sym fera – AN INTERVIEW WITH THE ELUSIVE DUO

By Ralph Beauchamp

There aren’t too many mysteries in the current music scene. Bands are over scrutinized and are constantly bearing all on social media platforms. L.A. based sym fera defies the norm. The esoteric duo have yet to reveal their true identities. In addition,their sound is singular. sym fera delivers elements of atmospheric electronica coupled with airy blues riffs and ethereal vocals. Their music is full of dreamy textures that create a menacing yet beautifully hyponic soundscape. They have revisited their huge 2021 hit “11/8” with an organic remix that is brazenly cinematic. sym fera‘s music is highly emotive and lush with a dramatic edge.

sym fera‘s 2023 single “no/bodies” is a prime example of their sonic creativity. The vocals are exquisite and boldly spellbinding. Plus, the intricate keys totally complement the addictive ambiance. The backbeat is sublime with a divine minimal quality. The aural intermixes provoke a sense of eerie intrigue. sym fera‘s strong songwriting and arrangements have placed them in the forefront of today’s musical landscape.

As to keeping their identities secret, sym fera want to lean into their talent and not rely on connections (not a single industry-based friend has helped them or even known about the project to date). They felt it was important to their artistry. In a statement released to Loudwire last year, the duo stated their single “11/8” is about:

“what it feels like to be a human mind that has been hacked by social media. The paranoia, a manufactured, grandiose identity. The way it turns human psychology into a product to be bought and feasted upon by the highest bidder. We all know that no matter how much we pour ourselves into it, it never really becomes a complete picture of who we are. We’re chasing true connection while running from complete exposure“.

They continue, “and one cannot be had without the other. So, we’re running toward something and away from it at the same time, and we never really capture what we chase or escape what chases us. Strangely, we all kind of know this feeling, of trying to be everything and nothing all at once.”

sym fera was kind enough to give AMP this intriguing interview.

AMP: What was the impetus for the formation of sym fera?

sym fera: At first, it was just pure fun. My partner and I were jamming in clubs together basically every week, just flying by the seat of our pants, no real plan for the future, doing covers or originals or guesting on our friends’ artist projects searching for that high you get from performing live. We wanted to perform long before we had any songs to our names. It eventually seemed second nature to meet during the day and write something for fun.

This project itself went through a few different genres (and names) before we decided to show it to anybody. We’ve never really been able to pick a side and stick with it, but I think that’s how most people are in the streaming age. In our parents’ youth, genres of music were like the loyalty tests of warring tribes. Now everyone I know is pretty eclectic with what they listen to, all genres bleeding into one another, and we think it’s great.

One day after writing two particular songs, we just got a sudden urge to show them to people. I don’t really know why. It just felt like the right time. One of those songs was ’11/8,’ off of our first EP, which we’re about to release a remix bundle of, and it’s the one that was synced to television the most. The other song is coming out later this year.

AMP: Why the mystery concerning the band members?

sym fera: It’s funny, we’ve heard people use that word, mysterious, and I always think that sounds a little bit like we’re trying to be deliberately mysterious. We’re not doing like a Glass Beams or Sleep Token kind of thing; we never really intended the hidden identity aspect to be a focal point of the project. The actual motivation is more about shyness and being a little too precious about the stuff we’re making.

We both have a lot of relationships in the music industry that I think would give people some expectation of what we’re supposed to sound like and look like. And both my partner and I didn’t want any of those expectations. We wanted our stuff to be looked at in a vacuum. But it seems like people are kind of glomming onto the hidden identity thing.

Which I guess is OK. But we’re not trying to be theatrical, we’re just a little worn out on the focus on people’s looks and personalities. So much of the industry (and online life in general) is about who’s got a face that’s pretty enough to sell. So, we just thought we’d remove our faces and lead with our innards and see if that was enough.

AMP: How would you categorize your music?

sym fera: Ah, I feel like I never have a satisfactory answer to this question. Not because we think we’re so great we defy categorization or something, but just because the stuff we love is all so irritatingly eclectic and we’re too greedy to resign to one genre. I feel like everyone I know, young and old, listens to as much Motown as they do EDM and everything in between. I usually just say ‘alternative’ because it’s a word that doesn’t mean anything but seems to satisfy everybody when you say it. Alternative Pop? Alternative Rock? Indie alternative? Pretentious sad bastard music? Post-apocalyptic sex playlist?

I guess we’ll let the streaming services file us away wherever they think we belong, and we’ll keep trying to make that very difficult for them.

AMP: What do you feel is the main ingredient of the band’s dynamic?

sym fera: Too much caffeine, computer addiction, paranoia about the looming apocalypse, and a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms. And our ability to be candid with each other about all those things. It doesn’t help us fix them, but it sure provides a lot of raw material to work with.

AMP: If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be?

sym fera; We actually just collaborated with an artist in New York that would definitely be on that list for me. That song is currently being mixed so I have no idea where it’ll go, but we’re hoping to get it out this year. Wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise.

If we had to pick others, I would say Billie Eilish and Finneas, Tom Waits, Dylan Leblanc, Blake Mills, Moses Sumney, Julia Jacklin… Don’t get us started, we’ll go on forever.

AMP: What are your expectations for and what do you wish to achieve with sym fera?

sym fera: I think we’d like to be on tour and out in the open by the end of the year, that’s definitely one of the short-term plans.

The other is since we seem to have some success in the syncing-to-television space, I think a long-term goal would be to score something, or write the theme song to a cool show like a True Detective, or one of those really gritty ones. That would definitely be a bucket list item. But honestly, anything else that happens is extra credit to me.

The fact that Ozark put us in their show and people looked us up as much as they did, Shazammed us and watched our videos after that, is already so much farther than I pictured we would get. It’s a lot to ask people to exert that much effort for a couple of unknowns. Going forward, it’s the wild west to us, we have no idea what to expect and it’s all quite exciting.

AMP: Is there a record you wished you had written and why?

sym fera: For me, Massive Attack’s Heligoland or Jeff Buckley’s Grace.

For my partner, Perfect Dark by Flyte or creeks by bon iver.

AMP: Are there any tours or live dates upcoming?

sym fera: Not set in stone, but once we come out of the proverbial closet, that’s the next step in the plan. We’ve got a website (symfera.com) and the big socials and all those little necessary evils, so it’ll be plastered all over those if people are interested.

We’ve only done one live show to date, wherein we collected everybody’s phones in bags and obscured our faces with lighting rigs, so although that was a pretty magical experience, we definitely want to do more shows that are easier to produce and don’t require so much cloak and dagger.

AMP: What’s next for sym fera?

sym fera; Next, I think we just drop as much material this year as we can.

We just released a remix bundle EP of the song 11/8 in three drastically different styles.

We’ve got a crazy music video we produced for an upcoming new song that was animated by Josh Shaffner. He’s a one-man powerhouse whose animations you would have seen behind Harry Styles during his last tour, among other things.

And we’ve got a couple collaborations with other artists coming up that I’m excited about. All that will come to pass this year if we have our druthers.

AMP: Any last words?

Just thank you, to all those lovely people that have taken an interest in our stuff, whether they heard us on Ozark, or the other TV shows that synced our song, or if they just stumbled upon us wandering through the wilderness of algorithms. We’ve been so pleasantly surprised with the nice things people have said. Feedback isn’t everything, of course, we’d plow ahead whether people liked it or not.

But the ultimate compliment, I think, is when someone tells you that your stuff made them to feel something. Some of the comments on our music videos have told us exactly that, and it surprises and bewilders us every time. We hope we get enough material out there before the singularity destroys us all, and we hope that the new stuff makes even one person feel something.

All the best,

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