Artist info
Genre
Metal, Rock
Sounds like
Deftones, Smashing Pumpkins, Muse, Slipknot
band members
Dana Roskvist - Vocals, Guitar, Programming | Sean Bailey - Drums, Percussion | Adam Murray - Bass, Backing Vocals, Percussion | Ant Connelly - Guitars, Vocals
Influences
Tool, Isis, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins
Unearthed artists we like
Twelve Foot Ninja, Winterun, ink, 1QA, Bachelor Of Arts, Number Station, RooK, Mushroom Giant, Fire Underground
Bio
Unequivocally one of Australia's most diverse, celebrated and unique heavy bands, Sydonia are returning in 2016 with a brand new album under their arms and their hearts on their sleeves. A new guitarist in Ant Connelly sees a harder, faster approach to songwriting - the as-yet-unnamed record seeing some of the bands heaviest songs to date being laid down.
Their previous album, ‘Reality Kicks’ was chosen as one of Lochlan Watt (triple j The Racket)’s best of 2014, played solidly on triple j, Triple M, AndrewHaugRadio, ProgPalace Radio and more, did amazing numbers on their Australia-Wide tour and received critical praise at all turns. The four-piece, consisting of Dana Roskvist on Guitars and Vocals, Adam Murray on Bass and Vocals, Ant Connelly on Guitars and Sean Bailey on Drums, are now veterans of the Australian Music scene - but are consistently bringing fresh sounds to what defines 'heavy'.
Sydonia have released 2 full-length albums and a handful of EPs, toured Australia as a headliner as well as with Slipknot, Stone Sour, Lamb of God, Korn, Machine Head, Between the Buried and Me, Trivium, In Flames, Snot & Hed PE, Dead Letter Circus, Voyager, Caligula's Horse, Mammal and more, as well as touring the USA as main support to Stone Sour. An army of loyal fans throng to shows and you may even spot a relic of their classic t-shirt design in the crowd - an "I fucked the chick from Sydonia" design from the first album era.
Sydonia will release their third full-length album in 2016 and will be touring late in the year.
"Sydonia is a band that exemplifies the word 'diverse'. The best of pop sensibilities is tempered at times with brutal angst. 'No Woman's Land' is a song that should be playing on every radio station in every city on this planet!” - Randy Blythe - Lamb of God
Sydonia is drenched in dreamy vocals and powerful choruses complimented by huge guitars and pounding rhythm section.
Describe your music.
I always have difficulty with this question so… It’s been said that our sound currently defies genre so best to describe it as a four piece alternative rock band laden with lush to crunching guitars, tasty bass lines with pounding drums and percussion, all complimented by dreamy melodies of an angel that morph effortlessly into monster-like gang vocal.
How did your band get together?
Technically, Sydonia stems back to 1997 via Adam and Dana playing on the Sunshine Coast (my artwork appears on the first EP, although I wasn’t in the band at the time). The Sydonia we know today came together in Melbourne on St Patrick’s Day 2003 @ The Duke of Windsor (R.I.P) Prahran. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, we flew around like a mystical beast. To this day, people point and yell “Hey! Look! It’s some kind of mystical beast. Will it eat us? Are we safe from its mystical ways? That looks like fun, can we ride on you?” We can’t say for sure…we just can’t say.
What's the best thing about being in Sydonia?
I love being able to travel through Oz with my best friends in the world…Dorothy, Tinman and the Lion. I only hope when I awake, that we’ll all have learned a valuable lesson…and with that new found wisdom, use it as collateral to take out a loan that will allow us to travel the rest of the world together.
...and the worst?
There really is nothing bad about being in Sydonia…except dealing with their reluctance to study under Madonna’s dance troupe in order to improve our choreography as we head down the inevitable boy-band path.
You're set to support Lamb of God. Excited? How are you preparing for those gigs?
We are ecstatic about playing with Lamb of God. Diamonds cannot cut our nipples, we are that excited. To have LOG’s lead-singer Randy contact us last year after buying our album from Rare Records, St Kilda was like a beam of light. When Dana received the email, it had us giggling like school girls…nothing out of the ordinary other than we put on our favourite nighties to read it. He just wanted to see us play is all so he was nice enough to put in a good word with the promoter in hope of maybe having us on the bill. The planets aligned and now we are away as their national support. We have book ended their 5 day national tour with our own Close to the Brink tour spanning 12 more dates throughout the country. As we are independent artists, we are preparing the entire tour ourselves. Sleep! Ha! Thing of the past… or the dead.
What have you got planned for the future?
In the near future, we’ll be organising an extensive East Coast Tour in the winter months. Then another National tour over the late Spring/early summer months which will hopefully stem into the festival circuit so by this time next year we can seriously consider heading overseas to release and tour.
Australian music is...
…part of you and me…the sexy part.
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New choonz from Sydonia? Always a good thing. Some more classy, well-sung, proggish rock that balances some tender hooks with some savage lines. Diggin.
New choonz from Sydonia? Always a good thing. Some more classy, well-sung, proggish rock that balances some tender hooks with some savage lines. Diggin.