That helped me actually to be like, ‘Oh, that’s not cute.’ It allowed me to see myself from the outside in and I just stopped working on my album.” Taking a break created space for introspection which proved to be an extremely critical move. “I tried to write songs about how I was feeling and I thought it would really inspire some music but everything it inspired just sounded so bitter. At first, I scrapped half of it and I was like, ‘OK, fuck those songs, I’ve got to replace them.’” Syd found herself becoming increasingly resentful as she attempted to pen lyrics. “The album was about her and so it made me not want to finish it and start over. I was in album mode, album mode, album mode and then May hit.” She pauses to take a sip of coffee before continuing. “I was writing so many songs about our relationship before the break-up and they were all really happy love songs. Things were further compounded by the mere fact that her ex-girlfriend was the inspiration for the album she was working on. So when she says “Taurus”, for once, the math is finally mathing. I’ll pull up long enough to say ‘hi’ and kick it with the homies I haven’t seen in a minute but as soon as I start getting cold or sleepy, I’m going home for some me-time.” It leads me to ask her star sign, banking on her being an Earth sign. “I just like being alone, maybe that’s what it is. “I think a lot of it is that I grew up in LA, where I’m just not surprised or impressed by a lot of things so I just go home early from the party.” Something she’s understood better over the pandemic is that she’s pretty good with solitude. She begins to ponder where this elusiveness might come from, putting it down to her Californian upbringing. I’m literally dropping music from my childhood bedroom.” “I have my own wing of the house and I just chill.
I live with my parents, the same house that I grew up in from the age of two,” she shares. Once settled in her prized Defender, iced coffee in tow, she explains why her enigma status feels so far from her reality. With so much already under her belt in just under 30 years, you’d be forgiven for mistaking her aversion to the limelight for a certain aloofness, but as it turns out, she really is very shy and very regular.Īs soon as she hops onto our video call, she swings her phone around, in selfie mode, to show me where she’s just ordered her morning beverage. Emboldened, the band went on to focus on their individual projects, precipitating Syd’s debut album, the soulful and slinky Fin.
Years of delivering moody, emotional lyrics and dulcet-toned vocals over trippy beats on tracks like Girl and Special Affair gained Syd and her Internet bandmates – Matthew Martin, Steve Lacy, Patrick Paige II, Christopher Smith, Tay Walker and Jameel Bruner – a loyal following, even earning their Ego Death album a Grammy nomination in 2016.
The creation of her band, The Internet, in 2011, would make sure she stayed there. The lone woman in the group, it was her time with the self-styled hellraisers that brought her to the world’s attention. By the time she joined the infamous hip-hop collective Odd Future in 2008, she was an established producer, engineer and DJ. Raised around musical family members, Syd discovered her ear for music early on, and at the age of 14, she built a little studio in her family home. While our definitions of ‘out here’ may somewhat differ, there’s no denying that the 28-year-old is an alternative R&B sensation. Sat in her white Land Rover Defender truck with enviable LA sunshine streaming through the windows, Syd appears genuinely stumped: “Like, what? I met my girlfriend on Hinge! I’m just out here.” Halfway through our Zoom-facilitated interview, the California resident giggles as I attempt to explain how she seems to give off an unattainable vibe. “I didn’t know people thought I was elusive!” exclaims Sydney Bennett.