4000 Records has just sprinkled some fairy dust our way in the form of One More Year by Brisbane-based SGO. One More Year hits all the right feels of shoegaze dreampop and indie rock. If you haven’t completed your favourites of 2024 list yet, you might want to give this one a listen before you do. Kris, Liz and Tom of SGO kindly answered a few questions after John of 4000 Records let me have an early listen to it - I loved and I think you will too.
There’s a super limited edition run of One More Year CDs on SGO’s Bandcamp - surely there’s a shoegazing someone on your holiday shopping list who would appreciate one?!
Thanks to Kris, Liz and Tom for taking the time to talk about the album and thanks to John for continuing to connect me up here in Amsterdam with what’s going on with music down in Brisbane!
//wendy
One More Year for me bookends a great year in new shoegaze and dream pop tunes - these songs have all the feels! How do you do that?!
Kris: We started writing about our experiences rather than trying to write fictional stories or about abstract ideas. It helped that we were all at stages in our lives where big changes and choices were being made. It makes sense as when we released Last Light, we were all still quite young without much life experience. Even now we don’t have a lot of life experience, but I guess it's enough to be quite relatable to others.
You've written about the development of this album and the changes that took place within the band and with individual members. You expressed that you thought you got better at writing music that was more meaningful to you personally. How do you hope listeners will feel hearing these songs?
Kris: The album draws influences from dream pop, shoegaze and to an extent indie rock. I suppose we'd be happy if listeners of those genres can enjoy the album.
As for the message I think the main take away for me at least is the idea of starting fresh. I remember while the album was in it's very early stages I had the title "one more year" stuck in my head as I thought it conveyed the notion of persistance and perseverance really well. I feel alot of people reassure themselves with thoughts and phrases similar to "just one more year" when things become stressful or challenging but can see the the light at the end of the tunnel. I think this idea holds true for alot of life events, from completing your studies to moving on from a breakup.
To be honest though these tracks just capture our thoughts and experiences at a point in time. There wasn’t alot of thought into the "theme" of the album while we were writing. Rather, it just happened that we were experiencing similar life events at similar times.
You note that the album was cut back to 8 tracks - what might become of the others?
Kris: I don’t think anything will come of them. We discarded the tracks as they didn’t really have anything particularly memorable or relatable about them. When listening to an album it's really easy to hear what’s filler and there to make the numbers. We would rather have a shorter length album with tracks that have some kind of hook, melody or feeling that is memorable to us. I think you can tell if a track is worth keeping if you feel excited while writing it and the parts flow naturally. Once you try and force parts together and lose that feeling I think it comes across quite apparent to any listener.
Is there a story behind the opening tune "Bookcase"? It looks like you released this as a single back in 2022?
Liz: “Bookcase” was the first song written after a big breakup and moving house. Looking around at all the furniture that used to be filled with things owned by an ex and also looking within finding space in your life that was once occupied by another person. It's a melancholy feeling because it's written as though there has been a loss but also the hope that it's a new chapter of life and could be for the best after all.
How is One More Year sonically different from your first album Last Light?
Tom: For starters Last Light was made in a real studio whereas One More Year was pulled together from mostly home recordings in a bit of a haphazard way. Because of that, Last Light might sound a bit more hifi in parts, but aesthetically One More Year is more refined. Although playing live has fallen to the wayside, we tried to write and produce One More Year in a way that sounded like an actual band with defined roles. Honestly, a lot of One More Year sounds like polished demos to me but the point of the album was to capture the feeling of the songs that we wrote with a secondary focus on fidelity. Last Light didn't have enough limitations which led to a lot of the stuff being extremely difficult to perform. We self-produced this album so aesthetically it fits within the worlds we were going for a lot more (dreampop / shoegaze kinda stuff).
Is there a song on this that you are particularly proud of given your dedication to songwriting this time around?
Liz: I'm proud of the track “Moving Around”. I feel as though it will be relatable for many listeners who have struggled to find themselves in single life. This track also had great feedback within the band.
What's the story behind the photo on the cover of One More Year?
Tom: Well initially Kris and I had driven somewhere intentionally to take some album cover photos only for me to realise I forgot my camera when we arrived. That first idea was kinda scrapped after that. The following day, he came over to my place and the light was hitting the bedroom in a way that felt like the album sounds. Recently the neighbours had decided to paint their house fluorescent white for some reason. The sun was reflecting off their house and filling the window with this white light. We recorded most of the album at my place so it seemed fitting to try and capture it for cover art. I asked Kris to sit on the bed and look out the window. We took a couple photos and felt like we caught the feeling. It feels dark and isolated but the light from the outside gives this hint that's something more to move on to.
You're working with 4000 Records to release/distribute One More Year - why work with this label and John?
Tom: John's been a big supporter of us since our first album. He helped us distribute and promote Last Light. He returned an email enthusiastically so we teamed up for that release and he's stuck with us since then. It's just really helpful to have someone on your side like that at the end of the day, as a band we're interested in writing and recording songs more than anything else. Also, 4000 Records has become a really important part of the local scene so it's nice to be a part of something like that and feel connected.
You're based in Brisbane, Australia - can you tell us something about the current shoegaze and/or dreampop scene at the moment?
Tom: It's seeing a huge growth spurt. When we started, it felt like shoegaze / dreampop wasn't really popular in Brisbane - there were very few bands that we felt we could share a lineup with. These days there's definitely more. Dial and Blue Diner are some really cool newer bands carrying the sound.
Do you feel connected to an international shoegaze scene at all?
Kris: Yeah I think so. Shoegaze has a pretty strong online presence and with every release we seem to get more people interested in our stuff from overseas. It feels like there's almost like a second wave of shoegaze happening or something with the popularity of it.
Anything else you'd like to share with the blank mood audience?
Check out all the other acts on 4000 Records! And check out Aji - Tom's other project.