A little more than two months ago we recognized the face of one of the other tenants in our practice space building. At the time, we said hello and made friendly, but neither of us could place where we knew the other. It was just a few days later, in the halls of The FADER, that we ran into one another again—this time properly introducing ourselves. In collaboration with friend Ruthy Mirsky, John Majer has been working on a lovely electronic project, entitled Syvia for, roughly, the last 8 months in their Williamsburg practice space. John shared a few tracks recently, and to say the least, I was floored.

Resting somewhere on the line of Scandinavian minimalist synth-pop, such as The Knife, Syvia is occasionally much more, well, "American"; in feel and location, if that makes sense. On their song "Metal Bird", pizzicato female vocals, accompanied by buzz-saw synths and rythmic, almost native, kick-drum give their music a swagger that you wouldn't normally hear from the myth-laden, snow-worn, melodies of the European North. It's rythmic, simple, and subtle pop music whose roots seem to be built off of the linear tones of shoe-gaze and the bumping rhythms of house music, all driven by John's laptop and Ruthy's vocals. "Metal Bird" is one of our new favorite tracks of 2009, even when stacked up against heavy summer hitters, like French rock n' roll-inspired "1901" by Phoenix or the rolling wall of color, dreams, and sound that is Passion Pit's "Moth's Wings".

Syvia is so new, in fact, that we decided to wait to put up their Q&A until they'd had the chance to build a myspace page. After just a few weeks they came back to let us know that not only had they put together a stop on the myspace highway, but they had also managed to put together a page on Blogger. Understanding their technical abilities, we shouldn't have expected less, but we're happy to the be the first to independently announce their presence to the world. Press play below and read on to find out more about their snack preferences and plans to take the project out of the studio and onto a stage.

SYVIA

bad.neighbors. Hey guys, we're absolutely over the moon about "Metal Bird" and the other tracks that you gave us! How long have you guys been working on the music?

ruthy mirsky. We were in a band called What What Where and then that band broke up and we started Syvia in August 2008. We basically just started working on songs or pieces of songs that I had been writing on my own. I would sing it for John and he would either say "Yes, that's cool, let's work on that," or "No, that's lame and cheesy." Sometimes, John would send me a great instrumental riff that he had come up with and I would listen to it and hear a vocal melody and a story that I wanted to tell. We don't have a hard fast way of writing music, but the end goal is always the same--we want to make great songs. If we can strip away all the bells and whistles and still have a good tune with just the accompaniment of an acoustic guitar, then we have succeeded in doing that.

john majer. Yes, as Ruthy so eloquently stated, we worked together in What What Where and got along really well as friends and shared the same love for pop music as well as electronic, indie, undergound, or whatever. It just seemed natural to work together after the demise of What What Where.

b.ns. This is probably one of the hardest questions on the face of the planet to answer. I know that most bands struggle to "define" our own music, or even to say where we take our inspiration from—but can you do that?

r.m. I think we land somewhere in the murky intersection of electronica, pop, rock, and hip hop. The bands that most influenced us I think would be The Knife, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Robyn, a lot of the Scandinavian electro pop. Personally, I listened to a lot of blues music growing up and loved the raw emotion and energy of musicians like Bessie Smith and Robert Johnson. Whenever we get stuck with a song we'll go listen to a track that one of us (or both of us) is currently obsessed with and use it as inspiration. Now that we have some songs finished, it will be interesting to see what our live show we be, but we've performed together before onstage so I'm not too worried. I can’t wait to start performing again .

j.m. When we first got together we met a couple times before we even started making music to get our game plan together. We tried to define what style of music we wanted to make. Which basically came out to be “interesting pop” music. We never really thought about how we were going to perform live. We knew that we wanted to and were going to perform, but we also knew that we wanted to write everything on our own on the computer first.

b.ns. What's it like in the studio for you guys—do you both contribute to all parts, or is more of a producer/vocalist kind of thing?

j.m. The first six months for us was a learning experience. What What Where had a third member that was really good at engineering, We had to learn to create music with just the two of us. There was a long learning curve that we had to get over, especially since Ruthy had never used any audio programs before. But now she has learned a lot about using Logic, which is our main sequencing software. But, we get along so well that even though it was trying at times it still felt natural. The songs come from both us with Ruthy having full reign on lyrics. I will come in with a beat or whatever and she will come up with a melody or
she comes in with a melody and even a beat already worked out in Logic. Tag team style.

r.m. We have frustrating moments, and John has been endlessly patient with me as I learn how to work with digital audio programs, but in the end it always works out. All the frustrations pay off when suddenly that surge of creative energy hits, and we both are thinking and hearing the same thing that needs to be done to bring the song over that next hurdle. One of the best things about our partnership is that we have one of those unique working relationships where we come at the music from entirely different perspectives, but ultimately share a common vision for what is great and what isn’t. The songs couldn’t get done without each of us bringing what we have to offer to the table.

b.ns. So knowing that you guys met here in New York, where did you both come from before here? How did you find yourselves swimming this sea?

r.m. I was born and raised in Manhattan, and currently live in Brooklyn. I was looking for ways to sing and started back up singing for a white rapper that I met off of Craigslist. My first audition happened to be at a studio that was owned by our third What What Where bandmate, and the rest is history.

j.m. I have been living in Brooklyn for about 7 years and basically wanted to move here so I did. Ha. We met in What What Where. Ruthy was referred to the band, auditioned, and it’s been nothing but good times ever since.

b.ns. Have either of you been in bands before Syvia and What What Where—what have those projects been like?

j.m. I have been playing in bands for years, my whole life really. I was in a post hardcore band called Lazycain that put out a couple records, then came Jrawls, then I was in an instrumental pirate metal band that was unbelievable fun called The Tori, was in a NYC band called Overnight which, as we are doing this, have written a whole new album that is really great—you should check it out. Then I did some tracks under the Even Odds moniker, What What Where, and now Syvia.

r.m. I have been singing since I was a little girl, but I went to a school that didn’t lend itself to a lot of outside activities so I sang in anything I could, like chorus, musicals, talent shows, whatever. I would write songs and record myself, but I didn’t take it further then that until after college. What What Where was my first real band experience. It took me some time to make the plunge into having music be the main focus of my life.

b.ns. Kind of sounds like this project was ineveitable...So, what do you guys do during the daytime and where does Syvia fit into that in the future—is making music, ultimately, what you want to be doing?

b.ns. We both have day jobs to pay the bills. Making music is very important for us and is what we ultimately want to be doing full time. Yes, we are going to be playing very soon. We are excited to get back at it just don’t know how we are going to do it exactly.

r.m. What he said.

b.ns. I may be getting ahead of myself, but if you could collaborate with anyone in the future, or work with anyone live or production-wise who would it be or do you not really think you'd want to do collaborations in the future?

j.m. Hmmmmmmmm. Not really thinking about collaborating with anyone at the moment. We have been so focused on working on creating this project. Ask us when we are done with this EP. But frankly we would love to work with a proper mixing engineer and learn the tricks.

r.m. First things first, getting our EP and live show figured out. Then we can dream about collaborations.

b.ns. This question could fall flat on it's face, but I've got some really strong attachments to music, and spend a lot of time daydreaming, thinking up how the music "looks" to me. I think every good song I've ever spent any time with, I've gotten a very strong scene stuck in my head. Something like the cover of the latest M83 album and how it just goes with the music so well. Do you have an aesthetic in your mind for your own music or are you too close to it, do you think?

j.m. I don’t really think that way. Not visually at least. For me it’s all about feeling as opposed to how it looks.

r.m. I totally know what you mean. Sometimes a scene will pop into my head while I’m listening to a song of ours, and that’s always exciting when you are that close to a song and it can still conjure up feelings and images.

b.ns. Where, (besides here), can we find your stuff online?

John: We finally did it! We made a MySpace page. I feel like we are an official band now. It’s very exciting. Check us out here:

Ruthy: We also have a blog and a twitter account, which is mostly me blabbering away and John occasionally interjecting his two cents.

b.ns. Any other big plans for the future, i.e. getting married, planned trips to the moon, big vacations, joining a cult, getting a tattoo?

j.m. No.

r.m. Getting something sweet to eat and possibly world domination.

And there you have it. Make sure to give their track below a listen. As well, you can find out more about upcoming dates and new music at their myspace page, blog, and twitter.



Download — Syvia - "Metal Bird".