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

The "Vacation" Ends...

So...yeah! Been a while eh? Sorry about that.

Let's do a quick recap of the last three weeks...

Friday Oct 9th: I was very excited to play a show in Urbana IL only to hit a unidentifiable canine (I'm still thinking it was a werewolf) an hour into the trip. This animal managed to render my vehicle not drivable leaving me very upset. I would later find out that my insurance company sucks ass and wouldn't fix my vehicle...

And yes, I'm still car-less but I'm thinking I'll have some good luck blow my way soon.

Saturday Oct 10th: My album was finally released and the show went pretty well. I made a few mistakes here an there but nothing to cry over. Had a great time at the Listening Party as well. Fun time all around. Glasswaves and a Light Sleeper kicked total ass and I'm still amazed at the talents of both of those bands!

This is WAAAAAY late but I'd like to thank each and everyone of you for coming out and supporting my musical endeavors. I pretty much busted my ass up to that point, and there are a few people I'd like to personally thank, who lent a hand.

• Huvona Brackins (see, I spelled your name right)- The Listening Party wouldn't have even happened if it wasn't for her. Plus she hooked me up with the talents of Kevin McCoy, a person that I'll thank next. And I might add, if you need a party planned, that's the woman to contact. She's definitely a super-human!


• Kevin McCoy
- This dude made the most badass logo for me and got my stickers and buttons made in less than a week, just in time for the Listening Party. Check it out...

I'm looking forward to working with him again soon!
website is www.stoopidfresh.com


• Jason Robinson- Hooked me up with T-shirts at the very last minute for the Listening Party as well. He had his lovely pregnant wife (With Twins!) working all the way up until the 10th finishing up the T-shirts for me. You both are awesome and thanks soo much!


• Dustin Miles- I pretty much bombarded his basement forcing him to help me assemble jewel cases...a task I was growing less and less fond of. It was mundane work yet fun times. Thanks!


• James and Brea McNally- Thanks for letting me play your venue! It was effing awesome and I'd love to do it again sometime!

Friday-Sunday Oct 23rd, 24th, and 25th: In the weeks in between the 10th and the 23rd, the stellas were practicing after a 3 months long hiatus. We had ourselves a "mini tour" that was probably some of the coolest and most fun times I remember having in a long time. Nothing like sleeping in rental vans with four guys, unloading gear at 6am, sleeping on futons and couches, and generally having a great bonding time with band mates. I could have done without unloading and loading gear about 10 times in 72 hours...that sucked, but the shows were awesome and we all had a blast.

From Oct 26th to Oct 31st: I was feverishly putting together my planned Halloween costume that I kept secret until the night before Halloween. I must say I'm pretty proud of this costume even though I didn't finish it exactly how I wanted it. But I was a Ghostbuster by day and Orora Munroe (a.k.a Storm) by night. Of course I have pictures for you!










So I've got some new shows booked and they are as follows:

Sunday Nov 8th @ Floating Laboratories with Alberto and Half Handed Cloud
Floating Laboratories
4528 S. Ohio St.
St. Louis, MO 63111


Saturday Nov 14th @ Fill in the Blank Art Gallery with .e and White Rose
Chicago IL

Sunday Nov 15th @ Cole's with .e and a Light Sleeper
Chicago IL

Friday Nov 20th @ The Turner Center for the Arts
Maplewood MO

Saturday Dec 5th @ Apop Records with a whole lotta artist
St. Louis MO

Hope to see some of you there!

I'll start setting up the album to be sold via my website soon, then I'll go digital cause that's what all you kids want to do anymore.

Thanks again all!

I need to go practice and ship disks out for more press... luck Luck LUCK LUCK!

...that is all...

~Syrhea

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

Down to the Wire

Boy oh boy oh boy...

Where do I start?

I haven't practiced, or played since my show on the 17th...nor have I written any banter. I've made about 31 disks, but can only sell 13 of them because I'm giving away 18. These aren't really bad things...what's bad is that I'm talking myself out of working on this right now. I'm tired of being in this hole, working all the time. So I took a few days off last week. What did I do? Well, I mailed more disks out, stopped by KDHX again, oh what was that? What did I do that wasn't CD Release related? Oh, dude...you guys. I saw this pilot that I believe is watched via television called Battlestar Galactica. Holy shit that show is amazing. I might have to start adding that to my netflix queue.

But down to some Grrrreat news! My girl Nana, who's really been pulling through for me here, (You know you're awesome!) has hooked me up with the talents of Kevin McCoy. (I'm not even joking, go to his website and click "archive") He has just recently designed a pretty b-dass logo for Syna So Pro and I would love, love, love to post it here and show you, but I'm gonna make you wait. But it's sooo friggin AMAZING! No, forget amazing, it's STOOPID FRESH!

What is he designing it for?
Ah, well I'm glad you asked. It's for the free merch that I'm GIVING AWAY (FREE!) at my Listening Party on the 10th of October at the Royale. Why am I mentioning this multiple times per week? Well I'm not sure you folks are understanding the magnitude of free here. I'm pretty much giving away easily $12 worth of merch as well as a little sumptin, sumptin, Nana was thinking about adding.

How do I obtain this free merch?
Just sign up on my mailing list. It's not that hard, I swear! Then I'll send you a ticket and then you give me the ticket in exchange for the free stuff at the Listening Party on the 10th. C'mon guys!

I've got a lot of work ahead of me, but knowing how sometimes I can be a procrastinator, I know I'll pull it all together at the last minute. I wish these damned social networks weren't so time consuming...and more importantly necessary.

Syna's adopted quote:
"Make 10 jewel cases a day, and your urgency and anxiety will go away!"

And once again, don't forget:


Tell a friend, bring a friend!
Bring yourself too!

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

~Syrhea