One day before their San Luis Obispo debut, acoustic duo retrace sat at Apple Valley Park under a shady bed of trees for band practice.
805 locals Joaquin Sanchez and Matthew Nucci met through their post-hardcore band, Wherever You Are, and have since bonded through their shared appreciation for songwriting.
The two decided to branch off and start their own acoustic project back in June. They landed on the name retrace, inspired by the hit song from the early ’90s band, ee.
“As long as I’ve been in the scene…not a lot of people do acoustic stuff,” Joaquin Sanchez said.
With their first discography release under their belt, the duo is already looking ahead. Sanchez and Nucci expressed their enthusiasm towards upcoming projects, including more acoustic, intimate shows in low-key settings.
In late July, Sanchez and Nucci had released their first EP, “leave the door open.” The duo wrote and later recorded the three-song collection in Nucci’s garage within the span of eight hours. Sonically, the tracks relay a raw, earnest form of music production reminiscent of early ’90s DIY and acoustic emo.
How do you feel going into your first show in San Luis Obispo?
Joaquin Sanchez: “We’re really excited.”
Matthew Nucci: “We’re trying to do more shows like this where they’re kind of just at parks and hikes and stuff.”
Concerned with the fading number of acoustic shows present in San Luis Obispo’s cafes and parks, Nucci and Sanchez are turning to a DIY approach, hosting their own events for anyone to attend.
The Sept. 20 show at Cuesta Canyon Park was put together through a slew of connections and newly formed friendships.
Alongside retrace, local bands Diary and The Let Downs joined the lineup for the acoustic performance. Southern Californian artist Swirl Circuit made the trip to join the set as well.
Nucci and Sanchez said they were curious to hear their local counterparts’ acoustic sound, as they usually lean heavy on drums.
What’s your take on DIY and the music scene in San Luis Obispo?
MN: “You have to do it. You need it. That’s the only thing you can do.”
JS: “Oh my god, if you don’t start doing s**t by yourself, you’re not gonna– it’s not gonna go anywhere. So you can’t rely on other people. You can for some things, but you have to pave your way to start at least.”
MN: “It’s just so rewarding — doing your own stuff, because that’s like, no one else did it.”
“DIY is very important, especially in this scene.”
Joaquin Sanchez
retrace records all of their music via phone. Simply put, they place it on a table and just “go for it,” as Nucci says. From there, they use a Digital Audio Workspace, or DAW, a software used to mix and edit music.
After this band practice, they recorded vocals for new song, “my sweet angel” and released it the next day.
Releasing their music comes with a loose schedule. New music could drop after a jam session or sometime next week. Listeners will just have to stay on the lookout.
“We’ll drop tonight or tomorrow or something if we feel like it,” Nucci said.
When did you start playing?
JS: “Honestly, not very long for me. I learned bass to join a band three years ago. So I’ve only been playing guitar for a year, if that honestly, and then I’ve been doing vocals for like less than…eight months.”
MN: “I started playing technically when I was in fourth grade. I took guitar lessons and then I quit for like five years. And then I started again when I was in high school. I only started like really writing though, like maybe like two, like a year and a half ago. Like I started writing for Wherever You Are.”
As current participants in the second-wave emo and hardcore scene through Wherever You Are, retrace has noticed some of the genre’s compositional elements transfer over to their acoustic sound.
“I would say a lot of the clean vocals in post-hardcore are kind of very similar to melodies. So I feel like that could translate over as well,” Sanchez said.
Nucci connects the similarities back to his lead role in writing guitar melodies for both bands.
“I feel like they kind of have similar structures, I guess, just because that’s just how I write,” Nucci said.
What’s your take on the emo resurgence?
MN: “Love it. Love it.”
JS: “It’s awesome. It’s so cool.”
Beyond that influence, the acoustic project is a space for them to experiment in with newer sounds.
“There’s too much that we want to do. We get stuck not doing anything.”
– Matthew Nucci
Recently, the pair have drawn inspiration from other artists such as Santa Cruz band Racecourse and electronic duo ear. Nucci attributes the recent weaving of varying synth features and melodies to both musical groups, sparking conversation about introducing similar tools to their own music.
The duo hinted to a potential new member to join and help incorporate more electronic elements into their sound.
This article originally appeared in the Analog Edition of The Peak. View the full issue here.
