Interview: 2017 Must-Know - Sachi

Auckland duo Sachi - Nick Chrisp and Will Thomas - boast an origin story that so far features support from the likes of Diplo and Zane Lowe, as well as an opening-slot for Rudimental, and much-praised Rhythm & Vines performances.

Both only eighteen-years-old, it’s safe to assume that they’re only just getting started...

MUST-LISTEN: 'South Central', 'Heavy Breathing', 'Teenage Craze' (Sachi Remix).
YOU WILL LIKE, IF YOU LIKE: Flume, Cashmere Cat, Ryan Hemsworth, Diplo, Disclosure, Lido, Noah Breakfast.

COUP DE MAIN: Having started off playing in an indie-punk band together, why did you decide to make the change to electronic music and more of a producer-vibe?
SACHI - NICK CHRISP: It was pretty natural, we both started listening to more music and finding out what we liked, then we both started producing individually and ended up coming together over our love of electronic music.

CDM: How does your music creation process work?
SACHI - WILL THOMAS: Usually we start beats on our own and then send them to each other to work on, and then write the vocal and finish them together. Otherwise we'll just start from scratch in sessions together.

CDM: What do you think is the difference between a good song and a great song?
SACHI: There's so many factors. Songs that have a vibe or make you feel something or provoke emotion are great songs. Songs that are authentic and you can listen to and you can understand exactly what the songwriter(s) were trying to say are great songs too. You know a great song when you hear it.

CDM: At what age did you write your very first song ever, and what was it about?
NICK: I use to write raps and songs when I was maybe five or six. I think the first song I wrote was about walking down the street and seeing a girl.
WILL: About ten or eleven, and it was about knowing a girl’s face and not remembering where the face was from.

CDM: You’ve said that the namesake Bianca of your debut 'Lunch With Bianca' EP is like "the female protagonist in a film that we wrote" - so who would you cast to play Bianca in an actual movie? And who would you cast as yourselves?
NICK: Bella Hadid, but you'd never see her face, it would always be shots from behind or low shots. KJ Apa lol. Drake would play Will.

CDM: What do you hope for people to take away from listening to your music?
WILL: A smile.

CDM: If you were a country, which song would be your national anthem?
NICK: 'Man In The Mirror' by Michael Jackson

CDM: If S.A.C.H.I. were an acronym, what would each letter stand for?
WILL: Sauce Attitude Charisma Hieroglyphics Intelligence.

CDM: There’s a kinda crazy/amazing story involving Diplo and yourselves... please walk us through what happened (and why/when you had the idea to 'stalk' artists touring NZ)...
NICK: I dunno, I think the first time we stalked an artist we were just bored and waiting for the show to start and were like, 'Let's go find them and give them a USB.' With Diplo, Will messaged me saying he knew Diplo was at George FM, so we went there, but he had left so we checked his Snapchat and he was at some restaurant around the corner so we waited there for a while, then when he was driving out the back we waved and they wound down the window and we passed a USB to his assistant. It was a super quick interaction.

CDM: You were in the studio with Thomston recently - what are you cooking up together?
WILL: Just cooking, he's rad, we're working on some cool stuff. We have 'Topograph' on repeat.

CDM: When can we expect to hear a Sachi album?
NICK: In the next few years for sure.

CDM: What’s on your bucket-list?
WILL: Play Coachella and go skydiving.
NICK: Write with Pharrell and Benny Blanco.

CDM: You’re one of our 'must-know’ artist picks for 2017... who are yours?
NICK: Montell2099, October, Offset, Name UL, Young Tapz. There's heaps! 2017 is going to be rad.

Click here to check out more of Coup De Main’s 2017 Must-Know Artists.

Watch a video of Sachi at Rhythm & Vines 2016 below...

@RHYTHMANDVINES was unreal. till next time

Tune: SACHI - Heavy Breathing pic.twitter.com/XP1z7djbd6

— ＳＡＣＨＩ (@weareSACHI) January 8, 2017