Exclusive Q&A with Sir Sly
Sir Sly
A Spiritual Reawakening.
Southern California alternative rock trio Sir Sly is on the cusp of releasing their third studio album, slated for the first half of 2021. Lead singer Landon Jacobs, keyboardist Jason Suwito and drummer Hayden Coplen have had a challenging year like the rest of us. They have channeled these thoughts and feelings in Landon's raw poetry centering around mostly dark themes of alcoholism, addiction, and loneliness. But not all of the songs are sonically dark. The first single "Material Boy" is lyrically heavy on spirituality and purpose, but musically it's an upbeat, dancefloor-ready pop banger. Brand new single "Little Deaths" is a delightful slow burn folk-rock ditty about habits that we resort to when covering our true problems.
On Sir Sly's forthcoming album, elements of Imagine Dragons, Twenty One Pilots, Bon Iver, and Muse may come to mind. Without a doubt, Sir Sly should be touring with any of these bands, as their indie-rock songs effortlessly infuse electronic production elements, like the acts mentioned above. Beyond the new material, feeling compelled to address concerns about racial injustice in America over the summer, Sir Sly released a cover of one of their favorite songs, "Karma Police" by Radiohead, and earlier this year, the moody, falsetto fantasy "All Your Love", co-produced by Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan. Sir Sly's Landon Jacobs so generously spoke with IndieWavves about new songs he hopes to play on tour one day soon and how the pandemic has made it difficult dealing with sobriety and feelings of isolation due to shuttered AA meetings. The must-listen-to-ballad "Numb" could be just what we all need not only to survive but to thrive and to wake up.
IndieWavves: Hi Landon, it seems like lockdown has been extremely hard for you with the pandemic this year. But you went to Mammoth to get away and shot a music video there. It sounds like there has been some self-care. It's important for creatives; hell, it's essential for all of us. What has been the hardest for you and Jason and Hayden?
Sir Sly: I can only speak for myself, although Hayden and I are pretty close, and we have talked a lot about this. Jason is more to himself, we talk, but he doesn't speak as much about emotional stuff. For me, I think it's difficult not being able to go to 12 Step meetings. I do 12 Step stuff for sobriety, so not being able to go to in-person meetings is hard, and it's hard to combat being isolated. To have those tools be stripped away is difficult, and to have the album process slow down has made it a pretty disruptive year overall.
IW: On the upcoming record, you have a new song, "Thx", a beautiful, emotive ballad. Same with "Numb", a real standout on the album. There's lots of pain in this song, and you are saying a lot of things most would never have the words to say. Where was your head during these songs?
SS: "Numb" and "Thx" are kind of flipsides of the coin. "Numb" was written when I was still drinking, and I was having a lot of panic attacks and suicide ideation. The lyric is "I want to drink til I'm numb". When I was out drinking with people and my mind is always running at 100%, it's always exhausting. I like to drink because it brings me to like 70% processing power because it helped the drinking until it started to hurt. It helped to manage some of my pervasive anxiety that I've always sort of lived with. Really the whole song is retelling little snip-its. There's not really a story there. It's painful snip-its or things that are haunting me. The opening line is, "I want to go to sleep and not wake up, I want a simple dress and no makeup, I want to fight with you and not make up, my love. I've been like this for too long".
SS: Those are just like my #1 problems in life, centered around romantic issues, or I've put a lot of pressure on romantic issues. The simple dress and no makeup is about cross-dressing. I still own dresses and stuff. That was something I was doing a lot. I was always hoping people didn't misunderstand it. It's definitely about me, I liked wearing dresses, but I didn't like full cross-dressing. I'm not into drag; I just like wearing women's clothes. Now I have a big beard, and it doesn't work quite as well. Then I had like long, wavy hair. I didn't wear makeup and stuff, so that line wearing a simple dress and no makeup is about me.
There's a lot of stuff there about psych meds and a lot of stuff. It's a smattering of things I've thought about on a consistent basis about things that give me anxiety or shame. On the flipside, "Thx" is about getting sober. It's specifically about 12 Step work - Step 3. I remember crying on the beach, reciting Step 3, and having a little bit of a precursor to "Material Boy". "Thx" is about that, kind of looking forward and on to this idea of making amends and peace with some people I have hurt, specifically with my girlfriend. "Numb" is the extreme low point of the album, and "Thx" is supposed to be a sense of peace; there's a sense of grief in there too. (We must include that following the interview, we learned that the talented Bishop Briggs is the girlfriend Landon is referencing.)
IW: "Little Deaths" is a timeless folk-rock song with a chorus of soothing harmonies. This is one that you definitely need to quiet down for at a live show. This was just released last week. Can you talk about your new single?
SS: It's a song about - I was already sober. It's about letting go of some peripheral habits, and I still have a nicotine habit for sure. I was thinking about quitting smoking or in the middle of transitional smoking, and now I'm a douchey vaper. I was smoking all the time. It was about letting go of some bad peripheral habits and things that are still controlling me or have control over me. And also a little bit along the same lines as what are these things aimed at. One thing that I keep coming back to is feeling alone or feeling disconnected. Maybe these habits or addictions are tied to these feelings of being disconnected.
IW: And on "Material Boy", you even give a nice pop culture nod to Madonna with the lyric "I'ma material boy". There's kind of a lot of depth to this lively, dancey pop song. Can you talk a little about your spiritual reawakening, shall we say on this one?
SS: It's pretty simple really, I grew up really Christian and then was no longer Christian and then had no real anchor for spirituality. And in discovering the 12 Step world, it's pretty spiritually-rooted, not religious, but a lot of prayers. I learned transcendental meditation and practiced that every day. My working definition of spirituality is becoming comfortable with not knowing, 'cause I think the idea of shutting down anything spiritual is about an attempt to control things or to say that there is nothing bigger to know. There are plenty of things I don't know, but the best thing I can do is try to be good to the people around me and to be good to myself, and to be supportive and empathetic. And to leave more of a bubble than the world I came into. It's a pretty weak version of spirituality, and I'm not a Buddhist monk; I'm just a simple west coast American. I go to 12 Step programs and try to be good to people. I think three, four years ago, I would have kind of scoffed at a song like that [Material Boy]. I would have been like, cool, go read some Tarot cards or read astrological charts, nerd. Time has a way of changing things, and sobriety has tilted the compass a couple of degrees.
IW: Of the new songs coming up on your 2021 release, what are you most looking forward to performing live?
SS: We have been playing "Material Boy", I think that one will be fun. The songs people can sing along to are always great. I think I am most looking forward to listening to a song called "I.M.G." There's some pretty raging guitars in there and some really cool drum stuff. I think songs like "Little Deaths" are fun too. It reminds me of midday at Coachella or slow songs by The War On Drugs. We had a great time playing 2 P.M. at a lot of festivals. Sunset mainstage would be a pretty sweet spot, but I feel like we are a nighttime band.
Written by Michael Menachem
Photo by Kevin Clark