A Conversation With … SYML
SYML AKA Brian Fennell, is a Seattle-raised musician that is known for his emotive vocals and smooth, heart-tugging melodies. He was previously part of the indie band Barcelona, before venturing on a solo project which he named SYML, meaning “simple” in Welsh. His songs have appeared in Film and TV, with "Where's My Love" being featured in the popular show “Teen Wolf” as well as the film “Adrift”, and his rendition of “Mr. Sandman” is in the short film, TIM (The Invisible Me). This year, he released a personal EP named after his alias and will be embarking on his European tour in October. We spoke to him about his album, music as a form of therapy and his Welsh background.
BYO: Your songs are quite emotional. Do you take yourself to certain place when you sing?
SYML: It’s great. I mean, it's like therapy every night, being able to be open like a book. But also with the defence that, it's music. So I'm not sitting people down and making them read my diary. I think it's more therapeutic in the creation of it and then it's also a really good reminder for me to sing emotional songs every night. I could be singing songs I didn't care about or I didn't write or are a little bit emotionally lighter, but I feel that might be, at least personally speaking, a waste of time for me. It's an incredibly special gift to be able to do that every night.
BYO: And is the therapeutic aspect your favourite thing about writing music?
SYML: Probably, I mean, not sure what I believe in terms of the universe and the point of us existing, but I do think that there's this really, really primal itch that gets scratched when I create music and again, personally speaking, I think that it's really incredible that beyond words and language, music can make you feel joined with other people. You can rearrange the 12 notes of music in different ways to make masses of people feel sort of the same thing that you're feeling when you wrote it.
BYO: That’s quite beautiful. What actually got you into music?
SYML: My parents were really supportive of me taking classical piano lessons early on. That's the spark that kind of led to learning guitar and drums and then later on, singing and writing songs. But it was really just early exposure to music in my home that started me on that path.
I had really important role models and teachers that were in my life at different times that got me excited about learning and mastering music.
BYO: And what led you to finding your own voice and your own sound?
SYML: I sort of stumbled into it. I had friends that were recording in studios and recording their own music, and I got to be a fly on the wall. I remember a pretty important point when one of my good friends to this day - he was a solo singer songwriter - invited me on tour to sell merch. And one day, the keyboard player had a family emergency he had to go sort out and I needed to step in for the keys for the last few shows. And that was really the first time ever that I performed in that sort of way. And I think it gave me somewhat of the confidence that I needed to eventually be in a place where I could write and perform my own stuff.
BYO: Who are some of your music idols?
SYML: Well, I mean, growing up in Seattle, it's sort of hard to not be under the shadow of grunge music, just because that was such a huge theme here in the 90s. And growing up mostly in the 90s, I think I looked up to Soundgarden and Nirvana of course, and other bands like that. But as I grew older, I discovered the music of Jeff Buckley and some other really unique voices and iconic songwriters that blew my mind and expanded my palate in terms of finding my voice and finding my sound. So I really look up to those artists.
BYO: Why do you perform under the alias SYML?
SYML: I mean, the simple answer is that picking a band name is like the fucking most annoying and hardest thing to do. So when it came to picking a name, it was just one of a list that I was considering. And “syml” (meaning simple in Welsh) is a reminder, to keep everything as simple as possible in art but also in everyday life, as I think things tend to be better when they're simpler. It's a bit of a challenge as much as a reminder to maintain simplicity.
BYO: What do you mean by maintaining simplicity through your music?
SYML: Sort of like vomit all your ideas out musically but then the challenge is to distil it down into the most concise thing that you mean to say, instead of this frenetic sort of chaos, which is, you know, very common I think for all of us, to just kind of know what we’re doing.
BYO: Was the name of your band sort of an ode to your Welsh heritage? And could you take me through your background?
SYML: Yeah, so I was adopted when I was a baby and didn't know what my heritage was mainly until I was a young adult. And it became this sort of “oh my gosh, I have this identity that I didn't previously have”. But then really quickly, I was like, well, that's not actually my identity, it's just my blood line. I feel that no matter how far back your family line goes, there's a point where you don't know. And that mystery of where we're from, and why we are who we are, I think is really beautiful. And so it is a bit of honouring that, as well as honouring my actual heritage.
BYO: Did you want to discover more about your heritage when you found out?
SYML: Not really, like I don't have a big desire. I've never really had a big desire. I think I only really pursued, knowing anything more about my history one time in my life and I never really tried after that again.
I had a really great family growing up and I have a great family now. And I think especially now that I have two kids, they are four and two, when they came into the world, there was a bit of a hole that closed up in terms of needing to know more about where I came from, because, they were the first people that I ever met that I was blood related to. And that blew my mind into another dimension where I didn't worry about those unanswered questions.
BYO: Keep it simple.
SYML: Yeah, exactly.
BYO: So talk me through your album, and the inspiration behind it.
SYML: Yeah, so I love talking to my friends and other people about the importance or unimportance of a full-length album in today's scene and industry. And before this album, I was pretty content just putting up a single or EP here and there. But as I was writing the music that would become the full-length album, one of my worries was that there might be pressure to make it this cohesive sort of concept album.
But when I was probably eight or nine songs in, I was like, oh shit, this is actually quite cohesive, which in hindsight, I shouldn't be that surprised about, because when I am going to write songs, it's going to be the subject matter that I like writing about. But the cool part was, that, musically speaking and production wise, it's kind of all over the map. Like it's not just one thing.
BYO: Yeah, wow. You should be super proud of it.
SYML: I am super proud of it. The fact that I am in a position to release an album, one that people are interested in hearing. That I can write songs which, as you said, are quite emotional and not very accessible and poppy and for people to want more is really humbling.
BYO: Can we expect an Australia tour in the horizon?
SYML: I’d love to tour Australia one day, but it’s so far away *laughs*
BYO: We’ll be waiting for you.
You can check out SYML’s new album on Spotify and his European tour dates here. He also has Instagram and Facebook.
