Photograph by Errick Easterday

SeeYouSpaceCowboy: telling you tales of the city

SeeYouSpaceCowboy’s singer/lyricist Connie Sgarbossa has faced down her trauma, her anguish, and her struggles to find some reason to live with remarkable audacity, honesty, and backbone. That probably helped her when she was confronted mid-set with some unexpected bloodletting. “One time, we were in upstate New York playing a community center,” Sgarbossa recalls, “and this guy got kicked through a full-wall glass window and shattered the whole thing. He was, like, cut up, and there was a trail of blood to the back. We for sure thought that was it and the set was over, but people just pulled a couch over the glass on the floor and said to keep playing. So we restarted and the night went on.”

The band’s new album Coup De Grâce came out April 19 on Pure Noise Records. The group didn’t get together until 2016, but singer Sgarbossa and her “little brother” Ethan had grown up in and around San Diego, soaking up inspiration all the while. Says Sgarbossa, “I’ve lived in Encinitas, Oceanside, and Carlsbad, but I spent most of my time growing up, through middle school and high school, in Solana Beach. There were a lot of kids who would just kinda roam the streets together, like some skate/surf rat culture. It meant that I spent most of my time wandering around the city listening to hardcore, and skating until the cops chased us out. It also acted as an exchange of ideas and music, ‘cause you could have me and my homies in Black Flag and Circle Jerks shirts hanging out with a bunch of people in Tupac and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony shirts. It stopped me from isolating myself. For better or for worse.”

Personally, she “definitely had strong connections to ‘80s hardcore, because it was very accessible, and for someone with no musical talent like me, it was something obtainable. It was just pure angst and catharsis, and that was really appealing to me before I had more emotional intelligence and wanted to make something a bit more nuanced.”

After mixing, matching, and scrambling lineups over several years, the band is back to Sgarbossa, her “little brother” Ethan on guitar and vocals, bassist/singer Taylor “Tay” Allen, guitarist Tim Moreno, and drummer AJ Tartol. Their name came from a Cowboy Bebop tagline. “We really didn’t have any other good options.” Content-wise, Coup De Grâce continues the singer’s lyrical and emotional work of confronting and then musically exorcizing, personal demons. “The main thing I would say that has changed is being able to do it in more creative and nuanced ways. Something that takes the emotions and reflects something other than just anger, being able to weave it into something more complex and interesting.”

The quintet’s signature toenails-yanked post-hardcore noise approach prevails, but mixed in are film noir touches such as silky sax and smoky lounge singing. Sgarbossa acknowledges the heavy influence of Frank Miller’s bloody, neo-noir Sin City graphic novels, but also points to the Dark City lounge singer scene, as well as “older true noir” film titles such as Leave Her to Heaven, The Lady From Shanghai, and Chinatown. “A lot of influence was also taken from things like Moulin Rouge, with the over-the-top chaotic representation of indulgence, lust, and romance. Originally, I had this visual identity in my head, for a new record taken from the things I said above, and burlesque, cabaret, and Prohibition-era back-room decadence. And from there, I realized that if we wanted to portray that, we should go all in on it and represent that.”

Guest artists to thicken the soup include Courtney LaPlante from British Columbia’s Spiritbox on “To The Dance Floor For Shelter,” iRis.EXE from St. Louis on “Respite For A Tragic Tale” and elsewhere, Kim Dracula from Tasmania, Australia on the pungent “Lubricant Like Kerosene,” and nothing,nowhere out of Boston for “Rhythm And Rapture.”

Says Sgarbossa, “iRis.EXE really helps tie the entire record together, ‘cause she acts as the narrator, [with] spoken word parts and singing, introduction, intermission, and the last word. Having her as this character telling you all the tales of this city [makes it sound] like it’s an ode, or a dramatic theatrical retelling.” The Coup De Grâce tour takes them as far away as Fargo (North Dakota), Calgary (Alberta), and even London (Ontario). But Sgarbossa isn’t worried, and even seems cheerful about turning to the road. When she defines her future plans, she says they are to “pretty much keep touring as much as we can. I wanna keep traveling the world and screaming into the void.”