By the time Portland band SYX released their second album, ‘A Cold Breathe of What it Takes’ they were an official local phenomenon. Already heralded as one of the most explosive hardcore bands to have ever come out of the Pacific Northwest, this position was solidified last year when the band opened for Slipknot and Slayer at Rockfest’s Mayhem At The Meadows. Since then they have graced the stage with other heavyweights, most recently supporting Machine Head at the Roseland Theater before rushing across town to play yet another show.
With the release of their latest (As yet untitled) third studio album, Syx promises more dynamics, more melodies, and a more aggressive sound overall. This combined with their ferocious live performance should catapult SYX into the spotlight, a spot they are ready and waiting for. Proud to be from Portland, they just might put “OreCore” on the map. I got a chance to sit down with the guys upstairs in the office of Rock and Roll Pizza to talk about the new album, and the future of the band.
Crave: So tell me about how SYX got together, a little history of the band?
Syx: Syx formed out of two bands that broke up. It was my old band Counterfeit, and Dave’s old band. These were like high school bands and they broke up and went off to college and we took the remnants of the band and created what we thought was an all-star band, because we were taking our favorite players from bands that we liked. We found Ben, We got Dave and we got the name SYX from a popular song from the band Counterfeit. So for the record SYX has no special magical meaning. Three years later, our drummer left the band and that’s when we got Scott. It really changed us, adding Scott. We became a lot more aggressive; we had more focus and direction. We started writing the new album and we decided we couldn’t pull off some of the guitar parts with one guitar so I put an ad out on kingbanana.net and we wanted somebody that brought something totally different then what I brought. So we added a second guitar and then we found Brad, he was pretty much the only person we knew that played keys, so he was in the band like the same day I met him. We ended up working together. So this is the final line up. This is the best SYX we’ve ever had. We all get along really well. Writing music has been easier then it’s ever been. We know when to be serious now and when to cut loose. But we are a bunch of fucking pranksters.
Crave: How would you best describe your sound?
Syx: It makes my Mom worry. (laughing) She thinks I worship the devil. On this album we are taking things that are underground right now and we are making them mainstream. I think my talent that I have in music is listening to a lot of the underground music, the hardcore stuff, and taking pieces of them that I like and applying it to the band in a different way. We have recently been called “OreCore”, like Oregon Hardcore, which we are cool with because we have a lot of Portland pride. We don’t fit into either category of music, we’re not just metal, we’re not just hardcore, so I guess we’re “OreCORE”.
Crave: Has the formula changed much over time, the general sound?
Syx: Yeah it has definitely changed. Especially recently, since we added guitar, a lot of elements of our sound are different.
Crave: Who are your major influences as a band?
Syx: That’s so hard. We all have such different influences as musicians. We’re all bringing something different to the table. None of likes what the other is listening to though, we always argue about that. We all think everything Scott listens to is stupid! Okay, seriously though Norma Jean is a huge influence on all of us, and definitely 36 Crazyfists, those guys have been like big brothers to us.
Crave: What is the title of the new album?
Syx: Unreleased yet. (Everybody laughs) We always do everything at the last minute. Once we know there is a deadline coming we’re like SHIT! But that’s also when we are most creative. We could have a two year notice on something and we would figure it out the week before it was due to come out.
Crave: Is there a lot of difference between the new album and “A Cold Breathe Of What It Takes”?
Syx: Oh Yeah. It still has the essence of SYX. The things that everybody loved about us are still there, the core members haven’t changed. One thing you’ll really notice more is the double bass
And the drumming is way more aggressive then it ever was before. The guitar playing is also heavier and more aggressive. The album in general is heavier, more aggressive, but at the same time more melodic. We took the things we liked the most about the last album, and capitalized on it. It highlights our strong points, which is the heaviness and melody. The songs are more driving, and there are big hooks. The songs never bottom out; they stay right on the edge the whole time. Another difference about this album is we have worked really hard on our song structure, the dynamics have changed. We basically cut out all the unnecessary bullshit out of the songs.
Crave: What has the recording process been like, who produced?
Syx: It’s all self produced. We started out at Falcon Studios, now we’re at Crossroads in Vancouver, and we tracked the keyboards with Kael from Debris. By the way, this has been a nightmare project. We have had a lot of technical difficulties. We’re gonna finish mixing next week. We have two days left of vocals and then just the mix. We’ve been working on it for a year now. The CD release party is August 13th, then it will be released two weeks later.
Crave: What was the first album you ever owned, or went out and bought? Individually.
Syx: (Dave) Ace Of Base ‘The Sign’, I had that tape I listened to it every day. (Scott) I had just heard about Korn, and that’s what got me into a lot of new music. (Jason) My first one I think would either be Green Day ‘Dookie’ or STP ‘Purple’ one of those. (Ben) In Utero (Will, owner of Rock and Roll Pizza breaks in with Billy Joel ‘Glass Houses’ which made us all hysterical)
Crave: What do you do to prepare for a show; do you have any before show rituals?
Syx: We always huddle up; a group huddle no matter what. I mean everyone has their individual rituals, like me (Ben) I stretch out and drink tea. We play to a big picture of Liza Minnelli, right before we go on.
TIM: from www.portlandmusicians.com: When do you guys plan on losing your virginity?
Syx: I hope by the time I’m thirty. I’m waiting for marriage!
Crave: What is the writing process like for the band?
Syx: It’s weird. Everyone song we write, it’s always different. Like sometimes Jay will come to practice with a riff and show us and by the end of practice it’s a song, or someone else will come with something they’ve been jamming on for the last few days at home, and we’ll fight it, and fight it, and we’ll bitch and argue about the song, somebody will hate it, somebody will add another part to it and we’ll work on it for three weeks before it finally becomes a song. So it really varies. I think our best songs are the ones we just show up and we write it in an hour.
Crave: If you could share the stage with any bands, past or present, dead or alive, who would they be? You all have to agree. SYX is headlining, who are the other three bands.
Syx: I think Mudvayne would have to be one. I would be down to play with Michael Jackson. Just for the novelty of saying I did it. He’s innocent. It’s hard to say because we have played with a lot of our favorite bands. I think Norma Jean or Poison The Well.
Crave: You guys didn’t argue about that enough! What are your goals, if a label signed you would you be ready to go on the road and live in a van for a year?
Syx: I think we are all prepared for it, but the main thing that we would need is tour support, that would have to be a included if we were signed to a label, that and like merchandising rights, stuff like that. I mean, there’s always some creative freedom lost with the writing process because the label ultimately has a say in what goes. But they would have to offer us tour support. It would be hard for us to continue doing what we are doing on our own forever, it would be great to have a labels support. We just want to play music.
Crave: What’s your favorite city or venue to play? What has been your best show ever?
Syx: The Big Easy, in Spokane Washington. And biggest show, that is definitely Mayhem at the Meadows, a couple thousand people, playing with Slipknot and Slayer, that was it. It was more then I ever dreamed we would be doing.
Crave: Is there anything you think the world should know about SYX?
Syx: The real reason our band is named SYX is cuz we’re all over six inches.
(Ben) My version of it is when I was a kid, you know that show Blossom? There was a chick named SYX on it, and I used to jack off to her. That shows not on anymore. But that’s the legitimate reason.
Crave: You guys are on a huge stage, full pyrotechnics, there’s a huge accident and you all die, how does it happen?
Syx: (Jason) That’s cool cuz I wanna die on stage, that’s where I want to go. I think we should all die at the same time, but different deaths. Brad would definitely get electrocuted. Jay would get Electrocuted too, shocked on a microphone. And I think our last thing before we died would be us killing Ben. (Ben) Can I be locked in a mental institution and have the band dead, and haunting and tormenting me to the point of suicide? (Jay) This is my scenario of how we would die. Its all gonna start with us playing a set and Scott knocks over a drum and he gets pissed off and throws the whole drum kit over, and ends up smashing Dave and severing his head with a cymbal. I’m on the mic, screaming for someone to call an ambulance, and I get the shit shocked out of me until my dick explodes. (Ben) and I’m crowd surfing, and the crowd is in such shock that they drop me, and I get trampled to death, Brad jumps in trying to save me, but at the same time he realized he knocked over his water bottle, trips on his amp cord, hits the water and he’s a fucking crispy critter. And Ben suddenly realizes he drank a milkshake and he’s lactose intolerant and so as he dies he just shits all over himself. Then, all the fans blame Josh, the new guy, and he’s the only one left so they all tear him apart. That’s how it ends. Now that concludes our interview and we would like to cordially invite you to the bar!
Editors Note: I did my best to capture verbatim everything said during the interview, but we were upstairs at Rock and Roll Pizza during a show when we did it, and although I did okay with most of it, some of it was lost in the background noise. I did however; get a great recording of Mindcell’s entire set as a soundtrack to the interview. ? RS.
