Exclusive Interview: Sumo Cyco

Have you heard of the Canadian independent female fronted punk metal band from Cyco City? Yes, I think of Sumo Cyco! And I was so lucky to interview Sever( aka Skye Sweetnam). Don’t wait and check out this interview.

When I listened to “Lost In Cyco City”LP I discovered the new space hidden in your sounds. It was like escaping from this typical world. What did this debut album mean to Sumo Cyco?

We were very excited to put together our first record. Although we never set out to make an album, we had individual tracks that came together and made a theme naturally. The theme of LOST IN CYCO CITY being ‘the greatest war you ever wage, is the war within yourself’ and each song plays towards fighting a battle against yourself, trying to find who you really are and to realize that you’re the only one stopping you from accomplishing your goals. It’s funny how when you look back you realize what you were going through at the time, and all the lyrics make sense. Really proud of how it turned out and we think the songwriting improved from our previous releases.

You have released a new video for “Brave” two weeks ago, what inspired you into creating the video-clip for this song in such a Halloween atmosphere?

Really the concept of the video came down to the fact that we had access to a really old creepy house. We built the concept around that. The Brave video starts with a flattened out version of Sever because in the previous video for our song ‘cry murder’ Sever was squished by two walls closing in on her at the ‘Cyco City Sanitarium’. The mad scientist at the Cyco City Sanitarium’ takes her home and puts her in the basement. Sever come back to life and ventures through the entire house in Brave to find different characters from Cyco city and finally ends up being trapped in a bathroom where she gets sucked through a sink. We had to put the video together in a short amount of time for a Halloween release. So that’s why you’ll notice each shot in the video is for a good chunk of time so that we didn’t have to spend a lot of time doing edits.

How did it feel to perform at NXNE, Warped Tour, S.C.E.N.E. and Indie Week?

We love performing at festivals we find it’s the best place to get in front of a new fans. We’ve played NXNE and Warped Tour Toronto three years in a row and we’re lucky enough to win Indie week 2013. Indie Week Canada sent us to Ireland to perform at Indie Week Ireland 2014 which a jumpstarted our first UK tour. We’re very grateful to Indie Week for the opportunity. All of those festivals are really great and we’d love to be part of more!

What are you working on at the moment and what are your plans for the rest of the year?

Currently we are working on our second live sessions EP. We record video and audio and put the live sessions up on YouTube and iTunes. We are also going to be releasing a surprise cover song before the new year and we’re currently working on our next music video and single which will be released early to 2015. We are also really excited to release our album internationally early 2015.

Can you tell us about how you create your music?

We write songs starting with a drum or guitar riff/beat M.D.13 will work in his “Abbey studios” and come up with a rough track. He’ll send it to me (Sever) and I’ll write lyrics and melody overtop of the song. We’ll go back to the studio and rework some of the melodies and lyrics and the form of the song. Once we get the form down will call in Thor and Andy to play their parts and add some color to the track.

Sever, when and how did you know that you wanted to be a singer?

I loved performing at a very young age and always wanted to be the center of attention so I knew the entertainment field was what I would eventually get into. It wasn’t until I was 12 years old and I attended a vocal camp where the music teacher told me I had a real talent and encouraged me to write my own songs and to become a singer. Once I had that encouragement from her I just went for it and started working towards my goal of becoming a professional singer.

And do you have a message for your fans and readers?

My message would be, thank you for all the support and thank you for reading this. I’m glad your interested in our music! Music is so powerful and transcends all boundaries and time and I think that’s a wonderful thing. So thank you very much and keep rocking! Hopefully we’ll see you at a show sometime soon!

Photos from Sumo Cyco Facebook