Hey, Did I Do You Wrong isn’t about a romantic relationship at all, but a friendship – “a good friend not hanging out with you because they’ve fallen in love with a girl.” “And that’s what’s so sick about pop music,” Davieson enthuses, “is that it doesn’t matter what I think it’s about at all! People grab it and they relate it to their life, which is just awesome. It’s almost like a multi-tool. Really, you can change any songs into whatever you’re needing in your life at that point in time.”

The Water by San Cisco is out May 5 via MGM.

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