Sputnik Sweetheart’s Cosmic Come-up
Sputnik Sweetheart, L-R: Malcolm Newland, Nette France, Zac Bailey, and Joe Pabis.
They may be called Sputnik Sweetheart, but the story that best describes the indie rock quartet might just be a weightier tome: A Tale Of Two Cities.
In the moments before COVID lockdowns plunged Victoria into the dark, founding members Joe Pabis and Nette France moved from their longtime home of Canberra to the bustling metropolitan streets of Melbourne. “I moved down three days before we got into lockdown,” says Joe with a smirk. “In the really big lockdown, it was tough, but I think it was kind of tough for everyone… luckily, we have a lot of friends that we'd already met through the music industry, from times playing in Melbourne before moving here.”
Absent from that roster of friends and acquaintances were their two bandmates, drummer Malcolm Newland and guitarist Zac Bailey, who stayed in the nation’s capital. The band might be split between Canberra and Melbourne, but a trio of new singles — “Lindy Hop,” “Heavenly,” and the recent “Still Water” — have found them fostering a new togetherness and pushing into new creative spaces. I caught up with Joe and Nette from Sputnik Sweetheart to look back over their triumphant 2022.
The year is fading fast, and Sputnik Sweetheart have just released “Still Water,” the capstone to an ambitious year that returns to the roots that first brought the Canberra-born outfit recognition. “Sonically, it's a lot more chill and easy listening, and a bit more in that indie rock kind of vibe that we really started experimenting in,” says Nette, contrasting against the anthemic post-punk influence on “Lindy Hop” and “Heavenly.” “We were going through lockdowns and I hadn't really found my feet,” she recalls, “you build something up in your head as to how something's gonna go, and then when it doesn't go the way that you think it's gonna go, you're kind of left feeling a little bit lost.” It’s the makings of a lockdown lament, but “Still Water” is anything but, soft backing vocals and upbeat riffs pushing back against the “existential dread” that takes control.
An ode to the power of friendship, the single sees Nette facing down stasis with the most important kind of self-care — kicking it with mates. “You kind of get out of touch with friends and with lockdowns, it's easier to just be a hermit and be out of touch with people as well,” she explains. “It just takes like a trip to the park or to the pub to just really get your mojo back and just be like, 'yeah, actually, everything's all good… you've got friends, you've got a good life.’”
The sunny resolve shines through in the music video, a kinetic clip that finds the band reuniting with Anthony Bowler, director of their breakout 2019 hit “Us Girls.” “We had quite a few friends from Canberra move down here,” says Joe of Bowler, an old university friend. “It's kind of like, half of Canberra live in Melbourne at the moment.” In spite of the strong capital connection, the video brims with Melbourne energy, the lively living room performance briefly flanked by a passing tram.
It’s not the only influence Melbourne has had on the track, as Joe and Nette explain how their seachange reshaped the creative process. “Half the band is still in Canberra, so it makes the collaborating a little bit different, because we've kind of had to rely on like demos,” says Nette, contrasting the approach with jam-based experimentation. “In the past, we'd just get in a room and just work on it, and we'd just like do that iteratively over a number of weeks or months for certain songs. I wrote ‘Still Water’ in Melbourne, basically just on acoustic guitar, and then having to demo that and explain the idea digitally, which is not something that I've typically done before, it definitely made me push ideas a little bit more.”
“It's actually strangely beneficial to do that,” adds Joe, himself surprised. “Having that space and actually being able to focus on your part, and even other parts that you don't have enough hands to play… being able to fully realize those ideas before sharing that with the rest of the band is really, really cool.”
“I think historically we would have been a live group, but with obviously with the distance, we're creating in a different way,” says Joe of their studio. “I'd say we're live band first and foremost,” adds Nette, “but I think in some ways, we used to like use that as a bit of a reason to not invest the time into the recordings as much.” Trading demos and managing contributions individually has sharpened their songcraft, and their recent spate of singles are written piecemeal instead of in-the-room. “We didn't let how we play it today impact how it was going to be listened to for years to come,” says Nette. “We have some songs, like ‘Still Water,’ that really didn't change from how we play it much live at all — like we added some keys, and so on and so forth — but for the most part, it's very driven by the live performance,” she continues, “whereas we have other songs that are not yet released that are totally crafted in the studio, and now we have to retrofit it.”
A new collaborator in Jack Nigro, who’s produced each of the group’s three 2022 singles. “Jack is the best,” says Joe, excited to touch on his work. “When we're in the studio, it really feels like Jack is like the fifth member of the band,” waxes Nette, glowing. “He takes every idea that you could possibly throw at him and takes it seriously.” A staple of Grove Studios on NSW’s Central Coast, Jack has engineered for the likes of Middle Kids, DMAs and Skeggs, recently handling production for acts such as The Terrys, Surf Trash and Good Lekker. “He's definitely been instrumental in helping us lift our recordings to the next level, and our songwriting even,” glows Nette, crediting his “'sky's the limit' type of attitude” as being “really encouraging in the studio.”
Nigro’s presence shines most on “Heavenly,” a heartbreaking anthem that breaks new atmospheric ground for the band. “We had a few weeks where we were all together in Canberra and working on stuff, and Nette and I just spent a full day working on this song,” remembers Joe. “I'd kind of written it, the bass riff and like the music, without the lyrics about my friend who passed away when we were quite young,” he continues, “so when we were kind of writing the lyrics, or when Nette was writing lyrics, we were like, kind of struggling to like get that point across really articulately.” Nette remembers a conversation with her mother as highlighting their original “abstract lyrics.” “They were alluding to something, but you didn't really know what they meant. They were quite removed from what we were really trying to say.”
“We just went outside and had like a really big chat, and we kind of talked through it,” remembers Joe. “It was really cathartic for me, because it's not really something that I always talked about, and especially not with other people… like, ever.” That tender discussion shines through in Nette’s poetic lyricism, which builds to a potent crescendo on the aching chorus: “Hey, wherever you are / You were a really good friend for a really long time, I’ll remember those days for the rest of my life.” “To finally put that out in the open and like talk about how I was feeling, and for Nette to put it so beautifully into words, was awesome,” says Joe, earnestly. “When we wrote that, we were both just in the room crying.”
The music video, shot on 35mm film at Cape Schank, pairs that sense of loss with cosmic allusions. “We came across Levi Cranston, who directed that video, and just loved his work,” glows Nette. “It's very creative, he really pushes boundaries, and thinks about things, and sees things from interesting, unique perspectives.” The group sent Cranston both “Lindy Hop” and “Still Water,” but it was “Heavenly” that proved a clear favourite. “He just had a listen to it, had some initial thoughts, we had a few meetings, and then with Joe, I shared a little bit about what the song’s inspired by, and then he was like, 'That's amazing, how do you feel about aliens,'” says Nette with a laugh. “Creatively, we've always been very much in the driver's seat,” she adds, “so handing it over to him and seeing him treat it with such dedication and care thought was really great.”
Cranston’s vision is centred about the Cape Schank House, a retrofuturist residence set against the jagged cliffs and dense native bushland. The towering Cape Schank Lighthouse juts from the rolling coast, the landmarks turned a beacon for close encounters of a psychedelic kind. The habits of the two characters are cultlike, but their movements intimate, an otherworldly force coming between them as they struggle to keep their connection alive. “I definitely think we are more on the perfectionist side of things,” admits Joe with a laugh. “Not overly, though. Obviously we're comfortable with just putting something out once it's done, but I think both Nette and I are wanting something to be perfect.” In handing the keys to Cranston, Sputnik Sweetheart took a new creative chance. “We're very proud of the end result,” says Nette.
This drive to excellence suits a group named for Haruki Murakami, whose 1999 novel ‘Sputnik Sweetheart’ was a mysterious treatise of longing and love. “I've read a lot of Murakami's books, most of them, I'd say, multiple times,” she Nette, a voracious reader. “I hadn't actually read Sputnik Sweetheart when we chose the band name.” There’s a beautiful sibilance to the title, but as Nette explains, that’s not the only pull of the space-age moniker. “I think originally what drew us to the name was, it's kind of like there's two polar ends,” she muses, “there's Sputnik, which is like a bit spacey and it sounds a bit more brooding, unusual and cold, and then there's sweetheart, which is soft and personal and sweet.”
There is, of course, a challenge in naming your band after a minor novel from one of the world’s most acclaimed living authors. “In hindsight, I always say I kind of regret choosing the name that we did, because it's really not a help to SEO,” quips Nette, throwing her mind back to the band’s beginnings. “When we originally started the band, and that was a few years ago now… Joe and I were in the library and like talking about things, and I never really thought anything would come of the band,” she admits. “I just kind of thought, 'Imagine if we got a song on Spotify, like, wouldn't that be crazy?' That was like the level of my expectations.”
Half a decade on, surpassing even their own expectations, Sputnik Sweetheart are making the most of the culture of their new southern home. “It's definitely coming back,” says Joe of Melbourne’s bustling live scene post-COVID. “For a while there, I think everyone was just really nervous to see what it was going to look like, and obviously there's still tough times ahead.” The effect of crashing waves are still felt, and Joe notes that “every now and then, someone gets COVID and you can't play a show,” but the industry-wide economic hit seems to be subsiding. “I think the scene is starting to really thrive again, which is why we moved here in the first place: because we wanted to be a part of it,” he says, gushing over “so many great bands and so many great friends” that are part of that artistic recovery. “We're stoked that we can be a little bit more of a part of it now.”
After a year that’s brought new music, new approaches, and a cavalcade of shows — five national tours, including their first headline tour — the band is taking a well-earned break from that flourishing scene. “We're gonna have like a month or so off just over Christmas and just actually take some time to rejuvenate, because this year has been hectic,” says Joe. “For once in my life, I don't think that I've got heaps of shows planned to go to… that’ll probably change!”
“I did get tickets to Laneway, but I realized it's the same day that we're playing at Mountain Goat Valley Crawl in Brizzy, which is devastating,” waxes Nette. “I was really keen to see Fontaines and Phoebe Bridgers and Haim and Turnstile, like a bunch of artists.” Nette’s loss is Brisbane’s gain, with a return to the stage just the start of Sputnik Sweetheart’s 2023 plans. “We've got more music coming, more shows booked, new merch, like just all the things, really,” adds Nette, “just onwards and upwards!”
Sputnik might’ve burned up, but Sputnik Sweetheart are gearing up for yet another orbit — and what a trip it looks to be.