Clarification and Catch Up

First, Happy Father's Day!

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So, yeah...

It's been forever since I've done this...

Shame on me. I didn't mean to take a 3 month hiatus on the blog posts, but that's what happened.


Since 2010 is half over, I'd like to revisit my goals for this year.

• recording my next album - temporarily on hold


• adding a live drummer to the live set - still looking for a drummer (know anyone?)


• summer regional tour - today is the first day of summer...I have no dates booked


• finalizing the fairy concept album (story and songs) - Oooh! Almost done with this one!

Needless to say, I still have a lot of work cut out for the remainder of the year.

I have been playing a bunch of cool shows in the past few months, that I didn't blog about. I'll do a quick recap in a bit but I do want to clarify something that has been bothering me lately. I've noticed that the press has been dubbing the "One Woman Musical Enigma" as a self proclaimed title, which is not true. Amanda Wells from Landlocked Media called me that a couple years ago and I just decided to run with it. Mostly because it sounds cool and I know damn well I couldn't think of anything on my own.

Why is this bothering me?

I don't know why but I feel like when something that bold is "self proclaimed", it means I'm arrogant as shit. I mean C'mon, my name is Syna So Pro, and I'm constantly having to re-iterate the "So Pro" part means "Solo Project" not "So Professional". So when I ran across my in-studio performance, and a recent album review that has this self proclamation, I feel... ah I don't know...vain... and lame for being that vain. So I guess before this gets too far out of hand, I need to change the artwork to reflect that Amanda Wells stated the quote, not me.

...
I'll probably get to that in about 3 months.

But the last few shows I've played have been very interesting:

June 4th @ Firebird
I pretty much killed it. One of the best shows I've played in a while. Plus had a great time watching The Breaks debut their first show, as well as Russell Bliss perfecting their performance.

June 5th @ RFT Showcase
Yeah...I sang a lot. People really really dug it. But the PA system was not powerful enough to handle my set up. Plus I was having some weird volume issues with the drum machine. I still feel as though I finished strong and I think I blew some minds.

June 9th @ Darkroom (Chicago, IL)
Uhh...I have been trying and trying to block this terrible memory from my skull. I have absolutely no idea what happened. Basically, my rig failed me in a way it has never fail me before rendering me looking utterly confused and desperately trying to figure out the problem, while everyone stares at me in silence. I finally just gave up and did an acapella set to finish off the show, but Good God that was embarrassing!

June 24th @ CAMSTL
I'm hoping the trend of "BEST SHOW EVER" to "WORST SHOW EVER" stops here. I'm playing with 3 really awesome bands and I want to impress all.

Time for the Facebook Event!


Before I go, I'll try to update you fine people a bit more often...
I'd say about twice a month.

...until next time...

~Syrhea

In the Funk

This one's going to be short...

I haven't had much motivation lately. There's various reasons for this that I'm not going to get into, but I'm trying to get myself out of a funk that I (in a way) put myself into.

So I'm just going to post some music that I demoed a few days ago.

Ethereal was supposed to be a stella song, but seeing as we're no longer a band, it's now the 4th song of the Fairy Album. (I've got to think of a name for that album)

Fairy Run is going to be track 6 of the album. Those of you who's seen me play in the last few months, you've heard me play this track live. Bass lines are still kinda "iffy" at parts but it's the general idea that's important. I'm definitely going to add violins to this one. The parts are undeniable.

In other Syna news, I should be playing a show at Cranky Yellow early next year (details still finalizing) as well as potentially doing an in-studio performance at KDHX.

I've also joined another band which will quench my thirst of playing music with other people. I would say who this band is...but I want to make sure this all pans out as planned. Looking forward to rehearsing with them in the coming weeks...

Hope you all enjoy the holidays!

~Syrhea

What's Ahead in My World

Yo Yo Yo!

The show this past Sunday went really well. Half Handed Cloud's new album is definitely worth $10. Well orchestrated, arranged and executed, while each track is no longer than a minute and a half. Yet the album seems so seamless... Pretty effing genius if you ask me. Thanks to Alberto for, once again, asking me to play one of his shows. It was fun as always. My only regret was forgetting to bring my video camera to capture Kevin's awesome studio space. Something I WON'T forget to do in CHICAGO!!!!

That's right peeps...Dottie and I leave in 3 days. And I haven't told her that we're not coming back. She'll find out when she reads this. (To Dottie: We're not going back to St. Louis.|From Syrhea)

I've recently decided that I'm no longer going to solicit for Indie Record labels.

*GASP*

But WHY Syrhea? You're album is the shit!
Ah...you're sweet. It has nothing to do with me not thinking my album is good enough, but everything to do with the fact I'm convinced that I can just as easily start my own label. Of course I'll have a lot of business books to read up on...might as well enroll myself in a few classes. I figure if this endeavor is an epic fail, I can always go back to trying to solicit other Indie Record Labels. We'll see how that goes for now.

I sent a fresh new track to the peeps on my mailing list earlier this week and judging from the feedback I've received, some of them are convinced that I should start my own studio. Or at least stop paying money to use other studios. And I guess this could be feasible but I'm not an engineer and I'd rather have live drums on all of my albums. At the same time if I just save about 2 grand (which is about as much money it'll cost to go to a studio) and buy a G5 with Pro-Tools, I could have a start to my own studio. Baby Steps...baby steps... Maybe one day..

But first, I'm planning on heading back into the studio sometime, before June, of next year. This time the songs that I actually play live will be on the album and I won't feel so guilty during the release show.

I've finished the outline to the "Fairy Album" (scratch title) and I'm currently writing a couple more songs to finish the story out. I'm thinking it'll be pretty cool...

...hopefully...

Playing now is either What's Ahead, (a track you've heard via myspace or the website) or My World, an instrumental I just demoed the other day. There will be vocals on the track, I just didn't feel like recording them at the moment.

Oh and please ignore the crappy guitar solo in the middle...I was just trying to get the arrangement where I wanted to. I'm kinda torn: Should I add violin or not? I hear parts but I'm thinking I have too much already...thoughts?

I'll post more "unfinished" demos here in the future...

I figured this is a Music Blog so I should post some tunes from time to time...

Anyway, I think that's it.

I need to go practice for the Chicago shows this weekend.

Lates!

~Syrhea