Matt Hewson
Many bands have a cool origin story, but that of soulful rock and roll band Sin City captures a moment in time, namely, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the world went into lockdown in 2020, Auckland pair Nick Armstrong and Jack Beesley found themselves stranded in Alicante, Spain, after the end of a European tour with hard rocking outfit The Cavemen.
Faced with months of being locked in a cramped apartment with just each other for company, things could have gone either way.
Fortunately both the rent and the booze were cheap in Spain, so they decided to embrace the opportunity to start writing tunes for a new, southern rock-inspired project, which would become five-piece band Sin City.
Armstrong said the shift in tone, from the hard rocking indie-punk style of the Cavemen to the more dad rock tunes of Sin City, was likely the natural result of getting older.
“(With The Cavemen) we’d been playing this hardcore, heavy metal, hard-and-fast punk rock and roll stuff,” he said.
“But we noticed that, probably because we were approaching our mid to late 20s, as soon as we were on the road in the van we were listening to soft rock, more melodic stuff. Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Flying Burrito Brothers, Mink DeVille was a big one.
“And we’d never actually played that before. From the ages of about 17 to 24 or 25 we’d just been playing punk.”
Fast forward to 2023. The band has filled out to a five-piece and just recorded their second album, due for release some time early next year.
Am I The One You Love, the first single for the new LP, will drop September 29, the same day Sin City kick off their regional Victoria tour at the Barwon Club in Geelong.
Armstrong said the sophomore album would be different from the band’s debut in important ways, but still “classic Sin City”.
“The last album had a lot of fiddle and lap steel on it; this one’s going to be a bit more raw, a bit more rock and roll,” he said.
“Also it’s with the live band, as opposed to studio musicians, so it’s got a bit of a different sound.”
