‘It’s Boring to Blend In…’ - Syllvie and her Ouch EP

Sometimes drawing a line under something is more satisfying than drawing a line through it. This means whatever came before still exists, it's just a new chapter you're writing. That's exactly what Syllvie has done with her new EP 'Ouch'. Previously releasing music under the name Ukuletea, Syllvie has done what a lot of people would be too scared to do, and that's to change her name and style to fit where she's at with her life right now, rather than honour something she no longer connects with.

As her former name would suggest, Ukuletea's lead instrument is a ukulele, put that together with her singing voice and rapping in her local accent and you get something unique and honest. The uploads on her youtube channel, which is now rebranded as Syllvie, go back to August 2016. Even her first song on there, 'Holes for Hearts' cements this style. There are plenty of songs like this, recorded at college gigs, but there are also more produced pieces like 'Coffee Cup'.

Coffee Cup begins by a statement of fact, 'when I was younger, I wanted to play in an orchestra. When I turned twelve I wanted to play guitar.' Didn't we all? In addition to her staple of ukulele, there is a sound that could easily be keyboard, but in this case it's more likely to be flute. Ukuletea uploaded a cover from My Hero Academia called 'Op. 2' where she worked out the notes herself and even posted the sheet music so others could use it. Ukuletea surely did herself an injustice by naming herself after one instrument when there is in fact also a piano version of Coffee Cup too. By the time this song was released on Ukuletea's youtube channel, she had a thousand subscribers, now she has more than ten thousand.

Other produced originals such as 'Downpour', 'Smile' and 'Make Believe' followed. Ukuletea even branched out into a game soundtrack-influenced EP entitled 'Bon Voyage!' Described by Ukuletea as 'the musical tale of someone lonely in search of something more', she utilised Garageband as her musical creation platform and further progressed in producing her own sound.

Syllvie officially announced her re-brand on the 7th of June with the Ouch EP being revealed the day after. Ouch consists of three tracks, beginning with 'Online Games'. A fading in ukulele disguised as more of an electric guitar brings in a drum beat followed by Syllvie's rapping. 'I thought when I grow up, I would have it figured out - ouch.' The EP begins with the most personal track here, grappling with the idea of being real in spite of decreasing numbers and in the face of others becoming an online sensation with little real work. The chorus is sung beginning with 'I don't want the money, the clout or the glory...' There's a quote that springs to mind from Sir George Martin about not repeating the formula, '...good artists don’t do that. Good artists look for something new every time, and try and build on what they had before.' That's the mark of a good artist, and exactly what Syllvie is doing, which is further compounded by the line in the second verse, 'And my genre? I know that I was tired of mine, you gotta drop the labels and restrictions you’re putting on, if the people react, gotta move along.' The final verses discuss the need for self-expression and reassuring her existing fanbase that she's the same person but progression is important too. Finally, Syllvie finishes the song by saying, 'the idea that they think authenticity’s gone is truly terrifying, so I’mma prove that they’re wrong.' Amen.

'Ghost' is the first single from the Ouch EP, and is more chilled than Online Games. The subject matter is concerning a person's presence fading in a relationship, explained well by the chorus, 'But I long to have someone to hold me close, cause now you’re feeling like a ghost, and I long to bring some life back to your love, don’t tell me that you think it’s gone for good.' The ukulele sound is more obvious here, with a touch of reverb. There's more singing than rapping here, even so, the rapping has more of a melodic edge to it. The last verse is my favourite, like it's an outpouring of emotion you can almost see being scribbled onto a page. 'I couldn’t bring myself to walk out that door, cause it represented giving up on the idea of somebody who loved me, and maybe I knew that I’d just be really fucking lonely...' I love when people use swearing sparingly in their work, so when they do, it just makes that much more of a point.

I think 'Fall For Me' is my favourite from this modest collection of songs. It's the most fun, the most upbeat and feel-good track this artist has ever put out. The ukulele line could easily be an electric guitar, I could picture this being played live with a full band. Drums and percussion are all software based, but that doesn't take away from the enjoyment at all. The only thing that lets this track down is that it's over too soon. The chorus is simple but effective, and my favourite line is 'Imagine how good It'd feel to have power,' there's something about the way that's sung that makes me believe in the artist who's singing it. Fall For Me also benefits from having a live lockdown-style performance on Syllvie's youtube channel, with her singing along to the backing track. The absence of the ukulele affords more movement in Syllvie's performance. The only thing she'd really have to play in this song is the exceptional ukulele solo in the coda of the track. When do you ever hear a ukulele solo in a pop song?

It was great to be able to talk with Syllvie more about the writing and recording of the Ouch EP, her decision to change her stage-name, playing live and the potential of the future. Syllvie is certainly one to watch!

1. You have uploads on youtube under the Ukuletea name going back to 2016, as well as your original music available under that name on spotify, so why the re-brand in 2020? Will that previous music continue to be available under Ukuletea or be transferred to your Syllvie brand?

I’d been wanting to rebrand for about a year now – learning more about production over time has finally allowed me to make the music I love, and Ukuletea just didn’t fit with the vision anymore. That name just started as a fun twitter handle, it never really felt like a proper stage-name. It didn’t help that it was constantly misspelled (ukeletea, ukuleletea, ukutea - you name it).

I’m still really proud of what I achieved in that era, and you can’t actually change the artist name on a Spotify profile, so I had to make a new one for Syllvie anyway. This means all the Ukuletea content cross-platform is preserved for anyone who still wants to listen! It also gives me the potential to dip back into Ukuletea if I ever feel like it, perhaps if I make some softer instrumental tracks.

2. Tell me about the recording of the Ouch EP. Is it self-produced? Was it recorded at home or at a studio?

It was all recorded at home! It took so long just to make a 3-track EP because I was essentially learning as I went along, taking on every element of the process by myself.

I recorded the vocals in my bedroom on a Shure SM58 mic plugged into a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 – in all honesty, I have little to no clue about what makes them good, but they were recommended to me a couple years back and seem to be the standard.

I’d love to set up a home studio in the next couple of years to really try and up my sound quality – maybe something like my friend and artist Smoothboi Ezra has called a ‘Shomera’, (I think it’s an Irish thing), which is essentially an outhouse that they turned into a home-studio. Super cool.

3. Did you have the title for Ouch early on, or was it taken from Online Games or Fall For Me?

The title was really a eureka moment for me – I had all of the songs written and was just spit-balling ideas. I originally came up with Ouch as the title for Online Games before deciding that it summed up the themes of all 3 songs pretty well. It was actually going to be ‘(Ouch!)’ but then I came up with the cover art concept and, well, the brackets wouldn’t really work with vertically stacked boxes.

A little titbit about the “ouch” in Fall For Me – it was actually the last thing I added to the whole EP! The track felt like it needed a little push into the final chorus, so I took the clip from Online Games, sped it up a little, and threw it in on a whim. I think it really ties the collection of songs together and is now one of my favourite things from the EP.

4. Online Games is really a press release on this whole new era, was the writing of this song what kickstarted the process of Ouch and the possibility that your music could go a whole different way?

I’ve always loved spoken-word style rap; my first video on YouTube is actually an original song with one of my fastest rap sections. The structure of Ghost is extremely similar to the structure of this song, rap included.

Online Games in particular started as a different song entirely that I didn’t quite vibe with, except for one section of the backing track. I decided to loop it and thought that it lent itself really well to a relaxed rap style. I was looking for an outlet to express my need for change, and it felt like the perfect opportunity, especially as it tied in with how I rap on Ghost, which I had already written at that point. It’s not that I needed to justify the rebrand or anything, but I always opt for honesty and transparency. I really wanted to convey that although the music sounds a little different, it still has the same heart.

5. Was Ghost always going to be the lead single for Ouch, or was it tough to choose?

Oh definitely: it was the first one I wrote, and it was originally more similar to my ukuletea-style music. I was still finding my footing with what direction to go in, but it felt like an ideal stepping stone to transition to Syllvie with (especially with the shock-factor of bringing back my rapping; I don’t think a lot of my newer audience had heard me rap before Ghost.)

Ghost really fell into the lead single role after I got a piece of advice from a teacher at college – he’s been in the industry as the lead singer of Euphoria Audio, and I really respect his feedback. The original chorus of Ghost had a drop down in energy, which retrospectively I agree fell a little flat. Taking his advice to update it in turn kickstarted my desire to make more fun and upbeat music this era, even if I still write about themes that hurt a little, as a more positive way to process things. I think the new highs of my music also work to emphasize the more intense moments, like the ending of Ghost, which I’m particularly proud of.

6. The ukulele solo at the end of Fall For Me is a small touch of the Ukuletea days. Do you see yourself keeping in touch with your signature instrument or is it likely you'll continue to move away from it?

I’m so glad you asked about this, I loved adding that uke moment so much. I’ll definitely always stick with the uke (especially since I have, what, 13 of them now? I lose track). I think it’s such a brilliant little instrument with so much potential – all of the tracks on the EP were written and recorded on the uke! Anything that sounds like a guitar in the EP is likely a ukulele with a bunch of effects slapped on – learning about production has really widened my possibilities.

7. The subject matter for Ghost and Fall For Me is different from Online Games, were the former tracks inspired by personal experience?

My songs have always been based on reality with an added dash of fiction – Online Games is probably the most accurate to my own experiences, but Ghost is the most personal to me, even if it delves more into hypotheticals. The emotions are all real, though. Fall For Me on the other hand is the chaos child of the EP – I wanted it to be some amped-up fantasy where I satirically imagine stringing someone along only to let them down for fun, emphasised by the wilder rock-inspired feel. In the 2nd verse, however, I admit that it’s all just a bit of a joke, and that it does just kind of hurt to feel cast aside (hence the “ouch”). That bit is definitely based on personal experiences, but the aim of the song was to let myself indulge in something more light-hearted, if a little sardonic.

8. The promotional video for your EP reveal could've easily been the start of a music video for Online Games, will there be anything beyond the lyric videos you've already made for the tracks?

I actually considered making a music video out of it, but it just would’ve been too difficult at the time since I created the set, shot, and edited all promotional material by myself. I have quite a few creative friends studying film and media related subjects at university, so I’m definitely considering making a low-budget music video for Online Games next year, maybe as a promotional campaign to boost the EP a little a year after the release.

9. The artwork for Ouch features the title of the EP in alphabet building blocks, what was the journey in finding that style and colour scheme for the concept art?

I had so much fun coming up with the concept! I immediately thought the alphabet blocks would work well with the title ‘Ouch’ – I wanted to convey the more bold and fun energy of my new music with a colour blocked visual. The four letters of the title lent themselves nicely to the four main rainbow colours, and I worked with a friend to finalize the concept and outfit so it’d pop against a deep red background. (Another fun titbit - I was adamant on a red backdrop after racking up around 300 hours designing my Animal Crossing island based around the colour of its native fruit, cherries.)

The primary colours were a huge step away from the pastel pinks and purples of my time as Ukuletea – this was my first time opting for photography over digital art for all promotional content, so I wanted something that could really pop. I don’t think I’d be able to capture more muted tones with as much dynamic flair on camera as my artist Wumbsie did with their art. Plus, the bright colours just seemed to slot into place with the concept. It’s funny though - in real life, I opt for a wardrobe full of black, browns, and tans. In some way, this lets me explore a more confident side of myself that I don’t tend to show in my day-to-day life.

This whole process was possibly my favourite of the year-long journey: I’m actually starting a media course at University this year, so seeing the concept come to life as well as I’d hoped (in a cobbled-together set in my living room of all places) really reassured me in my academic choices.

10. You've spoken on your youtube channel about your desire to play live, is there a dream support slot you'd love to find yourself in?

I am so glad you asked this question for the sole reason that it lets me name-drop Emma Blackery. I’ve mentally dabbled with the idea of shooting her a message (though I don’t know who makes the call on choosing her support acts) but I will most definitely be sub-tweeting the idea in cowardice with the hopes that she’ll pick up on my brainwaves.

I’d also love to support Cavetown one day, I’ve looked up to his writing and production for a while now. I was meant to be seeing my friend (again, Smoothboi Ezra, God of music) supporting his London show this past April (which was unfortunately cancelled). If Ezra tours the UK within the next few years, I’m absolutely tagging along. No sub-tweeting needed this time, they know I’m coming along as a support act and/or hype-man.

11. Further to that question, what would a Syllvie headline show look like if you were given a blank cheque and all the resources? Is there an ultimate venue you'd love to play?

A realistic Syllvie show would be me dragging along the human-sized stack of IKEA storage- I mean, ‘Ouch’ boxes, ahem, and hoping they don’t topple down mid-set. On a dream scale, I’d love to have even bigger versions of the boxes as set pieces and some nice rainbow lighting. As long as I have free reign to bop around the stage, I’m happy – it’s half of the reason I ditched the live uke, unless they make wireless pickups for them? That’d be cool. I think it could be fun to have a ukulele thrown on stage last minute so I can shred the riff at the end of Fall For Me, but I’d definitely need to brush up on my uke skills.

Any dream venue at this stage for me would seem a little on the small side to most, since I’m definitely a realist. That being said, I’d love to play a couple of venues in Nottingham – the Bodega, the Rescue Rooms etc. They’re only little, but Notts has my heart.

12. The reception for the Ouch EP and your re-brand has been great! Are there more releases planned for 2020? Were the three songs for Ouch part of a larger batch of writing?

Thank you! I’d love to say yes, but in reality, it’s taken me around a year just to execute a 3-track EP – I think part of it is due to my journey with learning production, and partly just because I did every single element by myself (though I wouldn’t have it any other way for now). It’s slightly odd trying to get back into writing after all this time spent solely producing, but I’m hoping to work on a couple of collaborative singles soon! This should shave a lot of time off my abysmal production speed, since I’ve always been a lot quicker with writing lyrics and melodies. 

For the most part, I’m just going to be trying to balance making music with University in the coming years – I’m sure I’ll be getting a lot more inspiration from there!

Syllvie has a small batch of Ouch CDs available here for purchase: https://syllviemusic.bigcartel.com/product/ouch-physical-ep

Follow Syllvie @syllviemusic on instagram and twitter.