Fusing some sasscore goodness into the post hardcore realms, San Diego five-piece SeeYouSpaceCowboy arrive in 2024 in their most matured and engaging form to date.
With their impending new album Coup de Grâce officially out this Friday 19 April, SeeYouSpaceCowboy take flight in a galaxy of complexity and vivid imagery that is rooted in a neor-inspired world created by frontwoman Connie Sgarbossa. Between its smoky jazz hues and a kaleidoscope of star-studded features, from Spiritbox's Courtney LaPlante through to nothing, nowhere., iRis.EXE and Kim Dracula, Coup de Grâce retains the spirit of SeeYouSpaceCowboy's innate connectivity, while also expanding into moments of fuzz, warmth, chaos and vehement spoken word. It's a hell of a ride and one that is fuelled by the boundless energy, light and shade from Sgarbossa herself. And ahead of the album releasling later this week, Connie spent a moment with The Soundcheck's Tiana Speter to dive into the making of the brand new album. Read on for more!
VISUAL IDENTITY
The number one thing about this record for me that's fun is: I'm not a musician. I just conceptualise shit and I'm a visual artist. This album began with a visual identity. I was thinking back to all the Moulin Rouge or Neo-noir things like Blade Runner and Dark City, and all these classic 1940s films. Coup de Grâce also started with this visual identity I had in my head of Baz Luhrmann movies, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge, and combining it with all these other things that I grew up loving. Maybe other people don't necessarily watch Blade Runner when they're 10 years old, but I was shown that by my dad. And Romeo + Juliet is my favourite movie of all time.
Ultimately, all of this started with a visual identity and an idea, and then we got to write alongside that. So that was really cool for me personally. I always take a creative director role when it comes to visuals, it’s what I do for a living outside of the band. But this is the first time where I came to the band with an idea. I came to Timmy [Moreno] first, I knew Timmy would appreciate it. I'm like, “Hey, I want to take from this, what Panic! At The Disco did with the circus-y fucking shit. We're going to do it, but with this darker side of it and built off that from there!”.
REUNITING WITH ISAAC HALE
We collaborated with Isaac Hale again on this record. Matt Squire is the producer, but writing songs with Isaac…as long as it’s within my power, I want Isaac to always be part of the creative process for Cowboy. Even though we didn’t get to work with him on all of the songs for Coup de Grâce, the songs that we did work with him on the album - I absolutely love them. He’s just a great creative force.
We’ve worked with Isaac before, he produced The Romance of Affliction and we love him. And he’s willing to do the weird shit. When we took this shit to him, we were like, “Hey, we’re trying to do this weird album, it’s like 1930s speakeasy-noir, a steamy, dancey, indie rocking album”. And he was like, “Let’s do it!”. He jumped on it instantly, he’s so versatile.
RECORD TIMING
For this record, it was the fastest time we've ever put an album together. Romance took years to write, but this one, honestly…every session we had where we locked ourselves in the cabin in the Poconos or did something else, it was extremely productive. And it came together so easily, it was really validating. And it wasn't that it wasn't a struggle to figure out how to make this work. It was more that it was very organic. It's just: throw that shit in a blender and it'll be dope. I loved every second of writing and making this album. There's no frustration, there was no, “Oh, I'm pulling my hair out, this shit's not working”. It was just working from the get-go. And I think there's only one song we cut.
THE MATT SQUIRE EFFECT
Working with Matt Squire was amazing because A Fever You Can't Sweat Out by Panic! At The Disco was one of the influences for this record. And it was a cool thing because when we were talking about who we wanted to produce the record, we're like, “Oh, it'd be cool to have Matt Squire”. And then we were told that he had already hit up Pure Noise about working with us - so it was just kind of perfect!
It was not hard, it all came together, and when we worked with him, he was like, “I want y'all to do your thing. I'm not coming in to fucking make y'all a pop band”, that kind of shit. He's like, “I want y'all to have your risks, do your shit. I just want to help you create the vision that you want”. Which was really cool. The whole process was dope.
SONIC DICHOTOMY
With Cowboy, we've always had this thing of dichotomy, of just taking little bits of whatever we want and playing around with everything. You might have a really dance-y part that goes into all these breakdowns we've written, or you might have something that's super melodic and goes into something else. We really wanted to feed into that on this album.
ALL-IN VOCALS
And a bonus fact about Coup de Grâce is that four members, four fifths of Cowboy do vocals on this record. We really tapped into every single person for the full range!
SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY
Brand new album Coup de Grâce out April 19 via Pure Noise Records.
More info here.
BY TIANA SPETER