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!

All We Hear Is...

...radio ga ga
...radio go go
...radio ka ka

All we hear is...
...radio ga ga
...radio blah blah

So as most of you already know, my local artist spotlight bit is being played on KDHX. I think it sounds pretty good after getting over my initial thought, which was pretentious and retarded. I always get a little uneasy when I'm described as a classically trained musician. It puts this idea in the listeners head that I'm some sort of prodigy, which I'm obviously not. Every single instrument I play, I play mediocre at best. I just have a way of putting it all together. But since I did have classical lessons as a child, I'm classified as classically trained. This is something I need to get over.

Santhem also got some air time last Friday on Thomas Crone's "Silver Tray" show. I caught the beginning of the song and thought that it was just local artist spotlight clip. Then I realized that he was playing the whole song. Surprised I yelled at work, "Oh my God! They're playing the whole song!"
No one really knew what I was talking about...except for Smalls, but she knows everything.

You can hear both the Local Artist Spotlight and a clip from the Silver Tray show in the mini iPod.

Anyway,
I've got my stage banter lines memorized for this Saturday. Taking a new approach and I think it works pretty well. I changed my mind at the last minute about doing an all Acapella set in IL. I'm going to treat that show as the dress rehearsal for the release show. If I really want to tour next summer, or ever, I might as well bite the bullet now and start playing back to back shows.

So in light of this, I've decided to play a 15 minute acapella set tonight at Friendly's to further promote the Cd Release Party. (10.10.09 @ the Luminary Center for the Arts with a Listening Party @ the Royale immediately after the CD Release)

Hope to see you all there!
And the flier as promised...



p.s. I only have 30 more disks to make!
Yay for ME!

...that is all...
~Syrhea

The Question I'll Always Hate

Most of you know that this past week I had a little interview with KDHX for the Local Artist Spotlight, and I think overall it went pretty well. I may have gone off in my little tangents and side acting stories a bit much, but hey, that's me. I did, however, encounter a question I'm learning to hate more and more twice this week. The first time was obviously in the interview at the radio station. Just one simple question that I don't think I'll ever be able to answer confidently or with any absolute idea of what I'm talking about.

The question is:

"What does your music sound like?"

Not that this question isn't already hard enough to answer but we all know what that really means. It means, "Who do you sound like" or "What artists that I've heard do you sound similar to?". I'm not sure why we must always compare music with other music. It's true, I do it too, but can't our vocabulary extend beyond this general comparison?

I stumbled over the answer for about 3 minutes before I finally said, "I hate this question...I don't know how to answer it."

The same thing happened this past Saturday at bar. I can totally understand an owner wanting to make sure a disk doesn't sound like shit before he agrees to host a party, but God I hate that question! Just listen to the album! I got you a free copy! I could say that I sound like a female fronted MUSE with drops of Queen's vocals, Trail of Dead's rhythm's, and arrangements touch to the like of John Williams, but I won't. Why, because I'm not that sure that it even sounds like that.

I can say confidently that I don't think my recorded album sounds anything like Imogen Heap. I get that comparison quite often and Imogen has been a huge inspiration to me, but her music sounds more like the music I WANT to make but somehow falls short and in a whole different genre. Maybe the next album I could agree with that common comparison I get.

Anyway, enough about that riff-raff.

I booked, with the help of Nana, (actually SHE booked) a Listening Party at the Royal immediately after the Release of the Cd on the 10th of October. The Party is obviously free, and we'll sit and drink some beers and listen to my album...for free! But this is not the end of this news. For those of you who are already on the mailing list, you will receive a little ticket in your email that you can print off and bring to the Listening Party. In exchange for this ticket, you'll get a free (did you see that...FREE!) grab bag of Syna So Pro merch because, let's face it, you're special. I'm very appreciative of all you who willingly signed up on the list.

So if you want to get a freebie bag of Syna So Pro merchandise, you need to sign up on the mailing list. So easy.




And here's the flier for the CD Release show! Whoopie!

click to enlarge




Plus I'm playing a show at Lemp Arts Center with the awesomely talented Daniel Francis Doyle, and .e this Thursday! Come out if you can. It's a night of loop-de-looping!

...that's all I got...

~Syrhea