SeeYouSpaceCowboy has been at the cutting edge of the 2000s scenecore revival for nearly a decade now, and it looks like the world has taken note.
The California band straddling the realms of post-hardcore, metalcore and emo rap is set to tour Australia for the first time later this month. Last year, they released two new tracks that'll be included on an upcoming album. The recording process is already complete. Vocalist Connie Sgarbossa expects it to come out some time in 2024.
When Q caught up with the frontwoman, she was nursing her broken arm in a Chicago area hotel room. The injury happened during the hardcore band Hereditary's set at a Jan. 5 show in Sgarbossa's native San Diego.
"I was just moshing and I ended up smacking someone," she said. "Their skull was thicker than my forearm."
The vocalist refused to let it stop her from performing at Poison the Well's reunion show in Anaheim the following night. Sgarbossa added that it won't impact any of the band's plans going forward.
"The doctor told me not to (go on tour), but I've just been going full speed ahead regardless," she said.
Poison The Well was a key pioneer of the post-hardcore/metalcore fusion that defined much of the heavy music during the MySpace era. SeeYouSpaceCowboy's inclusion in the band's reunion shows seems like an acknowledgement of their role in preserving and revitalizing the sound.
But SeeYouSpaceCowboy is not married to the past. The group also has strong ties to the cloud rap scene.
That's how they ended up collaborating with Lil Lotus' post-hardcore project If I Die First in 2021 and Nothing, Nowhere on their latest track "Rhythm and Rapture." It's an airy, rhythmic and supremely danceable song that features more crooning than screaming from Sgarbossa.
The vocalist cited the dance punk band Foals as a key influence on the LP, which really comes through on the track.
Although Nothing, Nowhere didn't join the band and producer Matt Squire for the recording process at Mix Wave Studios in Bethesda, Maryland, the musicians bonded when they toured together last fall.
SeeYouSpaceCowboy's other recent single "Chewing the Scenery" is also softer than the band's past work, but more similar to the anxious post-hardcore sound they're known for. The track ends with a raucous breakdown.
Sgarbossa said fans should expect a bit of both approaches on the upcoming album, noting that there are lots of piano ballads and panic chords.
"We really just wanted to play around with everything that we could," she said. "The worst thing you could do is make an album that sounds the same."
From the beginning, the LP was created around a distinct visual concept. Sgarbossa didn't want to spoil that ahead of the release, but said it will be an important part of the music videos the band is currently working on.
The vocalist is celebrating nine months of sobriety. She's often spoken publicly about her struggle with addiction and how it fueled her writing process earlier on in SeeYouSpaceCowboy's career. But that's not what inspired the vocalist this time around.
The lyrics on the upcoming album are based on an interconnected series of fictional tales about love and woe. Sgarbossa cited the film series Sin City as a key inspiration.
But addiction is hard to escape, and the vocalist hit a small bump in the road after a doctor prescribed painkillers for her broken arm.
Sgarbossa was given 10 pills. The vocalist ended up taking them quicker than she was supposed to and ran out sooner than expected.
"I had to deal with the consequences of that," Sgarbossa said. "I didn't go to hit up my local dealer."
She has a valuable piece of advice for other recovering addicts in a similar situation.
"Even if you f**k up, it's about what you do the next morning," Sgarbossa said.
