Festival season is in full swing, meaning that you probably recently saw someone across a field and felt an instant kinship with them because of the band shirt they were wearing. It’s one of the immutable truths of being a music fan — merch lets us know when other people are on our wavelength.
In the latest instalment of The View From The Merch Table — our ongoing series delving into the band-sustaining world of shirts, hoodies, keychains and other ephemera — we sat down with SeeYouSpaceCowboy frontwoman Connie Sgarbossa ahead of the sasscore group’s return to the UK for a victory lap celebrating the success of their recent 1920s-themed album ‘Coup de Grâce’.
Their forthcoming itinerary includes a bill-topping slot at Liverpool’s much-hyped No Play event and an appearance at Torquay rock festival Burn It Down, alongside headline shows in Southampton, Brighton, London, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Glasgow and Norwich. Here, Connie lifts the lid on the merch item she had to fight to get made and why visuals come more naturally to her than music…
What was the first item of merch you remember buying?
I think it was a Dead Kennedys shirt. It wasn’t from a show, but I think it was the first piece of band merch I picked out from myself. It was from Hot Topic and I was about 10 years old.
What was the most recent item of merch you bought?
Actually, Stateside have these really sick jerseys on tour. I’m like, ‘I need one of these’. I bought that, like, two weeks ago. I'm just a sucker for cool merch, or unique items. It’s something different than a T-shirt, so when I see a jersey or something like that, I usually buy it.
What has been your most treasured piece from over the years?
I don’t collect a lot of merch because, in all honesty, I do not wear a lot of band merch. I mostly try to stay away from logos and stuff like that. It’s kind of corny, and I gave it to somebody recently, but I used to have the OG SeeYouSpaceCowboy hoodie, and I would wear that all the time. That was something that I definitely cherished. I am admittedly terrible about getting band merch and actually wearing it. A lot of it sits in my closet as little memories, little tokens of my time spent with bands and stuff like that.
What’s been your favourite design that you’ve done yourself?
It’s probably mosh caps. I championed that as something I really want to do, and I fought to do it the two times that we did it. I still, to this day, fight to do another one. I always get rejected, but I'm a big proponent of the mosh caps.
How important is merch revenue for the operation of your band?
Merch is everything for most touring bands. It’s hugely important. You need to spend time getting a cool merch spread together if you’re doing a tour because, with the way the industry is nowadays, that is your main source of income. Oftentimes, it exceeds what you got to play the show. When you hear musicians being like, ‘Yo, if you want to support a band, the best way to do it is to, go to a show and buy their merch,’ that’s really, really true.
It feels like you’re having a real moment with ‘Coup de Grâce’. How have you processed that, especially having so many extra eyes on you?
It's been really, really cool. Doing that record was kind of a risk because of the concept and the aesthetic, but people responded super, super well to it. It’s what you want — you hope that you broaden your record, especially if you're continuing to push your sound, and not just repeating what you've done before. You hope that people are going to like it, and that [it] throws you forward a bit. It’s been really validating and really cool to know that we can still experiment and do whatever the fuck we want, and people like it.
Having a strong aesthetic like you do on this record really helps bands stand out.
When it comes to doing visuals for Cowboy, that’s my forte. I knew it was something that I was going to work as hard as I could to make it all cohesive and make it all work. It’s really cool that people were satisfied with it because that’s what you always want, when I’m doing visuals for Cowboy or doing visuals for other bands. It’s something I care about more than music, even, because I’m not really a musician, I’m a visual artist. Visuals are something that I care about a lot, and something that I feel is the main thing that I contribute to Cowboy.
Your UK tour includes a festival headline slot at No Play in Liverpool – how are you hoping to approach such a big slot?
I don't know, we’ve never really had one like that. It’s a first experience for us, but I'm excited. You're always a bit nervous because you’re used to being in the middle of a festival line-up. I couldn't honestly say because I haven't experienced it, but I'm excited, at the very least.
SeeYouSpaceCowboy Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Thu August 29 2024 - SOUTHAMPTON Joiners
Sat August 31 2024 - BRIGHTON Chalk
Mon September 02 2024 - LONDON New Cross Inn
Tue September 03 2024 - BIRMINGHAM Asylum, Hockley
Wed September 04 2024 - SHEFFIELD Yellow Arch
Thu September 05 2024 - NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Anarchy Brew
Fri September 06 2024 - GLASGOW Cathouse
Sun September 08 2024 - NORWICH Waterfront Studio
Sat February 22 2025 - GRIMSBY Yardbirds
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