Hey, it's me, Syd.
First. Thanks for listening:)
I’m a music maker in Austin, Texas. I write songs to share. I like to make up stories, and I want to make you wonder if I’ve read your diary.
I’m from Snyder, a tiny town in the west Texas panhandle. Growing up, my mom put my three sisters and I in piano lessons before we could reach the pedals and taught me how to sing harmony at church. My dad plays guitar and lives for moments when we’re all singing bluegrass hymns together. Music’s been a part of my lyfe since the start.
These days, I work as a live-loop performer, DJ, and freelance live sound engineer for a few venues here in Austin. Come see me live! I recorded my debut album, ‘Seiche’ with my amigos and dream-team, Stefano Vieni and Alex Ponce. It drippity-dropped in November. You can stream it or download the songs from any platform + the music player below.
I'm stoked about my first rattle out of the gate, and I've got another BRAND NEW batch of songs that are demo'd out and ready to be recorded and produced by some 'profesh' teammates.
If you'd be into helping that happen, you can support my creations by subscribing to my Patreon page. You'll get full access to my entire musical archive for $5/month plus a feed of my creative play-by-play, new and old unreleased demos, and sneak-peeks of releases.
Check out the first single + music video from the album, ‘You Can Stay’
The second single and title-track of the album, ‘Seiche’, was released in May with a music video funded with my www.sydneygogo.com (Indiegogo) campaign.
THANK YOU to everyone who contributed and shared. Y’all really propped me up on my leaning side. LOVIES.
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PRESS BIO
Sydney Wright has been writing songs for over a decade. While her huge voice often gets her compared to pop darlings like Sara Bareilles, there’s a darker, more experimental edge to her work. Drawing heavily from hip-hop rhythms, with loops of piano, guitar, beatbox, and doo-wops, Wright creates a sonically complex, live-looping, one-woman show all her own. With bandmates, her performances can range from a duo to quartet with an amalgamation of live-loops and fully produced arrangements representing her first solo album, ‘Seiche’. Years in the making and ever delayed by the detours of life and creative growth, Sydney Wright’s debut full-length amounts to a greatest-hits-so-far for the Austin pop polymath, whose lush, layered compositions are hallmarked by slow-burning verses erupting into gargantuan hooks.
Wright’s musical influences cover a wide variety of pop; over the years writing music, she took inspiration from Carole King, early Coldplay, Miranda Lambert and Glen Hansard. Many songs on “Seiche” can be traced back to these early days of writing, with tracks like the saccharine, country-tinged “Something” and guitar-heavy, rock-influenced “Let Me Stay” being written during Wright’s high school years.
Wright grew up in Snyder, Texas, a tiny town in the West Texas panhandle, in a family where music was not only encouraged, but also taught. Wright and her sisters learned how to read sheet music and took piano lessons before they could even reach the pedals. Wright’s father would pull out an old Gibson and play Bluegrass oldies he had learned as a kid.
After picking up the guitar at age 15, Wright quickly found herself writing music and collaborating with recently heartbroken high school friends on breakup songs. Finding that creating songs was a way to connect with people that made her feel useful and heard, Wright left home to study music and live sound, and to continue crafting songs - some of which would end up on her debut album years down the road.
In 2013, Wright met Tony Rancich, owner of Sonic Ranch Recording Studios near El Paso. He introduced Wright to Mexican-Italian producer, singer and songwriter Stefano “Fano” Vieni and mixing and recording engineer and producer Alejandro “Alex” Ponce of Mexico City. Wright, Fano and Alex would go on to record a group of tracks that were initially intended to be demos, but had quickly morphed into full productions, showcasing the talent, ingenuity and speed of the group. Fano and Alex co-produced all of the songs during the session, with Fano playing most of the instruments on every track. These tracks would eventually go on to form the basis of Wright’s debut album, “Seiche.”
In spring of 2016, Wright had local players track drums, guitar and bass on “Time of Night,” “Seiche,” “You Can Stay” and “Underwater” at Rattle Trap Audio. These Austin players consist of Fred Mandujano on percussion/drums, Jacob Hildebrand on guitar and T. Justin Schneider on bass. Strings were tracked by Odilón Chávez, a friend of Fano’s, from Mexico. That summer, Wright went to Fano’s studio in CDMX to re-record a few vocals, and Alex began mixing the first single, “You Can Stay.”
“‘Seiche’ is about transcendence,” says Wright about the album and track title. “It’s a French word that means ‘to sway back and forth.’ It’s used by hydrologists to refer to a surfing wave on a lake, which should never happen unless a violent pressure change or seismic activity occurs, and the water has to slosh back and forth to get back to equilibrium.”
Seiche was released on all streaming platforms in November, 2018
Published 2018, Kiva Publishing and Warner Chappell, all rights reserved.
Written by Sydney Wright
Recorded at Sonic Ranch Recording Studios and Rattle Trap Audio
Produced by Stefano Vieni
Co produced and engineered by Alex Ponce
mixed by Alex Ponce, Gerardo ‘Jerry’ Ordonez, + Dantron
Mastered by Dave Donnelly of DNA Mastering
Art by White Light Exposure