‘The Internet’ coming to Sydney and we are losing our sh*t over it

By admin

This article was originally published on Project U. Written by Shir Dekel.

I asked Sydney Bennett, also known as Syd Tha Kyd, some questions about her successes with The Internet (recently nominated for a Grammy), and was surprised at how differently she considered her relationship with the Odd Future group to Wikipedia’s description of her as being “one of the main producers in Odd Future.”

Also she needs to review her basic shapes.

First I’d like to play a game: Mohawks and Mullets. One thing good and one thing bad from the US tour you just had.

Haha. I think that despite being a little sick, the show went really well. We had really supportive audiences. They were really understanding and still supported clapped. And one bad thing… it’s hard, I don’t know. You’re on the road for, like, six or seven weeks so it’s hard to think of one bad thing, because you’re with the band so much, but it always works out. We always apologise and make up. Also I got sick, and that sucked.

What have you been up to since the end of the tour?

I’ve been at home writing songs and trying to get healthy.

In February you’re coming to Australia. Do you have time to hang out? Any specific things you’re keen to do while you’re here?

I think we have time to hang around and do the usual stuff, which is cool because normally we don’t have time. We just want to go to the beach and the mall and sightsee, because we don’t normally get to do that on tour.

The new songs you say you’re writing, are those for a new record?

Probably not. I’m writing a lot of songs at the moment because I enjoy it. I don’t know who these songs are going to be for. Hopefully somebody else can sing them for me.

Are they more toward the kind of sound of The Internet or Odd Future?

Neither. I’m writing songs for other people. I haven’t been making beats in a while now. I’ve just been focusing on songwriting lyrics and melodies. I’ve been writing some songs to things that I’ve produced. I’m trying to send them out and see if any other singers like them and would be open to singing them.

Awesome. When you did produce for Odd Future, did you simply make the beat and send it in, or because you had a closer connection to them did you find that that process changed?

Well I only really produced for Mike G, so I wouldn’t really call myself an Odd Future producer, because I only made beats for one person in Odd Future. They all recorded in my studio so I didn’t really have to send anything, I’d just kind of make something and Mike G would ask if he could have it, and I would say yes.

There have been quite a few ruffled feathers from Odd Future in the last few years, and I’m not going to go into any specifics, because it’s been done to death. But after all that, do you have any regrets? Is it still the same working with them after all that?

I have no regrets, but we don’t really work together anymore so there are no issues, just friends now!

So have you now officially splintered off and honed in on pursuing The Internet?

We’ve spent last couple of months trying to detach ourselves a little bit. It’s mostly worked, detaching ourselves from Odd Future, but we’ve still got a lot of questions about it.

Why did you decide to move away from the Odd Future clan in the first place?

Because people often make assumptions about what you sound like based on who you’re associated with, and we sound nothing like the rest of Odd Future, so we didn’t want people to be getting that impression.

Why did you decide to call yourselves The Internet?

It was a joke. Someone asked Left Brain where he was from and he got tired of people asking him that so he started telling people he was from the internet.

If you had to pick a shape to describe the band, what would it be?

Whichever one has six sides.

Hexagon.

Yes.

Why that? Because of the six members?

Yep.

I understand that you started the band with Matt and some of the other guys from Odd Future. What are the roles like when you write songs? Does one person write more and the other produces more, or is it fairly even?

I write more and Matt produces more. Steve [Lacy] did a lot of production on Ego Death so we made him an executive producer. Everyone else makes beats on their own here and there. Like, Jameel [Bruner] andChris [Smith] will make a beat, Patrick [Paige] and Jameel will make a beat, or Steve and Chris will make a beat. So just whatever comes out of any of us it’s kind of automatically kind of assumed first dibs for an Internet project. We then kinda listen to the beats that everyone was making and then I pick a few that were my favourites and Matt will pick a few of his favourites and we just decided to hone in on those selections until they were finished.

You said before that you “came into the industry in such a kind of ‘fuck you’ situation.” Do you still have some of that cynicism?

Um, I don’t understand that. I’m kind of just, I don’t know, I’m just doing what I’m doing. The industry can be very… fake, at times and I’m not engulfed in it, I don’t really feel like I’m a part of it completely, and I like it that way. I don’t really let the industry affect what I’m doing.

That’s great. You were just nominated for a Grammy, so congrats, first of all. How was it finding out?

It was really great. It woke me up at 6:00 in the morning, so I was a little bit agitated, but that was short lived. I told my parents and yeah, drank some champagne to celebrate.

So is that cynicism that you have in conflict of these more mainstream industry awards?

No, I don’t see it that way. I think its great that… you know, I didn’t expect the nomination, and maybe that’s because of the industry, or maybe just because of my own insecurities, but I don’t think it really has much to do with it.

So you don’t think that even if you won, it would have some bearing on how you make music?

It will probably make our music more expensive.

Is that a good thing?

Yes. Means we make more money.

If you had to describe your new album Ego Death as a body of water, what would it be?

I would call it a river because I think it has a nice flow. I think the songs flow really well into one another.

Did you really kind of sit down and figure out the specific order you want them to then flow?

Yes.

How much is that influenced by you versus the whole band?

Matt is usually the one that starts playing with the track order first. He came up with most of it. It just wantedGet Away to be the first track and everything else was Matt. He’d come up to me and be like “what do you think?” and I’d be like “yeah”, or “nah.” But he’s really good at that.

Do you have any specific aspirations that are a bit more long term than just the upcoming tour?

Just writing more, writing for other people as much as possible.

Why is that? Why for other people specifically?

there are other singers out there who can really execute my songs better than I can.

So do you find yourself ever writing for a particular person, or is it a more general songwriting process?

Usually it’s general, but lately it’s been somewhat specific.

So what kind of people do you hope will sing your stuff?

No, there is someone, but I don’t want to jinx it.

I understand. Thanks Syd, enjoy the rest of your time and the beaches when you’re in Australia.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

See them at The Metro when they are in town!