The Sit Down with Sydney Quiseng
Sydney Quiseng was born and raised in Southern California with a passion for connecting with people through music, and now she is telling her own story. After forming Echosmith with her brothers at age 9, writing the triple-platinum-hit "Cool Kids," touring the world at 16, getting married at 21 and now after recording in Nashville she is stepping out on her own with her first solo project “PHASES”. After recently announcing her global publishing deal with BMG, and off the heels of her debut EP, Sydney is ready to fully dive into this new chapter which we talked all about when she recently joined us for a chat on Zoom.
Hey, Sydney, thank you for the hang. It’s so fun to talk to you and I’m really loving the new EP which is really different to when I saw you play at Barfly in Camden back in 2014. That was around the time that “Cool Kids” had it’s moment and then the universe found a way to open it up to more people a couple of years back and now putting music out on your own is almost starting out for a third time.
“Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy to think, you know, all the different phases I've been in already, you know? It's crazy to think the past twelve plus years have been so wild and here I am now doing my own music. It's been a fun journey so far but it's so fun that you saw us more than just a couple of years ago.”
Does it feel kind of weird at the moment? Like, obviously you're doing a lot of press and things at the minute with the EP that's just come out, even when you're just doing things like acoustically, that having spent so long where you’ve had you brothers around to it just being you doing all the talking and having nobody else to bounce off?
“Yeah, I mean, I've had certain moments where it's felt more that way and I think especially with acoustic performances, my first, my first solo acoustic performance, I was really nervous because usually I had at least have one brother up there playing something so it is kind of crazy to have, you know, all of it resting on me. But also, at the same time, it's a good way to stretch yourself, like it forced me to get way better at guitar and all that kind of stuff that I didn't have as much pressure on, I mean, I played guitar a lot in the band too, but not like this. So, it definitely forced me to get out of my comfort zone. I think interviews, there were so many times over the years that they needed me to just do something or whatever so I think that part, I'm like, well, I guess that feels sort of normal but being on stage by yourself is totally different.”
Hey, Sydney, thank you for the hang. It’s so fun to talk to you and I’m really loving the new EP which is really different to when I saw you play at Barfly in Camden back in 2014. That was around the time that “Cool Kids” had it’s moment and then the universe found a way to open it up to more people a couple of years back and now putting music out on your own is almost starting out for a third time.
“Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy to think, you know, all the different phases I've been in already, you know? It's crazy to think the past twelve plus years have been so wild and here I am now doing my own music. It's been a fun journey so far but it's so fun that you saw us more than just a couple of years ago.”
Does it feel kind of weird at the moment? Like, obviously you're doing a lot of press and things at the minute with the EP that's just come out, even when you're just doing things like acoustically, that having spent so long where you’ve had you brothers around to it just being you doing all the talking and having nobody else to bounce off?
“Yeah, I mean, I've had certain moments where it's felt more that way and I think especially with acoustic performances, my first, my first solo acoustic performance, I was really nervous because usually I had at least have one brother up there playing something so it is kind of crazy to have, you know, all of it resting on me. But also, at the same time, it's a good way to stretch yourself, like it forced me to get way better at guitar and all that kind of stuff that I didn't have as much pressure on, I mean, I played guitar a lot in the band too, but not like this. So, it definitely forced me to get out of my comfort zone. I think interviews, there were so many times over the years that they needed me to just do something or whatever so I think that part, I'm like, well, I guess that feels sort of normal but being on stage by yourself is totally different.”
Putting music out of your own was wasn't a very quick, immediate decision, it's obviously something that you've been thinking about for a while but before you went over to Franklin to start cutting those the songs for what would be this first part of phases, had you already decided, right, the sound for me as a solo artist is going to be down this country and Americana route? Or was it partly influenced by the fact that you were working down in Tennessee and it kind of flowed from there?
“It was a little bit of both. I mean, when I was compiling all the songs that I had written, you know, it was definitely leaning more country and Americana. So, I knew already that I wanted it to be in that world in what better place to record than Franklin and I ended up finding an amazing producer out there called Oscar Charles, who was super collaborative and we built a really great band to do all live recordings. It’s built on top of that and then it evolved into what it is now, so I think it actually turned out more, you know, sort of country leaning than maybe I even expected it, but I was really just making music that I was really excited about and now as I'm making more new music with that under my belt, I think I'm riding a little more that way just as naturally that is what I'm loving. I have a pedal steel player playing with me live now and I didn't even have pedal steel, we had some steel, some bottleneck slide and twelve string things on “Phases” the EP, but now I'm working with a pedal player, I'm like, oh my gosh, how have we not used this yet? It'll be really cool to see how the music grows as just my interests grow and I mean, there's so many beautiful instruments out there that you can play around with. We have some fun little nuggets in there, but I think we're going to just keep exploring as we make new music and just have fun with it.”
It really does have that west coast, Laurel Canyon sort type of sound, which is obviously not surprising because that’s where you are from but sound wise was that a big part of like your musical influence long before you started doing this new project?
“Yeah, I mean, we listened to all sorts of music growing up and really, when we were getting the band started, I was listening to mainly just what my brothers were listening to. So we were obsessed with The Killers, Coldplay and eighties new wave but then I think as I got older, I started to dig more into the seventies. I mean, we've always loved Fleetwood Mac so that's always been in me I think and now I feel like I have a little taste of that in my music here and I really discovered George Harrison's “All Things Must Pass” , like, really dove into that probably four plus years ago. That opened a whole new world for me too, where I was like, oh, my gosh, this is so good and all the textures here are amazing. Even just the way that they do the vocals and all that stuff was so unique so that kind of opened the gates for that era of music. Then, you know, I hung out on Laurel Canyon all the time whether I was hiking or going to dinner down over there through whole growing up, because we grew up here in the valley. It's cool to see where all these influences have led me and now it's kind of created this sort of coastal country seventies flair which really is just a combination of things that I love and it's so fun to just see how that turns out.”
“It was a little bit of both. I mean, when I was compiling all the songs that I had written, you know, it was definitely leaning more country and Americana. So, I knew already that I wanted it to be in that world in what better place to record than Franklin and I ended up finding an amazing producer out there called Oscar Charles, who was super collaborative and we built a really great band to do all live recordings. It’s built on top of that and then it evolved into what it is now, so I think it actually turned out more, you know, sort of country leaning than maybe I even expected it, but I was really just making music that I was really excited about and now as I'm making more new music with that under my belt, I think I'm riding a little more that way just as naturally that is what I'm loving. I have a pedal steel player playing with me live now and I didn't even have pedal steel, we had some steel, some bottleneck slide and twelve string things on “Phases” the EP, but now I'm working with a pedal player, I'm like, oh my gosh, how have we not used this yet? It'll be really cool to see how the music grows as just my interests grow and I mean, there's so many beautiful instruments out there that you can play around with. We have some fun little nuggets in there, but I think we're going to just keep exploring as we make new music and just have fun with it.”
It really does have that west coast, Laurel Canyon sort type of sound, which is obviously not surprising because that’s where you are from but sound wise was that a big part of like your musical influence long before you started doing this new project?
“Yeah, I mean, we listened to all sorts of music growing up and really, when we were getting the band started, I was listening to mainly just what my brothers were listening to. So we were obsessed with The Killers, Coldplay and eighties new wave but then I think as I got older, I started to dig more into the seventies. I mean, we've always loved Fleetwood Mac so that's always been in me I think and now I feel like I have a little taste of that in my music here and I really discovered George Harrison's “All Things Must Pass” , like, really dove into that probably four plus years ago. That opened a whole new world for me too, where I was like, oh, my gosh, this is so good and all the textures here are amazing. Even just the way that they do the vocals and all that stuff was so unique so that kind of opened the gates for that era of music. Then, you know, I hung out on Laurel Canyon all the time whether I was hiking or going to dinner down over there through whole growing up, because we grew up here in the valley. It's cool to see where all these influences have led me and now it's kind of created this sort of coastal country seventies flair which really is just a combination of things that I love and it's so fun to just see how that turns out.”
Something that's a really long way from the seventies is how social media is a bit part of things and continues to evolve. We sort mentioned “Cool Kids” getting out to a new audience with the sped up version blowing up on TikTok. Putting your new music out now, there is more to think about compared to when you and your brothers released “Talking Dreams” over a decade ago and there is so much more that has to go into it.
“So much more and I do miss those days a little bit of just, you know, we made an amazing debut record and someone else is taking care of like getting in front of people and then we just need to, you know, show up to every single thing. We were obviously working hard out there, but it was a different type of work, of course, still doing interviews now, these performances, showcases and all the things but the social media aspect is totally different than it was, you know, ten or eleven years ago. It's interesting to adjust to that and obviously I grew up having a phone a lot of my life so I know how to use it but turning it into a job is sort of a different thing than just, oh, I watched a funny video and I sent it to my friend. So, it's taken a lot of intentionality to use it and use it well but not overdo it because it's really easy to be like, oh my gosh, I need to post three to five videos every single day on TikTok. Sometimes I do that because it's fun and I'm in that mode that day, but then there's certain days where you have other life things going on and you just can't or you're just not in that mind space and that's okay. I've tried to find a balance of doing it and doing it as much as I can because that's a great way to get your music out there. I've already had so many fans come over to my Spotify because they saw a TikTok video that I did, so that’s a cool conversion, even if sometimes you put up something and you spend so much time on it and it still uploads blurry. I mean, there's certain things that get to you, but you just have to let it go, do your best and not be too precious about a single thing but it's hard.”
In terms of where we are with “Phases” we've had like the EP that's come out but from what I understand, you recorded some more songs kind as part of that kind of wave. Is there a plan to essentially do live a deluxe EP that becomes an album? Is that what we're expecting to be happening in the long term or are the next batch of songs that are going to come out collectively going to be titled under a separate project?
“I'm trying to decide all that now because I do have a lot of music that's ready and still fits in the same world. At the end of the day, even the music that I'm finishing right now, which is separate from that, is still in the same world, if anything, it's just expanding on it. That’s the good news, I'm staying in this, you know, coastal country, Americana world so I think it all could live together, they're part of the same family. But I will see exactly how we package the next set of songs, I have a lot of music and I told myself from the very beginning of this that I wanted to release music as often as possible and not let a lot of time go between one release to the next. I have so much music and I hate when it just sits in Dropbox and doesn’t get to the world. As much as I can help it, I want to be consistently putting music out, especially since I've written hundreds of songs for this now and I want a lot of them to be heard. No matter how I package it, there is a lot more, there's even more coming this year and a lot more coming next year. So, you know, of course, I'm excited for when my debut album is ready to be put out but I will have lots of music to put out, no matter how we do it and I'm really excited to share it.”
Before you started putting this music out, you collaborated with Tyler Braden, who I know you have a link within your teams, but what was it like getting to work with Tyler and also looking ahead to more music that you are working on, has that kind of changed your attitude and thought process about being more open to collaborations and duets?
“So much more and I do miss those days a little bit of just, you know, we made an amazing debut record and someone else is taking care of like getting in front of people and then we just need to, you know, show up to every single thing. We were obviously working hard out there, but it was a different type of work, of course, still doing interviews now, these performances, showcases and all the things but the social media aspect is totally different than it was, you know, ten or eleven years ago. It's interesting to adjust to that and obviously I grew up having a phone a lot of my life so I know how to use it but turning it into a job is sort of a different thing than just, oh, I watched a funny video and I sent it to my friend. So, it's taken a lot of intentionality to use it and use it well but not overdo it because it's really easy to be like, oh my gosh, I need to post three to five videos every single day on TikTok. Sometimes I do that because it's fun and I'm in that mode that day, but then there's certain days where you have other life things going on and you just can't or you're just not in that mind space and that's okay. I've tried to find a balance of doing it and doing it as much as I can because that's a great way to get your music out there. I've already had so many fans come over to my Spotify because they saw a TikTok video that I did, so that’s a cool conversion, even if sometimes you put up something and you spend so much time on it and it still uploads blurry. I mean, there's certain things that get to you, but you just have to let it go, do your best and not be too precious about a single thing but it's hard.”
In terms of where we are with “Phases” we've had like the EP that's come out but from what I understand, you recorded some more songs kind as part of that kind of wave. Is there a plan to essentially do live a deluxe EP that becomes an album? Is that what we're expecting to be happening in the long term or are the next batch of songs that are going to come out collectively going to be titled under a separate project?
“I'm trying to decide all that now because I do have a lot of music that's ready and still fits in the same world. At the end of the day, even the music that I'm finishing right now, which is separate from that, is still in the same world, if anything, it's just expanding on it. That’s the good news, I'm staying in this, you know, coastal country, Americana world so I think it all could live together, they're part of the same family. But I will see exactly how we package the next set of songs, I have a lot of music and I told myself from the very beginning of this that I wanted to release music as often as possible and not let a lot of time go between one release to the next. I have so much music and I hate when it just sits in Dropbox and doesn’t get to the world. As much as I can help it, I want to be consistently putting music out, especially since I've written hundreds of songs for this now and I want a lot of them to be heard. No matter how I package it, there is a lot more, there's even more coming this year and a lot more coming next year. So, you know, of course, I'm excited for when my debut album is ready to be put out but I will have lots of music to put out, no matter how we do it and I'm really excited to share it.”
Before you started putting this music out, you collaborated with Tyler Braden, who I know you have a link within your teams, but what was it like getting to work with Tyler and also looking ahead to more music that you are working on, has that kind of changed your attitude and thought process about being more open to collaborations and duets?
“Totally, I had so much fun working on that song because it's a great song and when they asked me to be a part of it, it was an obvious yes. It was kind of crazy because we did it virtually at first, the recording process was me in LA doing my vocals then talking on the phone, on texts and all that stuff, getting feedback on, hey, do you like this adlib and little things like that so, we didn't get to meet until we made the music video. I went out to Nashville and it's kind of wild because I feel like that was sort of the birthplace of my time in Nashville, because that was actually the same week that I did my first writing session without a family member in the room and that was my first writing trip to Nashville and we just tacked it on to the music video trip. It was kind of cool to think that was sort of my intro into the Nashville world more than just coming through to play a show. Working with him and getting to know people in Nashville slowly over every trip that I made out there, really just made me fall in love with the place and fall in love with the community there and this type of music. I really see that collaboration as a beautiful moment in my life that like opened the door to doing so much more for my solo music and I hadn't even recorded anything for myself at that point yet, but I obviously had it in mind and I was writing for it. So, it was a very pivotal moment and I'm really excited to do some other clubs and do duets in the future because it's was so fun and you just get to know really great people, including Tyler, through that kind of experience.”
You'd sort of said that was the first time you'd been to write without someone from your family in the room. In terms of the Nashville way of working, does it feel vastly different to what you were used to?
“Yeah, it's very fast in Nashville. I think that was my biggest shock when I went there because you'll do a session in LA and it's really easy to really focus on production and all of the things when you're writing the song, at the same time. But it's really cool to go to Nashville and that can still happen, obviously, I've still had eight or nine hour sessions, but I've had plenty of three to five hour sessions where we're just focussing on the lyrics, the melodies and then we get some sort of work tape by the time we're done. It's really cool that we get to just focus on the song itself, what it's saying, maximising that and not, you know, making it dressed up with production, because, of course, you can have so much fun with production later, but it's really giving you a lot of space to know what the song is. Do I love it enough to finish it? Where it gets to speak for itself as opposed to, well, the track is so great, are the lyrics amazing? Kinda, you know, you get to really see the song for what it is without too many filters on it, which I think is really cool. You get to really dive deep there and I think that can happen anywhere, it's about being set up with the right people, but I've had really great experiences in Nashville where you even find yourself shedding a tear at a session or being really honest about stuff that you've never really talked about before, because I think, it's really common out there to care about the heart behind the song.”
Lastly to round up with the most important question of all, I’ve obviously seen you on stage over here before but are the plans to come back and see us soon and let people see what you are doing now first hand?
“I'd love to come out to the UK and I have lots of big dreams for bringing this music around the world. I've always loved the shows we've played in the UK, I mean, the crowds are just the best so I do look forward to what I do get to go there because I do plan to come. we just have to set up the right trip, but I have every intention of coming out there and playing a show, meeting everybody and reuniting with a lot of people as well. So, I would love to and it definitely is in my sights, plus my husband is a pilot so I love travelling and I get to travel a lot with him and it definitely gives us even more inspiration to go out and do fun stuff around the world and what better way to do it than with music.”
You'd sort of said that was the first time you'd been to write without someone from your family in the room. In terms of the Nashville way of working, does it feel vastly different to what you were used to?
“Yeah, it's very fast in Nashville. I think that was my biggest shock when I went there because you'll do a session in LA and it's really easy to really focus on production and all of the things when you're writing the song, at the same time. But it's really cool to go to Nashville and that can still happen, obviously, I've still had eight or nine hour sessions, but I've had plenty of three to five hour sessions where we're just focussing on the lyrics, the melodies and then we get some sort of work tape by the time we're done. It's really cool that we get to just focus on the song itself, what it's saying, maximising that and not, you know, making it dressed up with production, because, of course, you can have so much fun with production later, but it's really giving you a lot of space to know what the song is. Do I love it enough to finish it? Where it gets to speak for itself as opposed to, well, the track is so great, are the lyrics amazing? Kinda, you know, you get to really see the song for what it is without too many filters on it, which I think is really cool. You get to really dive deep there and I think that can happen anywhere, it's about being set up with the right people, but I've had really great experiences in Nashville where you even find yourself shedding a tear at a session or being really honest about stuff that you've never really talked about before, because I think, it's really common out there to care about the heart behind the song.”
Lastly to round up with the most important question of all, I’ve obviously seen you on stage over here before but are the plans to come back and see us soon and let people see what you are doing now first hand?
“I'd love to come out to the UK and I have lots of big dreams for bringing this music around the world. I've always loved the shows we've played in the UK, I mean, the crowds are just the best so I do look forward to what I do get to go there because I do plan to come. we just have to set up the right trip, but I have every intention of coming out there and playing a show, meeting everybody and reuniting with a lot of people as well. So, I would love to and it definitely is in my sights, plus my husband is a pilot so I love travelling and I get to travel a lot with him and it definitely gives us even more inspiration to go out and do fun stuff around the world and what better way to do it than with music.”
