Syence tell us all about their signature bass pop sound

Credit:  Press

After first meeting in their college science class, friends Zach Montoya and Brayden James got to work conducting experiments – but not those that required a textbook and lab goggles.  Instead, the two were busy experimenting with various sounds and beats, finding that their passion for live music and production was worthy of leaning into.  When they tapped into their signature “bass pop” sound, the duo knew that they were onto something special.  Now a few years into creating music as Syence, Zach and Brayden have played major festivals, made it onto Spotify’s Global Viral charts, released two, and are approaching a whopping 50 million streams overall.  We decided to catch up with Syence to talk about all that they have done so far, especially their bass pop EP and huge single “a little bit bored,” which have been their most notable releases yet.

Hello!  Thanks so much for taking the time to chat.  How has your year been so far – can you believe it’s already March?
March 2021…I’d believe you.  March 2022…how….

The year has flown by, but been so much fun.  Lots of fun changes in our lives and new developments with Syence.  Forever thankful!

You have wasted no time putting out new music this year with “don’t leave” and “don’t you wanna know.”  Were these fairly new songs that you created this year or had you been working on them for a while?
Both have been done for roughly a year.  We always have a ton of finished songs, so it takes a while to get music released sometimes.

Could you explain the concepts of these two tracks and what you want fans and listeners to get out of them?
“don’t leave” was a very unique approach for us, but still true to our “bass pop” sound overall.  It’s probably the last of that style of bass pop that we’ll put out for a while.  Our goal was to make something extra bass focused and a little more aggressive than we usually do.  The song itself is about chasing your dreams and hoping those you love stick by you throughout the journey, so it resonated a ton with us.

“don’t you wanna know” was our first attempt at meshing our typical bass pop style with a more classic club/dance track vibe.  Britt Lari is a great friend of ours and we’re thankful she had that vocal available when she reached out.  It’s also a similar story to “don’t leave” that focused on building a relationship while pursuing a career in music and hoping to combine the two successfully, which can often be quite difficult.

You released the bass pop EP last year, so are we due to get more singles or even an LP from you this year?
We expect to focus more on singles for the foreseeable future, as we’re doing a lot of collabs and starting to experiment a bit more with our sound, so there probably won’t be a solid or similar body of work for an LP anytime soon (things change fast though, so who knows).  Some of our new stuff is more emotional, some is more upbeat and funky, and some is leaning more heavily into some more classic electronic styles that we’ve previously stayed away from.  It’s an exciting time!

Credit:  Press

Which tracks would you say you are most fond of on the bass pop EP?  Are there any that you would change or swap out?
“talking way too much” is probably our favorite because it’s the most unique in our opinion and was the most exciting to create in terms of the production.  “truth” was fun because we finally got to incorporate saxophone and work with the legend Kyle Reynolds.  “think about u” really stands out to us as well in terms of how creative we were with the bassline idea in the drop.  “hate me like u love me” is the vibe to end all vibes off the EP.  “meet somebody” is special because it’s the best story of all five tracks and really hits the emotional side of Syence and our music.  We love them all!!!

Was there anything you did differently in making that EP in comparison to making the Temporary High EP, or has the way you create stayed the same?
Both were similar in the sense that we really wanted to push this pop vocal and bass-oriented production.  Honestly, both EPs came together pretty similarly, but I’d say Temporary High had a bit more collaboration in the studio with writers and other producers, whereas with bass pop, we collected vocals we liked and worked on the production ourselves, so it was a bit more isolated.  We love both, though!

Of course, I have to bring up “a little bit bored,” which really took off for you guys!  It is so crazy how fast it went viral – did you have any idea that it would catch on so quickly?
Not at all.  This was our first time working with Triller, so we were brand new to their app, and once we partnered with them, it took off with a makeup-focused trend on the app.  From there, we got all sorts of attention on the song and with Hitco.  It reached heights we would have never expected across streaming platforms, and for the first time in our career, it hit dance radio successfully!

What do you think it is about that track that people love?
That vocal is unbelievably catchy while also telling an unfortunately relevant story.  We have a lot of single friends that immediately hit us up saying it was exactly what they were experiencing in the dating world today, and they felt it finally explained what they were darling with in a pretty bizarre dating environment.

You made “a little bit bored” with Ruuth, who also co-wrote BTS’ “Life Goes On.”  Could you see yourselves collaborating with a group like BTS in the future?
Let’s do it!  We’re always open to experimenting and trying out new styles and working with new people. Who wouldn’t want to work with those legends?!

Your name is sort of like a shout-out to the science class where you guys first met.  Looking back, where do you guys think you would be if you never had that class together?
We’d still be in music, no doubt.  We love it too much.  The question is what project?  How successful? We think our secret sauce is how well we work together, so without the partnership, we’d probably be at least a few steps back, but who knows.

Thanks again for talking with us!  Do you have any final thoughts?
If you ever have questions or want to connect, hit us up on Instagram!  We’re always down to chat. Thanks for having us!

Credit:  Press

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