Rolla Misery??

Most, if not all, of you know that I played KDHX's Live in St. Louis Series 2010 on Nick Acquisto's The Space Parlour last Thursday. I've conveniently tracked my performance on this Mini iPod below if you happened to miss it.



I'm very pleased with my performance and the overall turnout of the show. The mix is a bit vocal heavy...but that's radio. I am, however, ashamed of how I threw Rolla Missouri under the bus during my interview. (Listen to the interview pt 3) There's so many positive things I could have said, but instead I focused, as usual, on the negative.

I'm very appreciative that I grew up in Rolla. Yes, it was hella boring more than a few times, but I received a great education as well as performing with a group of people that shared the best musical experience I've had in my life. Which, sadly, I took for granted at the time.

The music program was, hands down, the best the state of Missouri had to offer. Performing around the country (Corpus Cristi TX, Winter Park CO, Carnegie Hall) as well as being invited to perform in Europe (damn I wish I did that) proves that claim. But it wasn't the fact that we had many talented singers our school. It really came down to one man, our music director, Mr. Sandquist.

He single handedly, taught me so much about music, without ever opening a book. Just a number of "one-liners" and the selections of college level songs we performed, he somehow implanted the overall feel of Syna So Pro without me ever knowing it. A prime example being, "Mezzo Forte is Mezzo Boring". He would say this to us often when we were just going through the motions and not conveying any dynamics. I've never forgotten that which is probably why I'm told my music is very epic on it's own.

Although I sound resentful about growing up in Ro-Town, I'm really not. I'm pretty positive if Rolla never happened, Syna So Pro wouldn't have happened.

Ok, I feel better now...

Listening to my performance also solidified in my head that I should take vocal lessons. It's not that I think I can't sing, I know I've lost a lot pitch control over the years of "lazy singing".

In other news, for those of you who's picked up and listened to my debut album, posted below is a Syna So Pro cover, recorded by my good ol' friend El.

El writes: Walk Away...

..This song was written by SYNA SO PRO. I recorded it about a year or twelve ago when I used to live in a musicians halfway home. It sounds nothing like the original except that both me and the person that wrote it are sexy as hell :)

Enjoy!
~Syrhea

P.S. If you have nothing to do this Saturday, come out to Fort Gondo for a Celebration of women of art. Facebook event here!

Live Loop the R-Waves

After almost 2 weeks, the congestion has finally left my head...which is the best feeling in the world. I no longer talk, hear, cough, and breathe like a 60 year old man who smoked a pack a day for the last 30 years of his life. No to mention sleeped with his mouth open.


Bill's CD Release show last Saturday was a lot of fun in so many ways.

• Dottie (.e) killed all in her path as usual.


• My instrumental set was awkwardly different, but it worked.


• Alberto and Kevin played a mean improvisational set that started as a trio with their friend on Dottie's Jaguar. (I'd love to drop his name if I knew it.|HELP!)


• Bill Tucker and Friends performance kept a consistent smile on my face. I've listened to his new album, Mythological Creatures, about 5 times in the last week, and it's a different take on folk music. I strongly urge you all to check out his music.

I've got the photos back from the shoot I had about 3 weeks ago. I'm not going to post them all at this time for they are being enhanced at the moment. I will, however, leave you with this.



Eric Seelig is the photographer who walked with me, out in the cold, to shoot me carrying my heavy-ass pedal board around town. We also did some night shots involving me with random instruments and a projector. Check out some of his photography here.

Pretty sweet stuff if you ask me.

Also, if you haven't heard, I'm playing Live in St. Louis Series 2010 on Nick Acquisto's The Space Parlour Show, Thursday, March 4th at 9pm. Click the flier to see the facebook event invite.



Tune in and listen on 88.1 fm if you live in St. Louis. If you don't live in St. Louis you can listen online at www.kdhx.org. And if you happen to miss the live feed, you can always re-vist the show at a later time. WIN FOR EVERYONE!

I'm hoping this will be my flawless show.

I have more than a few shows coming up from March through June. I'll keep you all posted as they are confirmed.

...that is all...

~Syrhea

Embarrassingly Crazed

First off,
This blog is waaaay late. I've managed to get some terrible head cold and haven't felt like doing anything, let alone wash my ass. So, I apologize for the tardiness.

OK

So the Asobi Seksu show didn't go as well as I planned and practiced, but it still was a good show. My keyboard was acting funny and eventually died mid-set. I was forced to skip a whole song because of this. I pretty much messed something up on every single song that I played. But it still was a good show. I had a lot of positive feedback from the audience, of which I'm greatly appreciative, and Yuki and James even had some nice things to say about my set. That pretty much meant the world to me.

But my keyboard...

After several diagnostic attempts I figured out what happened. First, I left my S-composite to 1/4th stereo cable at the house and didn't have it for the show. So I was forced to not only use a mono instrument cable for my set, the keyboard also had to share the input on my mixer with the microphone. Which also explained a few glitches I was having with the mic.

Second, my dumb ass let the keyboard run out of batteries.

Ahh.. it's the simple things.

I should probably buy another 9 volt adapter for my keyboard, but I honestly don't feel like it. It's probably time for me to get a new keyboard anyway. I've only had it since I was 15 years old. So if it actually did die, it's probably it's time...

Back to Asobi Seksu...

So when Yuki came over to talk to me after the show, I was pretty intoxicated at this point, embarrassing isn't the correct word to use. I went from a respectable performer to a stupidly crazed fan in less than a second. I honestly don't remember what exactly I said to her, but I was raging on and on about how awesome her drummer is/was while telling her, "I don't shake hands, I give hugs!"

Full embrace. *** Yuki probably thinking, "Ok...let go of me..." ***


I think it was then when I realized just how petite she is...

And that was probably when she decided to walk away from me.

Larry, the drummer I was raving to Yuki about (as if she didn't already know), came over and I "crazed fan-ed" his ear off for faaarr too long. But I just had to let him know that his talents weren't unnoticed. The dude has the most beautiful falsetto I've heard in a long, long time and can sing as high as Yuki. I mean c'mon! That deserves some mad props!


ANYWAY,

If you have nothing planned for this Saturday, you should head over to Floating Laboratories for Bill Tucker's CD Release show in Stl.

Facebook event here!

Hopefully by then this head cold will be gone and I won't be forced to play a instrumental set.

Fingers crossed!


Also if you live in StL, tune into KDHX on the 4th of March around 9pm to hear me play live on the Space Parlor show. There might be an interview as well. Let's wish for no stuttering!!

~Syrhea