Get A Little Taste Of “Candy” With Sin City

In recent years, the country/rock ‘n’ roll renegades Sin City have been tearing up stages all over Europe, New Zealand, and Australia, promoting and touring in support of their excellent first album Welcome To Sin City (2022) and EP Something’s Cookin’ (2023). Now they’ve dropped the music video for their latest single ‘Am I The One You Love,’ and they’re teasing the frenetic with their new single ‘Candy’, revelling in the honky tonk sound of their upcoming sophomore album, slated for release in April.

The song, which debuted on PBS FM’s Swinging Doors, was recorded last year on analogue reel to reel tape at Sound Recordings in Campbells Creek, VIC. It’s about the common experience of touring musicians – a short romance that you find while on the road. Singer and keyboardist Nick Armstrong says, “When you eventually see they’ve moved on and are happy, you can’t help but be a little bit disappointed!” However, you must realise that fleeting flings do not endure. That’s the message of the song.

With regard to the track’s audio, the group was going for “a song that captured the faster, louder side of Americana/country tinged rock n roll.” Their aim is certainly achieved as the song rips along with boundless enthusiasm, confidence, and vivacity. The rhythm section of drums, bass, and keyboard dive-bombs guitar solos as the aggressive voice — a hybrid of David Johansen (of the New York Dolls), Paul Westerberg (of The Replacements), and Chris Robinson (of The Black Crowes) — erupts.

For a sense of Sin City’s real musicality and unfettered irreverence, check out the video clip below, which was picked for CMT broadcast and was shot and edited by James Morris.

During the formation of Sin City, longtime friends Nick Armstrong (piano, organ, vocals) and Jack Beesley (formerly of garage punk rockers The Cavemen) spent months in the dry streets of Alicante, Spain, penning songs influenced by their shared appreciation of soul, country, and rock ‘n’ roll music from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s.

Delaney Davidson, a producer and kiwi country svengali, quickly had them back on their native turf of Aotearoa/New Zealand, where they began recording an album. With a lineup that included Marty Robbins and Mink Deville, the result was 2022’s Welcome To Sin City, which was well-received in New Zealand; it was later used on the soundtrack of the murder mystery series The Brokenwood Mysteries.

The two quickly made the journey over the water to Melbourne, where they recruited long-term players Andrew Blackman, Cameron Hicks, and Christopher Hockey. Since then, this five-piece force has been crashing the floors of dive-bars and pubs all across Australia with their explosive blend of country-soul and rock ‘n’ roll from the 1970s. They’ve shared the stage with local and international legends like Foggy Notion, Jenny Don’t & The Spurs, and Sweet Talk.

Sin City are getting ready to bring their boisterous, raw sound to a broader audience in Australia and around the world with the release of their sophomore album Another Round in April.