INTERVIEW: Bec Sandridge returns with new single 'Cost Of Love': "This song bookmarks a chapter of my life where the question arose 'what is the cost of love?' and 'is it worth it?'
Image: Sam Brumby, editing Giulia McGauran
Australia’s Bec Sandridge is a master of creating music that is instantly familiar but also intriguingly unique. Taking elements of 1980s synthpop, rock, disco, indie and glam, she melds it all into a gorgeous whole that takes you on a sonic journey and creates the specific Bec Sandridge sound.
After the release of her acclaimed debut album TRY + SAVE ME in 2019 Sandridge went quiet in terms of releasing new music until last month when she returned with the new single ‘Cost Of Love’. It is again a delicious melting pot of sounds, with a perky beat and guitars in the verses transforming into a sublime, shimmering electropop chorus with vocals that gradually become multi-layered. “If Shania Twain + Daft Punk met at an 80s aerobics class, sweatily hooked up and had a gay baby… she would be named ‘Cost of Love’,” Sandridge says of the track.
Written with Dave Jenkins Jr (Daniel Johns, Vera Blue) and Lucy Taylor (Dua Lipa, Ellie Goulding), ‘Cost Of Love’ is the first single from Sandridge’s new EP Lost Dog which is due to be released on October 7. With pop and dance-synth hooks at the forefront, Sandridge says the EP is a snapshot of a period in her life when she was feeling particularly lost, and also represents the closing of that chapter in her life. It will be preceded by a tour along the east coast of Australia which kicks off in Melbourne on August 5.
A truly talented and mesmerising artist, Sandridge has notched up some pretty impressive achievements since first releasing music in 2013. Her 2019 single ‘Stranger’ came second place in the International Songwriting Competition Unsigned Category, judged by Tom Waits, Dua Lipa and Chris Martin, and last year she composed the soundtrack for theatre production Ishmael which premiered at Brisbane Festival at QPAC and opens next month at the Sydney Opera House. After some time away, with ‘Cost Of Love’ Sandridge is proving she is only getting better, and we recently caught up with her to find out more about creating the song and the upcoming EP.
Hi Bec! Lovely to chat to you, how is everything in your world right now?
Hello, thank you so much for having me! All is well in my world, just enjoying a nice hot cup o’ joe, working on album two and some other neat projects!
You have recently released your new single ‘Cost Of Love’ which is such a fantastic track, congratulations! Can you tell us a little about the inspiration behind the song and its soundscape?
Thank you! I guess this song kind of bookmarks a chapter of my life whereby I was in an on-and-on relationship over several years, we both poured so much of ourselves into, that I think we began to lose ourselves… so, the question arose “what is the cost of love?” and “is it worth it?”
You worked with Lucy Taylor and Dave Jenkins Jr on the song, how did the whole thing come together
Dave and Lucy are just the BEST!! I’ve been working with Dave for years, i think we have such similar taste aesthetically and sonically so it kinda seemed like a good match. But originally, i was just a big fan of his solo project NOTABOYSNAME and i saw him play at my local and I went up and introduced myself and said we should write sometime…and that we did! Dave and Luce are partners in crime so we finished and started most of the EP from their apartment in Clovelly.
You’ve also released a visualiser for the single which is so good and mixes glamor with dirt. What was it like to make, and what was the message you wanted to portray with the video?
It was really fun, I had this bizarre dream where people were just shovelling dirt at my face. I wanted to the visualiser to reflect the tongue-in-cheekness of ‘digging up your own shit’ and each others, when you’re in a relationship. Sadly, you both inevitably trigger each other and past things are thrown into your face and in defence, you glamourise your own shit etc… and I kinda wanted to nod to that element of romantic relationships.
‘Cost Of Love’ is the first single from your upcoming EP Lost Dog which will be released in October. Can you talk to us a little about what we can expect to hear on the EP and what were some inspirations behind this collection?
I’m so excited for the next single to be honest! I think that’s my favourite one of the bunch. I think the rest of the songs on the EP kind of wear their own jackets… The other tracks, to me, feel a little more meaty or darker.
‘Cost Of Love’ is your first music release since your October 2019 debut album TRY + SAVE ME. Covid came along not long after, how did that affect you from a creative and career point of view, coming so soon after a debut album?
It was pretty wild and shitty for the most part but it did force me to really bunker down and learn a little bit of production which was neat. I was working on a theatre score at the time, originally I was meant to work alongside a big team to piece it all together but instead most of it came together in my bedroom.
That would be soundtrack for theatre production Ishmael which you composed last year, what was that whole experience like?
I had so much fun! I’ve never done anything like it, so it forced me to go into big-kid mode and just have fun with creating. The production is a near-future space drama so the sonic palette was right up my alley in terms of using on-the-nose glitchy fuzzed out synths and effects.
You are due to go out on tour in August, how are you feeling about getting back out on the stage and what do you have prepared for the shows?
I am! I can’t wait. I’m bringing a whole new band, all queer gals and i think it’s going to rule. Seeing as we’ve not done our own headline shows in three odd years, I definitely feel a bit like a bull waiting at a gate. We’ll be road-testing a bunch of new songs for the first time ever which I'm excited for.
You have been in the music industry for a number of years now, and we all know it has not traditionally been an industry that has been kind to women - in the main because it has been run by older, white, straight men since its inception. How do you feel the industry has changed for women, and how they are treated, since you first started releasing music?
I think it has changed but I think it still has a long, long way to go - especially in terms of cultivating space and a safe space, at that, for BIPOC and trans women. Since I've started releasing music though, more diversity has crept through the industry cracks and there are less expectations potentially around genre and space and which genres women can step into. I feel like when I started there was somewhat an expectation to make “nice”, “singer-songwriter” music as a solo artist and I think that has significantly evolved.
‘Cost Of Love’ is out now, there is a tour and an EP coming up, what else do you have planned for the rest of 2022?
Writing the next album, touring Australia and hopefully the UK + Europe and finishing my masters in Music Therapy!
‘Cost Of Love’ is out now. You can download and stream here.
To keep up with all things Bec Sandridge you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
BEC SANDRIDGE EAST COAST TOUR
With special guests: Montgomery and Huck Hastings
August 5 Northcote Social Club, Melbourne tickets
August 11 - Mary’s Underground, Sydney tickets
August 25 - Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane tickets
