San Diego’s music scene has been growing by leaps and bounds in recent years, with numerous artists poised to take their music to the national level. One band that has been making particularly big waves lately is Ocean Beach-based indie garage-pop quartet, Fashion Jackson. The band, featuring Eddy Allen (guitar), Sterling Gietzen (bass), Jake Nuffer (guitar) and Shawn Gardner (drums), has released four EPs since their 2016 founding, with their debut album, “Gossamer 2,” out on Dec. 6. Their most recent single “Shiloh,” picked up significant airplay via 91X-FM, the listener reaction being strong enough to score the band an opening spot with multi-platinum selling British rock band, The 1975 at Pechanga Arena, on Dec. 5.
While Fashion Jackson is spending more and more time on the road, the band remains proud of their Ocean beach roots. “We all grew up in Point Loma/OB. Sterling, Jake and I still live in the area and Shawn lives in North Park,” Allen said. “Although it’s definitely changed as we’ve grown up, and quite drastically over the past couple years in terms of culture, we feel really tied to OB as a community and are super proud and lucky to be a part of it.” Fashion Jackson’s touring schedule has kept the band busy in recent months. “We don’t really play many shows in the area at the moment, just because OB’s immediate music scene in terms of venues caters to a bit of a different audience than ours,” Allen said. “We love going to shows at Winston’s and THC just to scope out the music though. We’ve also done the Farmer’s Market a few times over the years, which is always so much fun.”
It’s a big leap going from playing the intersection of Newport and Bacon to Pechanga Arena. “The Dec. 5 show is an absolute dream come true,” Allen said. “The 1975 is my all-time favorite band. They’re such a huge inspiration to us, both in terms of how they create music and the career choices they’ve made over the years.” He notes it’s hard to determine which part of the concert the band is looking forward to most. “I’m tempted to say that it’ll be watching the 1975 soundcheck, but I think we find ourselves most fired up at the prospect of presenting the biggest and best version of our band and our music to 10,000 people.”
Allen is proud of the new album, which was done, literally, in-house. “We recorded the album in my living room, and produced the entire thing ourselves, writing, recording, arranging and mixing,” he said. Allen sees “Gossamer 2” as the distillation of all the different sounds and styles and ideas they’ve explored over the past three years. “I think before there was a lot of fun in just letting a song run in any which direction and seeing what came out the other side, but with this project we really tried to trim all the fat and make each song the most airtight and singular version of itself it could possibly be” he said. “There’s a lot more vulnerability in the lyrics and a lot more color in the music. We also did way more exploration in terms of rhythm this time around, which was probably my favorite part of writing the songs.”
Although there is much hard work ahead for Fashion Jackson, including a North American tour in early 2020, Allen is happy with his life in music so far. “I feel proud to be in this band with three other guys who have a lot of integrity and patience,” he said. “The music industry seems to be experiencing a shift where the gatekeeping aspect of label presence is falling apart and artists have more opportunities than ever to find success on our own. “What keeps us going these days is the fact that our music comes from a genuine place and connects with people on a personal level,” Allen remarked. “As long as we keep our heads on tight and don’t make any decisions hastily, I think we’re going to build something lasting,” he said.
Fashion Jackson: Thursday, Dec. 5, at Pechanga Arena, 3500 Sports Arena Blvd. 6:30 p.m. $35 and up. All ages.