Brisbane’s own Nice Biscuit have announced their long-awaited second record, SOS, and with it, comes the first taste of what is to come in the form of first single, “The Star”, a vibrant psych-pop release that speaks to the hope and recovery after pain and chaos. The calmly chanting vocal lines from vocalists Billie Star and Grace Cuell entice you to practice self-love and self-care, and surrender to guidance and protection from others. Its repetitive, dancey rhythm section and melodic chorus create an infectious groove that reflects the catharsis of healing and finding peace. On the track, the band comments, “‘The Star’ (inspired by the tarot card of the same name) is about the period of well-deserved healing and peace following big hardship. It is the follow-up to our song ‘The Tower’ – that depicted chaos and challenges. The Star explores the feeling of surrendering into yourself just as you are and trusting others to guide you through challenges to usher you into a new & brighter chapter of life. The Star was influenced by the joy of being together and peeling away the pressures and anxiety of life. It was created incidentally one morning during a songwriting session, and what felt like an ephemeral jam at the time captured a moment of taking a step back and just appreciating that time together. We felt like we could share that feeling through this song.” The accompanying music video – which you can watch below this article -, was directed by Levi Strauss Cranston and filmed on Bundjalung Country. With four rolls of 16mm film in hand, Levi captured two mythical entities as they outrun three henchmen in chainmail. A dive into experimenting with physical manipulation and paint on film to saw Levi produce vintage psychedelic visuals to match the hypnotic groove.
With the beautifully hypnotic and soothing vocals of front women, Star and Cuell, SOS is about finding calm and balance in our chaotic world. While writing the record, the band often discussed the weight and compounding of the various crises of the world, thus each song is a different response to these turbulent times. The band explains, “Sometimes we feel hopeful and grateful, pessimistic and desolate, mournful and angry, sometimes we feel that love can solve it all and sometimes we just become overwhelmed and apathetic about everything.” The record was written over one year as the band enjoyed multiple long weekends out at Swan Pond Studios with their friend, Alistair Richardson (The Cairos, Clea). After road-testing a few of the new songs on tour in Europe in 2023, Nice Biscuit went back to Swan Pond Studios to record SOS over a 6-month period. It is the final record with the band’s original guitarist and producer, Jess Ferronato, who recorded all the instruments on the record, while Richardson tracked all the vocals. Unlike their debut album and EPs, for SOS the band decided to split up the recording sessions into two groups — bass, guitar, drums (the boys: Nick Cavendish, Jess Ferronato, Kurt Melvin) and vocals and percussion (the girls: Star and Cuell). On the recording process, the band explains: “The boys laid down the foundations of the songs on the weekend prior and then Billie and Grace would head out to add vocals and write lyrics. Often we would not have the lyrics or melodies finished before going out there, which allowed more focus and energy to be poured into the instrumentation and vocals. It fostered greater creativity and space by doing it separately and felt like a fun back and forth between the two groups, being excited to share what we have created. Then in the weeks after we got together and added more synth and percussion parts.”
SOS will be released on October 4th via Bad Vibrations. Pre-orders are now available here.
Photo credit: Kyle Doble
