Syron

Daisy ‘Syron Russell’ is a 19 year old singer from South East London who The Line Of Best Fit have been going potty over ever since ‘Breaking’ first found its way in to our ears. We’re not the only ones either, with a healthy amount of anticipation currently being shared throughout the indiesphere (with The xx themselves being devoted fans, apparently). We talk with Syron about the gestation of her songs, their future, and her apparent total immunity to pressure.

Hello Syron! How does it feel to have all this attention around you after just the few – admittedly rather great – songs, remixes and guest appearances doing the rounds?

It’s great – I’m really grateful for the support I’ve got from everyone. And I’m really happy with how the remixes have all worked out too.

Do you ever wish you had a bit more time to form things in private, or have things been building up for a length of time that most people confronted with your music might not be aware of?

At the moment I still get a lot of time to write and be creative on my own. Of course everything takes work before it being online or accessible to people, but I still do – at the moment – get a lot of time to perfect things in private.

How are you at dealing with pressure and expectation – from an outside perspective, it seems that there might be quite a lot of it at the minute?

I don’t really think of anything as pressure. This is what I’ve always wanted to do; I think it’s important that it’s always fun, and real.

Your mix-tape is both an enlightening and really enjoyable listen – is it right to think of you as something of a connoisseur when it comes to pop music? If so, what is it about it that you love?

The mix-tape is mixture of old school and new skool stuff, songs that I’ve loved for years or stuff that I’ve heard recently and fallen in love with, with a lot of demos of my own. I think I just love good music.

What was it about ‘Breaking’ that made you pick it as the track to properly introduce yourself to folks – is it indicative of your sound on the whole?

I wouldn’t say that it was exactly the same sound as the rest of my stuff – I think once it’s album time there’ll be a lot of surprises on there. However, I do think ‘Breaking’ was a good thing for people to hear first, as it’s got a lot of genres influencing it.

Some less than glamorous London cityscapes in the video give ‘Breaking’ a real feeling of place – do you think your surroundings have much of an effect on the music you make, either in what you sing about or the sound overall?

100%. I’ve always lived in different parts of South East London. When I first started going out it was always garage nights, but now I tend to go to house or bashment nights which are my favourite. The nights out I go on have always influenced my own music. With lyrics, it’s definitely influenced by where I’m from, my everyday life.

Do you prefer working with others generally, or alone?

I think working with everyone has just given me more experience. MNEK wrote the Rudimental song ‘Spoons’ and it was great working with him, and all of them, really. I think it’s just a totally different thing working alone. I enjoy both, but at the moment I think I prefer alone.

You recently did some shows in Ibiza as a live PA for Tensnake – how was the experience, and how do you think it compares to a Syron live show?

Ibiza with Tensnake was amazing. It was my first time there and it was insane, but so much fun. When I just do shows of my own stuff, at the moment it’s just me singing and a girl I live with, Midge, who DJs my set live. We’re looking to get another girl in the mix to play keys and doing backing vocals – that will be well fun.

What’s next for Syron – singles, collaborations, more mixtapes and live shows… an album? All or none of the above? Go on, wind us up a bit.

Well obviously the Tensnake single comes out soon. Following that, my second single comes out in January, then an album at some point after that. But who knows, maybe I’ll throw another mix tape out there in between…

Syron will appear live alongside Foxes and Best Fit Recordings’ own FAYE at Madame Jojo’s, London on October 23 and on the Best Fit Stage at the Fear Of Fiction Festival in Bristol on November 10.