It's time to meet Sydney 7-piece Sagrada Familiar, and their epic debut album, Unfamiliar

Sagrada Familiar are a 7-piece hip hop/jazz/electronica band from Sydney who you need to get around if acts like Hiatus Kaiyote and Thundercat tickle your fancy. They've been kicking around for a couple of years now, playing alongside the likes of Wallace and Baldwins, but this weeks sees their first official release with debut album, Unfamiliar. It's a frequently breathtaking collection of downbeat, hip hop-infused groovers that is just as likely to put your mind at ease whilst sipping on a jazzy cocktail as it is to get you up and dancing.

Exciting stuff, you can listen and learn a little more about the group, below:

Tell us about about yourselves?

We are a band of friends that make hip hop. We’re all into heaps of different music. All of our separate musical pursuits come together in a really nice way. Members of the band play their traditional instrument as well as double on synths or other electronics.

What kinda tunes we talkin’?

Lyrically, our songs address our individual relationships with loneliness and personal maturation. We aim for honesty, even when it makes us sound needy and pathetic. The words can be confronting at times, and the band’s chaotic textural density is a good fit. We love to merge lush harmonies and groove with an edge of dissonance, like the feedback in the guitar and the shrieks of the duo saxes. Some members of the band are heavy into pop music and some are really into abrasive avant garde music, which is a cool contrast. 

Production/writing process:

You always hear stories about iconic bands throughout history that had intense musical disagreements and were constantly at each other’s throats during the process of creation. We never have that problem, which is interesting considering we all have our own personal tastes. Usually, someone will bring into a rehearsal a rough composition; an Ableton beat, chord change, lyrics... We workshop the idea and through the amalgamation of our different musical interests we create something warped and bizarre (in a good way I think). I think we’re quite patient and allow a lot of time to explore compositional ideas as a band. We do quite a lot of jamming.

Can you tell us about your new album?

Unfamiliar is our first ever release. We’ve been working on it for almost two years. It’s about an hour long, and, except for the recent singles, there’s no online evidence to show that we really exist, so it’ll be nice to come out of nowhere with this massive project. Daniel Willington recorded and produced the record, and it was so fun being in the studio as close friends, eating toasted cheese sandwiches, drinking beer and making jokes that don’t make sense.

Any shows coming up?

Stay tuned for our album launch which is TBA at the moment. We are in the midst of organising our first tour.

What’s the rest of the year have in store?

We’re already really excited to record another album. This one will be more DIY. It’ll be recorded in a home studio which I think will open things up to more experimentation.

Where can we hear more of your music?

Come hear us live. Or on Spotify and Bandcamp.

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