Why That Maudlin San Cisco Hit Sat On The Shelf For Years

After over twelve months of snap lockdowns, industry carnage and live music being but a distant memory for many, the reality of beloved Perth indie-poppers San Cisco being currently out on the road and touring beyond their home state is a bona fide dream for fans and the musical realms - and, indeed, for the band themselves.

Featuring today on a new episode of The Green Room With Tiana Speter podcast, two thirds of the band dropped by in person amid a national tour to celebrate the band's hit 2020 full-length Between You and Me, with Jordi Davieson and Scarlett Stevens diving into the creation of the album, as well as the lengthy process behind Flaws, aka one of the album's more leisurely hits, that went unwittingly missing for five years.

Conjured years ago prior to the group's third 2017 album The Water, Flaws emerged as a complete song simultaneously to Davieson breaking up with his first love; a fact Stevens doesn't initially recall. 

"I don't remember, Jordi reckons he showed [Flaws] to me," Stevens told podcast host Tiana Speter.

But Davieson, affably rebutting Stevens' claims that the song wasn't complete, begs to differ:

"Usually when I show Scarlett songs, she just shuts off," Davieson laughs. "It was a whole song, and I played it for ages...but it wouldn't have fit on 'The Water'.

"It was also our producer, I showed him and he was like: 'Meh! Whatever!'. It wasn't until we were in Mullumbimby recording towards the very end of doing [Between You and Me] and I was like: 'can we PLEASE try this song that I've been trying to get on the record?!'. And everyone was like: 'Sure! Right! Is it finished??'.  And I was like "Yeah!?" (laughs). 'It's been finished for AGES?!'. And we just recorded it...and it was done!"

With Flaws now sitting pretty on over one million streams on Spotify, the early hiccups that led to the end result were undoubtedly worth the wait, contributing a slower burn to the polished end result of Between You and Me and its #3 peak on the ARIA albums chart - and a chance for the band to openly flex and challenge their sonic evolution in the process.

"I think it just slowly grew on Scarlett...I used to play it as the last song of the set, and she said I sounded like "angry singing"..."I don't like it!" Davieson recalls, mimicking Stevens.

"But I love the way it's recorded!" Stevens laughs in protest. "And we tweaked it...you had a lyric, you had "I'm like Peter Pan"...and I was like: "just say you're Peter Pan!!"

As for how the track eventually got over the line, Davieson sums up: "I just needed to force it into Scarlett's life, and then she liked it!" 

You can watch the full chat with Davieson and Stevens visiting with host Tiana Speter below or here; and you can also catch up on the full The Green Room podcast episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts (below) or wherever you usually grab your favourite podcasts.

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Need more music, film, TV and comedy in your life? Check out all previous episodes of The Green Room here - and did you know you can also watch episodes of The Green Room too? Head here to check out some of the recent videos, and if you're still hunting for content to feed your ears, be sure to check out the below to learn more about some of the other exciting Handshake Agency podcasts!

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