On his latest single ‘Postcards’, Sydney artist Old Cities navigates through feelings of restlessness and longing, while a sparse but steady flow of percussion and ’80s-tinged synths drives songwriter Jordi White’s emotive, Springsteenian balladry – reminiscent of fellow Springsteen-inspired acts like City Calm Down and Bleachers.
“Postcards is a song framed in the context of a relationship and the pain and longing that physical distance can cause,” explains White. “On a deeper level than that it speaks into the idea that we can sometimes be right with someone – friend, girlfriend/boyfriend etc – and still feel distant. I suppose the centre point of this one is longing for closeness and authenticity in our relationships in life.”
The song, in fact, was born from a collaboration with none other than Ian Berney of Birds of Tokyo, who certainly knows his way around an uplifting pop-rock ballad.
“We spent the first hour or two talking and getting inspired by artists like the National & Bleachers and ended up walking away with a bit of a cool idea – pretty much just a song structure and melodies at that point,” explains White of his and Berney’s songwriting session. “I then took it back to my studio at home and gave it some love, went through a few versions and settled on the final version a month or so later. It’s always funny looking back on how a song happened… it always feels so vague and often random… but I really like this one.”
‘Postcards’ is released this Friday, August 23rd but you can give it a spin here below.
