A Quick Chat With Calico City

Calico City unpack the messy realities of friendship on Second in Line, a genre-bending debut EP that moves through betrayal, separation, uncertainty, and those complicated moments when friendship starts to become something more. Across six tracks, the Boorloo/Perth six-piece blend alternative rock, reggae, and psychedelia, with vocalists Brianne Reyes and Sienna Law shifting between different perspectives on what it feels like to be pushed aside or left questioning where you stand. Arriving almost exactly a year after their debut single Ghost, Second in Line brings Calico City’s sound and storytelling into full view. We caught up with Calico City to talk about the EP, the friendships that inspired it, and more.

Your debut EP ‘Second in Line’ explores the many grey areas of friendship. What made friendship the central theme for the EP?

As a band we’ve all had some pretty interesting experiences with friends and relationships, so it sort of naturally became part of our lyrics. But we wanted the EP to have an overarching theme of some kind, and with friendships being such a direct pathway to points of interest and conflicts, it felt right that the EP should be about being “Second in Line” and how differing friendships can be.

Each track explores a different way a friendship can grow, change or fall apart. Was that concept there from the beginning, or did it emerge as the songs came together?

We have had most of these songs sitting in the bank for a little while but as we started releasing 'Ghost' and 'Back in the Before' we felt the pieces of the puzzle coming together and we decided these new songs were the best fitting for our first EP. The theme of friendship came after we put it all together as we sat down and had a think about what these songs meant to us and how we were feeling at the time of writing them

Brianne and Sienna share vocal duties across every track. How does having two vocalists shape the way you write songs and tell these stories?

Both the girls have been friends for many years (I think about 7 years now) and have shared a lot of experiences which really helps with the intimacy and transparency of writing in a shared environment. They love playing with the imagery of lyrics and what can be interpreted from our songs. Take 'How Could You Say It' for example, Brianne and Sienna really tried to get listeners to experience the story firsthand with the lyrics, with the first verse establishing the setting and tone and later building to the inner frustration and anxiety they felt in this situation.

‘Second in Line’ moves between reggae, alternative rock and psychedelia, all within a single track. How did you develop that sound as a band?

I think the fusion kind of comes from our love of different genres. We all enjoy different kinds of music, and we all love to collaborate on the songs when we are writing. Reggae is a massive influence on our guitarist, Max, and he just loves Australian indie/reggae music, so it naturally became a part of our writing. We all really loved the vibe and just rolled with being a half reggae band, but still wanted to add our own touch, with rock and psychedelic aspects making their way onto the tracks.

The EP arrives almost exactly one year after you released your debut single ‘Ghost’. How do you feel Calico City has evolved over that first year?

It feels like the band has really been moving in a good direction since ‘Ghost’ was released, we have gotten a lot closer as a band and we have been playing a bunch more shows. Having music out for people to listen to is such a privilege, and hearing people screaming out lyrics back at us at our shows is such a surreal feeling. The timing of the releases was also pretty accidental, we had chosen the date for the EP to release and then noticed how similar the dates were a few days later, feels like a happy accident and really shows how far we’ve come.

You originally formed while you were still in high school. How has growing up together influenced the chemistry and creative dynamic within the band?

Growing up together has definitely made us comfortable to share any sorts of ideas with each other. It also means that we're not shy to veto some thoughts. It's the kind of creative dynamic that we're really happy to have as it usually means more productivity! Our on stage chemistry is also something we're really proud of, at the end of the day we are just some kids that play music together for fun. We love performing and sharing our music with the lovely gig goers of Perth who we've found feed off our energy as much as we do with them.

You’ve shared stages with Beddy Rays, Dear Sunday, SOPHIAN and Birdland. What have you learnt from playing alongside other bands and becoming part of the Boorloo music scene?

We've definitely learned to stress less about any sort of technical issues or difficulties that are out of our control! When we opened for Beddy Rays, two of Max's strings broke during the second last song of out set and we didn't bring a spare guitar. Max started re-stringing his guitar on stage but only managed to get one on before we realised we were quickly running out of time. Luckily enough the guys were super kind and let us borrow their guitar! We were chatting after and they said it was no hassle and not to stress but we definitely felt the pressure at the time. Lesson learned to a) Ask the other acts for any assistance as we're all here for each other and b) bring a spare of everything!

Who are some of your biggest musical influences, and what do you take from them?

Aussie bands like Ocean Alley and Spacey Jane come to mind instantly, we take a lot of inspiration from them and their songwriting, as well as the overall vibe of their tunes. Our reggae side definitely comes from Ocean Alley, and even bands like South Summit are great examples of vocal harmonies in this genre. We also love classic bands like Queen, taking notes on their stage presence and rock influence, as well as Fleetwood Mac, showing us how to be a multi lead vocalist band.

Who are some local Boorloo artists or bands you think everyone should be checking out right now?

Definitely Navy June and Maple! We are such big fans of both of these amazing bands and love what they're doing at the moment. They've both got pretty different sounds from us but that's what makes it super exciting to listen to.

If Calico City could collaborate with any artist, who would it be and why?

I think a collab with Matt Corby would be insane, his songwriting and his emotional lyricism is just so admirable, and I think it would take us down a new pathway that we haven’t explored in the genre world. We all also really love his music so it would be an honour to even meet him!

Now that your debut EP is finally here, what’s next for Calico City for the rest of 2026 and beyond?

Hopefully looking at plenty more shows for the rest of the year! We absolutely love playing live and this past year of having more consistent shows has been so much fun, we just don't want to stop. Also looking forward to writing some new stuff for our next batch of releases next year! In the long run we're really hoping to get on a tour around Australia, we've been hearing some great things about the crowds all over the country and would love to play for some new people!

Interviewsaustralianmusicscene18 September 2026