Q&A: syd B Breaks Emotional Waves With “Freezing”
☆ By V. FREEMAN ☆
SYD B WON’T BE CONFINED BY THE LIMITS IN A SONG — she’s one of those artists who has the ability to tattoo moments onto your memories, especially the ones that carry a voice — the ones that have something undeniably special. I can remember the day I came home from second grade and sat down to watch a MTV Music Video Marathon for Billy Joel. It was the first time I heard “Vienna,” and, before the song could end, I was already floating over Italian shores in my head. The imprint of Mariah Carey’s youthful chords, exploding like fireworks with each note, stained my outlook as I broke past boyhood while “Fantasy” played during my first kiss in middle school. On a random Sunday afternoon, I stumbled upon the strange beauty of D’Angelo’s “Really Love” — a song that introduced me to how being in love can have a strange hold on a person.
Recently, I encountered one of those special voices. Last month — it was one of those late nights I spent entirely in my head — I devoured the discography of Sydney Bakst, moonlighting as your soon to be favorite singer-songwriter, Syd B. Her songs pointed me toward vivid pictures, images I thought I forgot, but realized weren’t my own. The best part of her music — besides the voice that breaks through your headphones with so much vulnerability — is how authentic every song feels. As I finished listening to each song she had to offer, I felt as if I was flipping through a scrapbook of untold stories, which made me excited to get the chance to converse with her about crafting these sonic diary pieces and what she has in store for us next.
Even when Syd B’s voice isn’t decorating your Spotify playlist with music that evokes a “visual spirit,” you want to listen to every word she has to say because nothing out of her mouth is restrained. It is completely genuine, every word packed with a sense of passion. Once our conversation ended, I began to regret, all over again, that I only heard about her a month ago. Within every category of music, we are witnessing the rising presence of a new wave of sound. It is one that has seen artists embrace the chameleon nature of the internet and break away from genre, creating music that will lay over your ears like expressive wallpaper — it’s not one thing or another, but beautiful due to its collage-like nature. Although described as an R&B artist by many, listening to Syd’s music tells you a different story. Yes, her sound is rooted in R&B, but, honestly, I believe if Norah Jones, Gwen Stefani, Stevie Wonder, Snoh Aalegra, and Amy Winehouse heard her music, they would all be able to appreciate the small tributes she has offered them throughout her songs so far.
Syd has begun to gradually rise in this sea of genreless waves of sound and I can’t wait to see her ride into your own life on the biggest wave, approaching quicker than you think. The great thing about a young artist is waiting to see how their freshness into this demanding industry will shape them. “Freezing,” the new offering from Syd B, is only breaking the surface of what she can do as an artist, but with her new EP arriving later this year, she will be putting more people on our radar. The potential shown in her early songs are clear, but with “Freezing,” she is toying with us — bringing about the question, “How much more amazing can she get?!”
I’ve never had the chance to engage with an artist I admire on a personal level. Talking with Syd B was amazing — a talk that began with the personal, then dipped into the wildness of this quarantine life we are in, and, randomly, landing on our shared love for Sami Perlman’s famous speech from Call Me By Your Name. But the person I came away from the call rooting for wasn’t only Syd B the artist, but Sydney Bakst the human being. It was clear — especially through her mother’s eyes — that the fate of a musician was going to fall on her shoulders. Whoever has the chance of having Sydney as a friend is a fortunate person, as she is someone you easily want to follow into any situation. She has this unwavering desire to be someone within this music landscape and in life, but on good-natured terms, it is rooted in her since childhood, something she entered into the industry with. Music has moved through her since she began as a dancer — a passion for that sort of expression now invoked in the songs she creates herself.
Sydney is confident not for the reasons you may think — she is confident because she understands the fundamental reason for wanting this venture into music to last a lifetime: she simply wants everyone to see how much enjoyment her music gives her. It is that unwavering passion and confidence that’s molding Sydney into Syd B — an artist anyone will want to remember. Meeting Sydney made it clear why her songs have stayed with me: she has a personality that invites you into her life with open arms, making you want to press play on any track she releases as Syd B. It was that late February evening that now has a new permanent spot in my head, and will always be remembered as the day the music of Syd B became a piece of my life.
I hope our conversation shows you why you need to become a fan of Sydney Bakst — as a person and as an artist — sooner rather than later. Once you press play, you won’t regret one second.
LUNA: I’m excited to talk with you today! I love everything you have put out so far, so thank you very much for taking the time to talk with me today. We are going to begin with some personal questions, so let’s start with an easy one: What's your full name and where did you grow up?
SYD B: Thank you for the kind words! My full name is Sydney Bakst, but you can call me Syd. I’ve grown up in LA — the Valley side — and I’m still here today.
LUNA: Tell me a bit about how you grew up. Who was the person who introduced you to music? What was little Syd listening to on the regular?
SYD B: I would have to say my mom definitely introduced me to music. Her side of the family is pretty musical — they are all entertainers of some sort, which was cool being around growing up. My mom would always be playing great music like all the great artists that are appreciated now — it would be Stevie Wonder, Norah Jones, some Amy Winehouse, Carol King, and Joni Mitchell playing somewhere, constantly. She would play these artists over and over again even though I just wanted to listen to the Hannah Montana soundtrack and turn all that other stuff off. Obviously, since I’ve gotten older, I can appreciate what she was playing more now because all that great music was embedded in me from a young age. Doing what I do, I can see how that has intertwined with my own work, since, basically, those artists are my roots. Because of that I like to thank my mom, once a week, for where I’m at now.
LUNA: Moms truly are amazing. They should get hyped up way more than they do. Is there a certain memory — or moment — from your childhood that sort of foreshadowed you becoming a musician?
SYD B: Moms deserve clout too! Personally, I don’t remember this happening, but my mom insists it's true and she loves telling this story … I think I was three years old when it happened. I used to listen to Andrea Bocelli — you know, the opera singer — non-stop, so I would always ask my mom to play him in the car. The story is — and my mom swears this happened — that this one day we were driving and Andrea was on, so I stuck my head out of the car window, eyes closed shut, and began belting Italian opera or whatever he was singing at the time. I guess that little moment was when my mom knew I was going to be doing something with music at some point.
LUNA: That’s such a dope story! Can you remember the first time you fell truly in love with music, that made you know for sure this is what you wanted to dedicate your life to?
SYD B: Don’t know if I mentioned this already, but another big piece of who I am is dance. I used to dance from four years old to 17 years old. To dance, you have to be musically inclined, so that was my main thing until I got injured. Honestly though, the music part of dance was my favorite thing. As I got older, and once I was injured, I started to explore songwriting — putting covers on SoundCloud — and began loving going to the studio. Entering into music, everything about it made me feel empowered about who I was, making me switch up what I thought I wanted to do in college — dance — and focus more on music and songwriting. I ended up getting into Berklee College of Music in Boston and going for a year. As my first year came to an end, I decided to take a gap year to soak in what I learned so far from Berklee and work on my artist project. After much debating with myself about going back and finishing up, I decided to not go back because the music started to take off a bit; I got myself an agent and I began doing shows.
I’m grateful I didn’t go back to college because I was enjoying the learning from being in the groove of being an actual artist so much. But I would have to say my love for music was so gradual because I was so focused on dance growing up. I really did think I was going to be a ballerina, and I was doing dance all the time. Every time I truly connected with a song I was dancing to, the music took over my body. The crazy thing about a song is how you can remember the first time you heard it, so growing up I realized the power in music right away. The first concert I went to at eight years old was for Gwen Stefani — now I know the story of when I knew for sure about my love for music and musicianship! I went to the Gwen Stefani concert when I was eight, [and] I ended up falling asleep halfway through because it was way past my bedtime, but I remember looking at her perform and thinking she was the coolest person ever. To be on stage — all those people connecting with you, looking at you in that way — is so freaking cool! I wanted to do what she was doing right at that moment.
LUNA: How do you think your sound and how you carry yourself as an artist differs from a lot of other musicians today?
SYD B: Actually, I've been thinking about this recently … I think that being any type of entertainer, I’ve come to realize, truthfully, that I’m essentially selling my personality. In what I do, I’m writing about my own life and giving away those songs for some sort of profit. It still shocks me that I go on Instagram and people want to know what I’m doing. Plenty of times I’ve had to ask myself: “What’s true to you, Syd?” People wanting to know me is still weird because I’m not anyone crazy special but — I guess — people connect with me. One thing that bugs me most about this industry is the amount of elitist mentality I’ve seen, and I don’t enjoy seeing it or being around it. When I started this journey, I just knew that [with] whomever I interacted with or worked with, I was always going to be kind.
Honestly, I believe that’s why I have the things I have today because — no matter who they are — I've tried to be as genuine and kind as possible. It goes a long way — like it’s annoying seeing people show up late to sessions or waste people’s time, simply because they are an artist. Being respectful to everyone around you will literally come back around to you in some way. It always bums me out when I hear about my favorite artists not being good people or disrespectful to the people they work with. It makes me look at them in a whole different way. I mean, the way I see it, you have this huge platform as an artist where you could be giving so much love and you are going to go waste it?! It just bums me out. With everything I do in this industry, I always try to be supportive to all artists — especially other female artists — because I feel there are these trivial rivalries placed upon us in the music industry that aren’t real. I want to share everything I have with everyone I know and love and who support me. I want to combat a lot of the bad energy in this industry with support and love, because I feel the business can get even more twisted as you continue to grow as an artist. I’m just trying to keep it real over here at syd B!
LUNA: Your new single “Freezing” describes perfectly how crazy relationships can make someone feel, but what I love most about it are the lyrics. I enjoyed listening to the great imagery you create with your words. Tell me more about this song.
SYD B: Thank you for the kind words! I love hearing how people are impacted by the songs I make …“Freezing” is the single from the upcoming EP. For this one, I focused on a relationship with someone who had become completely numb to me, making it hard to deal with, because I’m the kind of person that feels so much and I’m open and outward about it. When I can see and feel someone I’m with is being numb and silent, I can’t read them. This causes me to get really lost in what they are going through because I’m constantly trying to feel something from them. In this relationship, I wanted so bad to feel them in some way, or connect with them, but it wasn’t happening. In turn, I realized I became numb and cold to make that person comfortable, so it’s a cold love song. And the song basically sums up the idea of: If you are going to be cold, then I’m going to be cold too. Also, I have to agree with you that lyrically this is one of my favorites too!
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