So much news...where to start

I got a well deserved guilt trip from a friend this evening regarding my lack of blog posting as of late, to which I responded "I've been working and twittering!" and she pointed out that I didn't link this blog to my twitter account so no one who follows the blog would know that i've been twittering, and i straight away vowed to 1) post a blog with an update on the status of Syvia 2) figure out how to link my twitter account to this blog.
First, an update. Things are going amazingly well, and we are very close to releasing Syvia to the rest of the world. So far we've sent a few songs to some friends and music industry contacts for their blunt and honest feedback and we were thrilled with the overwhelmingly positive response.
With the fantastic Erin at the helm, last week we finally had a photo shoot (preceded by some much needed primping by Thomas and Song at Deluxe salon in the burg). The photos were taken by our friend Owen (http://owenfegan.com/), who is an amazing photographer and I can't wait to see the finished product. I was even generously lent clothes by the designer of Secta for the sake of the shoot. Check out her stuff here: http://www.sectalife.com/lookbookSS09_1.html A couple of mimosas and we barely remembered that John had his car towed two hours prior...ugh, that was a bummer.
So, right now we are just trying to get a good group of songs together so we can choose the best ones and post them for the wide wide world. We even have a remix completed by our buddy Mads in Norway, that we are dying to share. Once we get our website in order and a couple more songs totally finished, we will be good to go. I would give it about 3 to 4 weeks. Maybe 5 weeks, tops. So close!!! I CAN'T WAIT.

Oh Land at Pete's Candy Store

So, I wrote a whole post about this show I saw of a really good Danish singer called Oh Land at Pete's Candy Store with some friends last Monday night, and then I kept postponing posting it until I had the time to upload the photos, and lo and behold my computer crashed today, which totally sucked (goodbye browser tabs!) so I have to rewrite it. Ugh.

Basically, I thought that the lead singer--23 year old Nanna Øland Fabricius--and her two back up singers/bandmates had beautiful voices and really tight harmonies. Oh Land is billed as a cappella experimental electronica, which is a pretty accurate description. While I have to say that none of the songs felt completely finished and weren't tunes that would get stuck in my head for days and days, I loved the calm energy that she had and her voice was a pleasure to listen to. The set began really well, but I found myself getting a little distracted when she moved to songs that didn't use the backing track (with the exception of the one song that she did entirely a cappella, and then repeated it with instrumentals...that was fantastic). All in all, I felt there was some disjointedness in the look of the band, considering the fact that Nanna looked like a model with her simple, elegant updo and black dreess, while the two backup dancers were adorned with turqoise tights, frilly umbrellas (used once very effectively, when they opened and closed them in time with the electronic whooshing beat) and little hats shaped like house that lit up in different colors...it was all very cute, but in conjunction with Nanna's ensemble it seemed a little forced and unnecessary. The music alone would have made it a great show, it didn't need all those bells and whistles. My favorite song of there's is "Alive/Awake."

All in all, though, I really enjoyed myself.
P.S. Quick update on the music: We are getting really really really close to finishing a bunch of our songs and even doing some pseudo mastering ourselves. While this weekend seems like another wash for various reasons, we have made huge strides in the last week with finishing tunes and they are really coming together. I'm hoping we'll be ready to do shows in a couple of months...Can't believe how long it's been, but the most important thing is that we put out great music and not try and finish a song just for the sake of finishing it.

Mumford & Sons at Mercury Lounge

Not only is the music catchy, but the lead singer also has a beautiful voice and the four part harmonies are tight and performed with authentic feeling. I would describe it as a grittier folk music--like an edgier Bon Iver.
Marcus Mumford fronts the folk/bluegrass band (who I hear is also the drummer for Laura Marling, another London based folk musician) passes the 'patting your head and rubbing your tummy' test the next level with his impressive ability to do multiple things at once. It's hard to quiet down a crowd at Mercury, and especially to follow a band like Temper Trap, which has a completely different vibe, but their first a capella song of the set brought the crowd to a moving hush.
Had to give a shout out to them for an awesome job at Mercury Lounge, it was a wonderful way to precede my trip to SXSW. Definitely of the best shows I've seen so far this year.

[Kudos to my friend Rob for the tip!]

The Black Lips at Bowery Ballroom

Caught a Black Lips show at Bowery Ballroom last Monday, and what can I say. They were full of energy, and the drummer was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing at how animated he was...definitely in his own world, but not in a bad way. The show was preceded by an impromptu floor arm wrestling match between audience members (did they know each other? I have no clue), and a huge mosh pit formed in front full of giddy, sweaty fans. While I wouldn't say that they are my all time favorite band of all time, they were definitely fun to watch and seemed quite relaxed onstage.

Countdown to SXSW: 4 days! Woohoo! Austin here we come! :)

"What's Natural" almost done

This weekend we were able to practically finishing mixing the track entitled "What's Natural" that we've been working on. I, for one, find it hard sometimes to just sit with one song and totally finish it from start to finish, but we've succeeded in doing that with this one. It is especially rewarding now that we have a better handle on mixing so that the song sounds decent in comparison to other songs that we listen to and love. It's also nice not to have to adjust the volume on my speakers every time I listen to a track of ours. Now I just need to redo the vocals on it and then we can tackle finishing some of the other dozens of tracks that we've started. The good thing is we are not at a loss for material; the unfortunate reality is that we need more time in the studio to work on tracks. Since right now we can only get in on weekends, there has been talk of getting up at 5am before John has to work. I don't know if that will actually happen, but that's the dream.

Working working, updating playlist, working, looking for work looking for apartment

It's been a while, but that isn't to say we haven't been working. Well, I'm still technically looking for a steady 'real' job (thank you recession), but we have been working on new and old songs since I last posted. Although, I did have to take a breather last weekend to escape to Boston and clear my head of February blues (and snowboard before I forget how to actually do that). While I have been tooling away at home on vocals and weird instrumental bits on all our songs, John has been educating himself on the intricate art of mixing.
At this point we have a bunch of songs, but we are taking our time to make sure that the sounds that we choose for instrumentals and the songs that we consider 'finished' are exactly as amazing as we envisioned them to be, rather than just cranking them out to get the EP done with. Now, when we go into the studio we pick out a number from a hat and work on whatever song I have assigned that number. It seems to be working pretty well, and helps with the invariable "What song should we work on?" hesitation when we get into the studio on the weekend.

Anyways, the playlist was due for an update because I have become obsessed with a lot of songs since I last updated it so hopefully you will enjoy the new additions.

Happy New Year!

Despite the fact that we haven't been able to put in the time at the studio that we would have liked to because of the holidays, this weekend was surprisingly productive and successful. Friday night was a wash out, since a meeting and a subsequent bar hopping tour through lower Manhattan meant there was no way we would be heading out to Brooklyn on the L train to work in the space. We managed to finish arranging a song called "Never See," which we are both really excited about...especially considering the fact that last week we were both about to implode in frustration over how annoying our main synth line had become and our inability to find a good replacement for one of the fundamental parts of the song. There is nothing like the feeling of laying a bit down that just fits perfectly and makes the song come together...and then having it spawn more ideas of what you could add/take away.
Here's to a productive, joyful and amazing 2009. I have a feeling it will be a crazy one :)

a trainwreck of an mp3 for toi

I believe that line was in the last email I just sent John with my latest attempts at a song that I've been hacking away at while he's been in Virginia for the holidays catching big fish that don't quite warrant a citation, but are impressive nonetheless.

Yes, I'm aware that I dropped off the blogosphere for like a month. We were, in fact, getting a lot done, and I just got distracted and wasn't sure there was anything fantastic to update people on. Well, there is this song we are almost done arranging, tentatively titled "Never See." After a few runs under the mill by us, it seems to have taken its shape and we should be putting the finishing touches on it tomorrow. We are slowly but steadily getting a fair number of songs under our belt, and figuring out the next steps we need to take and walls we need to hit our heads against in frustration. Should be fun. I'm excited.

Oh, and we caught an awesome Friendly Fires show at The Annex some weeks ago. They sounded great and the place was packed. Have I mentioned how much I hate going to shows in the wintertime and dealing with people's (and my own) coats in a standing room only area? Yea, not so great. The only good thing is it is a protective barrier against overly excited fans and their wayward elbows.

Welcome to my playlist

Just updated our blog with a new fangled playlist, and currently John has had zero input in the songs, but that may change in the future. Or, he may have to upload a dueling playlist and we may start taking votes on whose is better...recounts may occur, chads will be counted, voter fraud will be investigated, and I will win regardless. Behold the democracy of Syvia :P

Note: The songs are not supposed to be played in a specific order, nor is there any meaning behind their arrangement in the list. I am merely lazy and started to compile all my favorite tunes. I am not finished yet (even picking these songs were tough because I didn't know when to stop and just upload the damn player before I kept adding more).

And the beat goes on

I know, I know, it has been a while, but you will be psyched to hear that we are still alive and kicking. Last weekend we managed to write and arrange a song within about a week and a half, which we are thrilled about. It began with a little idea I had laid down, and then we worked on all last weekend. The song is tentatively called "Because Really You Should." Tonight we are doing pre-production with our buddy Dan, who is going to lay down some drum ideas on the tunes that we have arranged. We also have a number of exciting possibilities that are evolving but I'm going to keep mum about them until we are further along.

Quick show review: Sunday we hit up the free No Age and Titus Andronicus show at Santos Party House. It was my first time seeing No Age live, and from what I heard, they weren't "themselves," which I guess was a good thing since I wasn't blown away by the performance. I wish I had caught them when they played Bowery Ballroom, because that was supposed to have been off the hook.

JUSTICE rocks the house that is Webster Hall

Had a great time at the Justice show last Thursday night. Despite the one hour wait outside in the cold and the fact that Justice didn't start until around 2am, it was still worth it. They put on a slamming show. The kind of show where the music is so loud and awesome that you can just close your eyes and let the sounds wash over you and clear your mind, because there is no way you could get a clear thought through that kind of entertainment. I especially love how Justice does a bang up job of teasing a song out until you absolutely can't take it anymore because you know your jam is about to drop, and then when it finally does all you want to do is jump around and go crazy. The strobe lights, thumping beats, and packed crowd even at the wee hours of the night made it one amazing dance party.
Check out the photo of the disco ball that dropped around 3am (thanks for the pic Angela!).

The Second Coming of the Paper Lamp?

It may just rise again from the dead. Word on the street is that we are very very close to getting another studio space to work in with some buddies, which means that there is a good chance that a new and improved paper lamp mascot will make an appearance in our new and improved space. I am looking forward to freeing up our weekend evenings a bit for some proper shenanigans, rather than having to ask forgiveness from my friends for being so MIA these past few months. This weekend John has gone fishin' but he did leave me a nice little beat idea to work on, so i've been messing around with that in addition to taking these past few weeks to revisit some old drafts of previous tracks i had written and see if I was inspired after having let them sit for so long.

Wondering why you got no update last weekend? Well, let's just say it was a washout. A combination of mutual tiredness, a Diesel party that we ended up not even getting into b/c we arrived too late, and a delivery of RAM all conspired against us. But hopefully with our new space, we will be able to make up a bit for lost time.

Weezer show at Madison Square Garden

John and I caught Weezer at MSG last Wednesday. At first I was surprised at how thin the crowd was for the opening bands, but then it got packed as the witching hour approached. I have to say, even though my euphoria could have been due in part to my state of intoxication by the time Weezer took the stage, I haven't had a nostalgic live show like that in a while. It brought back high school to a tee, and I thank Rivers Cuomo for allowing me to relive my teenage years where I listened to the blue album and pinkerton on repeat during car rides. Oh the days of compact disc players, where have you gone? I love the whole "we're dorks and we embrace it" thing that they've got going on. And, I'm not going to lie, any show where I can bond with fellow music fans and complete strangers by collectively screaming out the lyrics to every verse of every song is a damn good show in my book. Say it ain't so. 'Tis so. 'Tis so.

The final arrangement of "Port City" has come!

No, I didn’t take another trip to Alaska. I have just been very delinquent with my blog posts for Syvia because it necessitates me signing out of my gmail account (and by default, my gchat) to upload a new blog. Kinda annoying…wish someone at blogger would tweak that (*hint, hint).

So, a quick summary. Basically, we thought we had finished arranging our song (which was originally entitled “Skagway Boy” only to have the title nixed by some grumpy bandmate of mine, to be replaced by a mutually agreeable title of “Port City”). In its first incarnation, it was a very dance-y electronic song, which was good, but John and I both came back to it after a week and agreed that it was good, but it wasn’t the best that it could be. So, we scrapped practically everything except the vocals and some really basic instrumentals and beats that we felt made the song. First, we tried a more folky, bossanova style on the tune, but we ended up settling on very ethereal, atmospheric instrumentals and bumping up the beats in the background (bongos!), which fits it perfectly. So, after I finish laying down new vocals to go with the new instrumentals we have for the track, we will be finished arranging that song and can fully sink our teeth into the next one…which we’ve tentatively titled “Like A Sea” and I am already crazy about even though we haven’t spent a ton of time on it. It’s one of those songs that is so addictive you just want it to keep going on and on. And on that note, I will end this post here and promise to be better at keeping you all in the loop. Soon the day will come when you will be able to put a sound to a Syvia song. But not yet. Not yet…

Damn writer's block and deceased mascots

R.I.P our paper lamp mascot. Someone threw it out. It will be remembered for the life it lived and not for its unfortunate, unnecessary demise.
Enter John's new purple shades, worn mostly inside.

I guess the trip to Alaska wasn't that great in terms of the music making. As often happens, the break I took put a bit of a damper on the groove that John and I had gotten into with regards to writing new songs (I also blame it on the untimely death of our mascot). We both agreed this past week that neither of us were feeling the "Take Me As I Am" song we had started working on pre-Alaska (as in, we would play back the part we had so far over and over and over again and still not feel what the song was and where it should go next). So we returned to my Alaska song about the boy I met there.
At first the mojo wasn't really there for that song either. We literally sat for HOURS playing the part we had worked on earlier in the week. We both agreed on the one part that was really great, so we didn't want to scrap the entire song. It was just that the first part was bringing the song down (not that depressing is a bad thing, but this was 'fall asleep depressing,' not, 'wallow in sorrow with a stiff drink depressing.'
There were numerous times that we were going to just call it a night and give up, and then right in the last half hour something just clicked and I came up with this melody that felt just right--like it was the next step the song needed. So, I guess we will just have to wait and see what the coming days hold in terms of us both playing around with it until we feel content with the arrangement.
The search for our own studio space continues. I refuse to replace our mascot until will do.

All Points West Takes the Fun out of Fest

I meant to write this before, since it is kind of two weeks late, but I caught the first half of the All Points West Festival in Liberty State Park on Friday August 9th. I only saw the first bit because I had to run back to my place and grab all my stuff to hop on a Chinatown bus to Boston by 8pm (I had a 6am flight out to Vancouver from Boston for the Alaska trip).
I don't mean to sound like a whiner, but I was really shocked with the way the festival was handled. For instance, their puritanical drinking policy. You go up with your ID and receive a wristband that limited you to 5 beers (5 beers!! for an event that lasted from 12pm to 12am! I'm not saying I'd drink more than that, but I don't appreciate being limited to a certain number of brewskies at an all day festival. And it wasn't even like the beer was free! They just allowed you that much). It gets worse, though...So, part of why I love watching live music is the pleasure of drinking as I watch my favorite bands play out. Well, tough luck doing that at APW. All the drinkers are penned up with their beers in a gated area and not allowed to bring their beers outside of it (Now, granted, it helped me quickly spot my buddies who were also at the festival, but come on!) And you weren't allowed to hand in tabs that were broken off--the bartenders had to break it off for you--ostensibly to prevent people from getting more tabs from their friends' bracelets (I figured out a way around that by simply buying my friends drinks with my bracelet so they didn't use their's up).
The sound on most of the stages was also a travesty, and I'm surprised that a festival that size could get away with a sound system that was so unbalanced and crappy. Maybe they bumped it up a few notches for Radiohead, which I regretfully had to miss in order to catch my bus. Let's not talk about it.
All I can say is, it wasn't worth the 100 bucks I dropped on the ticket, and I spent my lonely solo ferry ride back to NYC wishing I had finished up all 5 of my precious drink tabs instead of giving them to my friends.
[Thanks to my girl Angela for the photo. Did I mention they banned umbrellas and it poured on and off throughout the show? Yea. Awesome. Thank god I smuggled one in anyways.]

Mr. Majer's Mandolin

As yet unnamed, this new addition to our musical family is welcomed with Leffe beers into the studio on the eve of August 19, 2008. John breaks into joyous country riffs in between recording tracks, much to the dismay of his partner in crime. Ruthy makes hollow threats to leave the mandolin in the car on Thursday...

Glacial Getaway

Sorry for the brief hiatus from blog writing. I was off in Alaska on a cruise, checking out the glaciers with my surrogate family before they melt into the ocean from global warming (the glaciers, that is, not the family). I definitely couldn't ever afford a trip like this being unemployed and all (I'm working on that part), so I let myself relax a little and just enjoy the break. Even though I brought my computer to work on music, of course, I spent more time hitting the buffet and scheduling midday trips to the jacuzzi with my pina coladas than actually getting any work done, but now I'm back and ready to dig my heels into the music again.
I was inspired to write one song while I was away, though, and John and I hit the studio last night and I played him the really rough draft of what I had written up. Rather than return back to the third song we had been working on pre-Alaska getaway, we started playing with stripping away some of what I'd done on this new tune and changing the tempo and feel of the song to see what fit...it kind of went from an emo-pop love song to a rock and roll love song, but i really really like the edgier direction John took it in with the guitar bits he added. I guess we'll have to see what we end up keeping and scrapping when we get back into the studio on Thursday after attending a doom metal concert in a location yet to be determined. Should be interesting :)

[Updated] DJ J. MAJ what?

John will be guest "DJing" as Nurse Bettie this coming Thursday for Anti-Mag's Thirst Fursdays on the Lower East Side, which I think will mainly involve him scrolling through his iPod, but who knows. So look for the tall dude with the iPod and ask him for his autograph. It will make him beam with glee. I will be setting up shop at the bar and trying to get as many drinks into the happy hour time slot as I can muster.

Check this out for more deets: http://www.anti-mag.com/events.html

[Update By J. Majer] - I am very flattered that I am a subject of a Syvia blog post. I am excited to get my DJ on. Even if it is just pushing play on my iPod and walking away. However, for the record, when I am DJing, I am no longer known as John Majer. I am known as "with Bacon." Go forth and tell the world. Believe It!!!!

[Updated] Recap on the weekend

[Updated By J. Majer] - Behold! The Light Of Inspiration!

We got a ton of stuff done this weekend, which was awesome and a relief considering how tough it had been last week for either of us to get any good work done on the songs. "The Rain" is now finished THANK GOD, and it sounds fabu. On Sunday, we were even able to slip in a few hours starting on our next song, "You're On To Me" which we had some basic beats and melodies drafted up from months ago. I even remember exactly how the song transpired. I was walking back from the gym, grooving to my iPod as I've been known to do, and these two lyrical lines just popped into my head. What to do? I wrote it down in my trusty little black notebook intended just for these moments, since often I think up great melodies and lyrics in random places while doing random things.

Then, in one of our early studio sessions John started fooling around on the guitar and I was going through my notebook seeing if there were any lyrics that would fit what he was playing (or that I still liked, because I tend to write a lot of stuff down and then come back to it and cringe at the idea that at some point I actually thought that sounded good). I sang the lyrics and John liked them well enough, so *poof!* a song was born. Or at least, the seeds of a song were planted. We played around with some really groovy beat ideas, and even sampled some 'negative space' in my vocal track that sounded cool. Who knows if we'll keep anything but it's fun to mess around and just see what we come up with.

Oh. And here is our lovely mascot, the broken paper lamp in all its glory is still going strong.