Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Chicago and le Wood

So, this is way late...

What can I say other than I wanted a little break. I had actually written a 'day by day' run through of our (Dottie plus me) trip to Chicago. I was going to post it...but it was stupidly long, and I didn't want to proof read it or bore you all with my overly detailed dribble. Plus I was being lazy. So I'll tell you how Chicago was in 12 short sentences...


  • 1 - Dottie fell 2 hours after arriving resulting in a terribly bruised foot and ankle.

  • 2- -We stayed, for 2 of the 3 nights, at Bill Tucker's apartment with another artist Derek (Mallow Hazard)

  • 3 - I actually had to go to Guitar Center twice that weekend and knew it was going to be just a douchey (sp?) in Chicago as it is here in StL.

  • 4 - Had some vegan pizza and it was delicious

  • 5 - Bill, Derek, Dottie and I all played awesome sets the first night at Fill in the Blank Art Gallery

  • 6 - a Light Sleeper helped me unload and load the gear Saturday night, since Dottie's foot was non-weight bearing

  • 7 - Derek, Dottie, Bill, Kristen, and I stayed up until 3 am talking of old high school stories, Michael, how gay 2012 is going to be, as well as taking pictures of Dottie's foot.

  • 8 - Dheeru's apartment has ridiculous amounts of stairs.

  • 9 - Honey BBQ was delicious

  • 10 - Fellow former shoegazers Matt and Julien came out to Cole's in full support on a Sunday night.

  • 11 - The Sunday show was surprisingly awesome considering the day of the week, the L running every 15 minutes, and our overall exhaustion from the trip.

  • 12 - We fell asleep around 4am on Monday morning resulting in about 3 hours of sleep before we loaded gear and headed back to StL.


In a nutshell, I had loads of fun and I'm confident that Dottie will laugh at the experience in the future... It's not sad, it's awesome!

This past Friday I played the Maplewood Arts Walk at the Turner Center for the Arts on Sutton. Unfortunately I didn't arrive there until, literally, 15 minutes before I was scheduled to play. I had absolutely no time to check out the event and I regret that I had to work that day. The show went ...eh... reasonably well. I didn't practice at all between the shows in Chicago and the Maplewood shows. But I still managed to reach a handful of people there resulting in a success.

I uploaded a song that I performed in Chicago to youtube and facebook today...
check it out...




I'm still struggling with the video camera.

First, at my CD Release show, I set it up, but never hit record.

Then, a month later, I forget the camera entirely.

After that, in Chicago, I repeated to set up the camera but never hit record on the first night. The second night, I set it up, didn't hit record, while on stage, asked one of the audience members to record me, only to have the battery run out after one song.

At the Turner show in Maplewood, I left it in the car.

I don't know why I can't remember to do these basic things...

...oh well.

I also revamped my website (synasoloproject.com) and would kindly appreciate any and all feedback. Just let me know what you like or don't like.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!
I'm planning on eating myself into a coma this year.

...

...

~Syrhea

Sunday, November 8, 2009

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

Sunday, November 1, 2009

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