Hey it's me sydney.
Thanks for clicking and listening and being here <3
I've been working on an album for a whole minute. It's called Seiche. You say it like 'saysh'. It's French. It means to sway back and forth. Hydrologists use it to talk about standing(surfing) waves on top of a lake. These waves happen because of violent atmospheric pressure changes or seismic activity, and they're the only way for the water to get back to equilibrium. The song and title-track, 'Seiche', is about transcendence. It's about transcending opinions and expectations that others put on us, and finding freedom in our own beliefs about ourselves.
The thumbnail on this post is a polaroid snapped by my girl Letitia of White Light Exposure on the day we went out to shoot my face for the 'Seiche' album cover. She's my friend. We collab. She's all over this project, shooting, vectoring, editing, and super-imposing photos on photos on photos! We're working together on finalizing art for the next three singles, the album, and merch right meow, but more on that later. For now here's more info on the 'Seiche' project, written up and released by Juice Consulting.
There is a new artist in town that is force to be reckoned with. You may not know her yet, but get ready. West Texas-born Sydney Wright has been writing songs for over a decade, and while her huge voice often gets her compared to pop darlings like Florence and the Machine and 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. Even listening to just one song off her new debut album, her raw artistry, vulnerability and songwriting prowess speaks volumes.
“The styles of each song can vary as they dip toes into the range of genres that piqued my interest over the years,” says Wright. “I want people to listen to my music without me in mind. I want them to think about themselves. I hope they'll identify with the songs and feel like they were written for them personally.”
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.
“I remember climbing up the bench to the old upright at home to play a concerto of 'sad songs' on the lower keys and 'happy songs' at higher pitches for my family, babysitters, pets, and whoever else was in the house and down to be enthralled!” says Wright about her childhood.
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 was running sound for a music venue in Denton, Texas when a stranger at the bar approached her and introduced himself as Tony Rancich of Sonic Ranch Recording Studio in El Paso County. Rancich offered to have Sonic Ranch record her songs and, although wary of the opportunity (which she later finds amusing as this meeting would end up changing the trajectory of her career), Wright headed off to El Paso.
Rancich 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 go on to form the basis of Wright’s debut album, “Seiche.”
However, in 2014, Sonic Ranch shifted their focus off of artist development and Wright was unable to return to record. Through a lens of self-doubt and self-consciousness, Wright sat on the initial “Seiche” recordings from 2014 to 2016. Although she tried to continue the project with different producer friends, Wright would always come back to the thought that Fano and Alex’s productions were simply right for the songs.
In 2015, Wright moved to Austin and began working as a live sound engineer for venues such as Cheer Up Charlies and Empire Garage and Control Room. One night after closing up, Wright decided to show a friend a mix of “Seiche” from some old emails, and he was blown away.
“He shot me up with confidence and it flipped a 'now or never' switch that pushed me to release this music,” says Wright.
In early 2016, Wright called up Fano and Alex to see if they could help finish the album, to which they happily agreed. In spring of 2016, the group tracked a few more instruments for the mixes with drummer Fred Mandujano, bassist T. Justin Schneider and guitarist Jacob Hildebrand at Brian Douglas Phillips at Rattle Trap Audio. That summer, Wright went to Fano’s studio in Mexico City to re-record a few vocals, and Alex began mixing the first single, “You Can Stay.”
In Feb. 2017, Wright filmed a music video for the single, getting to work with Nina Hawkins, Ryan Runcie, Kala Media, Elise Moltz, Huephoric and Shape Agency. The “You Can Stay” single and video were released in August, and Alex then started mixing the next single and title track for the album, “Seiche.”
“‘Seiche’ is about transcendence,” says Wright about the album and track title. “It’s a French word that means ‘to sway back and forth.’ I’ve heard a few colloquialisms like, ‘wait for the wave,’ that are meant to offer solace when we cope with disturbances in life. There’s no way to avoid, lessen, or immediately overcome these challenges, but we can sway through them and try to get back to equilibrium.”
Wright’s musical influences cover a wide variety of pop; over the years writing music, she took inspiration from Carole King, Sara Bareilles, 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.
“I'd say the umbrella theme to the album would be a soundtrack to growing up,” says Wright on “Seiche.” “A recurring motif would definitely be water. ‘Seiche’ is titled with the imagery of balancing disturbed water, ‘Under the Water’ is about overcoming the suffocation of technology, ‘Wait for the Wave’ is much like ‘Seiche’ in a sort of 'follow the flow to transcend a difficult time' vibe.”
For “Seiche,” Wright had players from Austin 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.
“Putting out Seiche will be like coming home from the longest road trip of my 29 years,” Wright concludes. “The songs on this album feel like mile markers to me. Little seiches from disturbances along the way.”
Sydney’s debut album is set for release in fall of 2018.