A one on one chat with the members of Syrum
| Now they’re part of a new project called Syrum, which includes the beautiful and talented Donna Krochak, who in a very short time that they have been together, have got much further than any other band of this calibre in the area that I know of. Their talent exudes that of their peers because they are dedicated to their dreams and want to succeed. I had an interview with them a week back before their CD release party which was on May 10, at the Rogers Music Festival in Hamilton at the Corktown Tavern. Here is a transcript of our chat. Lucid Forge: Hey all! Thanks so much for coming. Let’s just dive right into it, how did you four meet? Zach Gagnon: I’m Simon’s brother. Simon Gagnon: I was in high school in grade 12 computers, and Marco was assistant teacher. We went to a Metallica show and that’s where we started talking about a band. We got together to jam and that formed Fatal Unity… the singer was not dependable so we had to move on. |
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Donna Krochak: I went to elementary school with Simon, and he saw on Facebook that I was a singer. He contacted me and now here I am.
Marco Bilich: We started jamming and doing whatever, and as we started to move along we played a quick show at the Pheasant Plucker upstairs in Hamilton. People dug it so we decided to continue. We were going to do acoustic only but it escalated from that because we liked the different sounds.
ZG: It was about a year and a half or two years since I had done anything with bands, but they asked him and he just made the decision to join.
LF: So why did you choose to call the band Syrum? How did you come up with the name?
SG: There is a chat site called “Meet Me” in TO, my nickname was Syrum on there. We didn’t want something that defined us and gave us a label already like Fatal Union, people thought death metal with a name like that.
MB: We had a bunch of ideas and that was the one that stood out and sounded more like it had a next level name to it rather than a regular garage band.
LF: How long have you guys been together?
Syrum: Technically: five years. Officially with this project: going on a year.
LF: What made you all get into music?
ZG: My father and uncle. Dad brought us up with as much music as he could, at the time it was the Beatles and Pink Floyd. I tried the drums that were in the garage and just went from there.
SG: My family is just musical in general. I play guitar. We thought we were going to be the next Hanson (Simon laughs at this remark). We just like having a good time with people enjoying themselves.
DK: I am a dancer and it started with that. My sisters and I used to make up routines in my room. When I got to high school I joined the choir and became a choir geek, then I got the lead in a play and it escalated from there.
MB: My parents pushed my siblings and I to play piano, but I got tired of it. Growing up I liked the heavier music like Iron Maiden, and Metallica. I loved how the guitar sounded beautiful even when it was distorted. I did three years in high school and then started learning on my own. I picked up the bass and could keep tempo and I started to learn harder bass such as stuff from Cake or Chilli Peppers, they take the bass to the next level. Playing bass almost feels like playing the solo, it’s pretty organic.
LF: How do you feel about how far you are now?
ZG: Compared to the last band we had it’s been a lot quicker. Our old band didn’t really get a producer or anything. It didn’t take long to get here and now we are trying to see how far we are going to take it until we get to the next level
SG: The same goals go with this project as with Fatal Union. It was easy to see where we went wrong and we just knew what we had to do. It became more mainstream, we wanted to do it right: get a producer, spend the money, make it serious and take it seriously! It has been in the works for three years but with this project we have got a lot further than expected.
MB: It has been a whirlwind since November; it’s pretty nuts. Now we are part of Canadian Music Week, most bands don’t get this unless they know someone. Usually it costs the band money to play but to get into the show is hard enough. Getting the producer was the best thing to do. Working with the producer and having an outside ear has been a huge help as far as the way the album will turn out. An album may sound good to you, but when working with a producer they point out things that we didn’t think would have been as good or even possible.
LF: So how does the producer help you guys out?
SG: When a producer is there he helps the group stay as a group. We all have different ideas and that gets difficult. Having a medium to sit there and filter out all the bad and keep the same vision and direction is where the producer comes in.
ZG: It’s great but it gets frustrating at times. When you want to go one place, he convinces you to stick to your guns.
DK: It’s great to have that direction for all of us.
LF: What do you find difficult about the music industry?
SG: We were pretty much told by our producer that it is almost impossible to make it as a band and get to a large scale level. It’s very difficult because there are so many bands out today. It’s nerve racking to think about the other 700,000 bands that we have to compete with in just Ontario alone. You have to have something different, something other than they have in order to get further.
MB: I was talking to Britt Black on Facebook and I asked her what one of the worst things about having a female lead are. She said that guys, for some reason, want to hear guys singing, but it all depends on how the music sounds. It’s hard to place our stuff into a specific genre it’s not quite punk/rock or anything like that. If you ask people what song they like most you will probably hear a lot of different answers.
ZG: In terms of culture, guys want to hear things that are more aggressive. If it’s a female lead, you want to hear that feminine aspect to sell but it also needs the raw vocals. We want the gritty raw voice but we still can make it aggressive and stand out. We don’t have sweet vocals, we have gritty raw rocking vocals, and we have a song for every type of mood you could be in.
DK: We all bring something different to the table.
SG: People can relate to the music. That’s what we wanted when we were writing. We wanted something generic but something you could relate to.
DK: We would get a better connection with people that are more real.
ZG: Less cryptic and more raw.
LF: Do you have any pointers on how people that are serious about music and bands to get into it, get known, and get going?
SG: Spend the money on the producer and a manager if you are serious, it just relives stress. You need to be ready to invest a lot of money! We have a CD and a producer, [now] we are getting shows and we have interviews. It’s so well worth it to get a producer even just to get one vision of where you want to go.
MB: You need a lot of patience and time. We have been together for five years ploughing through things it takes that trial and error to get the experience. Donna is walking in at the perfect time, when we already have figured out what is going on. We just needed to find that right moment. It’s easy to get discouraged if you are not patient and willing to put in the time. There is a lot of opportunity out there but it takes a lot to get that opportunity, you have to do the work. We needed to sacrifice things in order to get where we are but we have something that is radio worthy material now. Time and patience are the most important things when you are trying to be in a band and go far!
LF: Awesome, thanks so much for your time guys, that about covers what I wanted to cover.
Syrum: No problem, thank you.
Syrum’s website can be found at www.syrum.ca and on My Space soon. Keep your eyes on the website for upcoming shows, possibly the end of June or early July at either the Corktown Tavern or Absinthe in Hamilton.
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