EMQs With Sypha
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with UK Metal band, Sypha. Huge thanks to their Guitarist, Alfred, for taking part.
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
Hello, I’m Alfred and I play guitar in Sypha! We’re an energetic Metal band from Brighton and we formed in 2022. We originally met in university and quickly found that we all had aspirations in music – and after a few practices and pints, Sypha was born.
How did you come up with your band name?
There’s a video game and Netflix series called Castlevania which is all about vampires, witches, ghouls (you get it). We take huge influence from this series’ spooky and gory nature. Sypha Belnades was a character we all loved so we thought we’d name the band after her!
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
We’re from Brighton, UK. Brighton is a great place to be inspired by the local music, because you can walk down most streets in town and there’ll usually be a band playing somewhere. Our local Metal scene is one of the most welcoming and friendliest scenes we know, and we’re honoured to be a part of it.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)
Our track (and accompanying music video) ‘Limbo’. It’s probably our heaviest and fastest song we’ve ever released and shows the darker side of our sound. We had such a blast filming the music video too, and I think it shows in the final product.
Who have been your greatest influences?
As a band, all of our musical influences are wildly different from each other, which is why we’re inspired by such a wide range of artists such as Motorhead, Architects, Spiritbox, Green Day and even McFly. We think that combining these creates a pretty unique sound for us that we’re very proud of.
What first got you into music?
Our family and friends growing up played a massive part in getting us all into music. For me, my first show at 11 years old was seeing Motorhead in Brighton with my dad, after that I knew I wanted to be on stage, performing metal music.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
Poppy! We’ve loved listening to her latest album, especially the heavier tracks like ‘They’re All Around Us’.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Download Festival. We’ve all been there as fans and definitely daydreamed a few times about being on that stage!
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
Nothing too weird (yet!), we have been asked to sign a few posters and take selfies (which we’re still getting used to – in the best way). One guy once requested we have a shot with him though, that was pretty cool.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
“Thank you!”. Honestly we’re always so amazed that people genuinely like our music haha. So whenever someone comes to see us live, buys some merch, or streams our music online – we’re so thankful!
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
LEMMY!
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
Playing on stage is one of the best feelings ever, especially when we are really connecting and vibing with the audience.
There’s nothing we hate about being a musician, I think one of our least favourite things to do is keeping up with social media – it’s a great way to connect with our fans but requires a lot of time that could be spent writing new music.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
As a musician, you’re not expected to do it for the money, but do it for the passion. We have a huge amount of love and passion for our music, but recording, touring, buying merch etc all costs a lot of money. We’d love for some more government funding in grassroots music, and more financial help for small bands to help them grow.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
“Scream Aim Fire” by Bullet For My Valentine was the first album that truly got me into taking guitar seriously. I learned the whole album back to front and became a much better player and writer because of it.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
Vinyl! Loving that it’s making a comeback recently.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
We recently played a show at Concorde 2 in front of around 300 people which was our largest crowd to date. We were all so nervous before going on stage, but it couldn’t have gone better! We really connected with the crowd and made some great new friends after the show too.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
Well we all have full time jobs outside of Sypha, so probably that (just a bit more dead inside)
What’s next for the band?
We have our debut EP ‘BORDERLAND’ releasing in January 2025, and we’ll be following that up with our first ever UK tour and some awesome festivals including Breaking Bands and Hammerdown Festival.
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
You can find us on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook: @syphaband
Time for a very British question now. As an alternative to the humble sandwich, is the correct name for a round piece of bread common in the UK either a Bap, a Barm (or Barm Cake), a Batch, a Bun, a Cob, a Muffin, a Roll, or a Tea Cake?
We’re from the south east, so always a roll!
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Thanks for interviewing us! We’re so excited for the future of Sypha, it’s going to be a lot heavier, darker and energetic – so please keep an eye out for our next releases 🙂
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