Music Spotlight: Sir Sly

If you’re an avid Asymmetric reader, you probably know that we’ve been loving LA-based indie rock trio Sir Sly for quite some time. The band, composed of vocalist Landon Jacobs with instrumentalists Jason Suwito + Hayden Coplen, released their latest single All Your Love off of their forthcoming album back in May, and it’s proving to be one of our favorite releases of the year so far. Flawlessly showcasing the band’s signature atmospheric sound + emotive lyricism, All Your Love is an introspective tune about uncertainty + feeling stuck, which is, of course, all too relatable for the current time we’re living in. We caught up with Landon + Hayden about the stories behind Sir Sly’s music, quarantine + what’s next.

photo by Nick Walker

Asymmetric Magazine: Congrats on your latest release! Can you tell us about All Your Love?
Landon Jacobs: All Your Love is a song about uncertainty and moving onward even when I felt metaphysically stuck. We wrote it while there were a bunch of fires raging around the LA area, so there was an ominous kind of doom lurking over the city—similar to the way it feels these days with Corona hanging over all our heads. It felt great to release a new song, and it’s been lovely to hear the response from our supporters.

AM: How does this track compare to your previous work?
LJ: Compared to our other work, this song has a little bit of a simpler, scaled down production. I think some songs shine a little brighter when there is less going into them. It felt like a bit of an outlier for the upcoming album both lyrically and sonically. But it was a good sister song for the album, which is what led us to release it before jumping into album mode.

AM: Are there any consistent themes you typically pursue through your music? What about the upcoming album?
LJ: Every album seems to find its story during the writing process. I try to never work too hard to establish that early on. Life ends up throwing the story at me, and I try to act as an honest filter, distilling it into the best lyrical work I can on a song by song basis. I write a lot about the things that I’m finding difficult in different seasons of my life. To put it simply, the first album was about coming of age and dealing with losing my faith, and looking back at my past growing up with alcoholism in my family. The second album was about my divorce and my mom getting sick with brain cancer and eventually dying. The third album is about falling in love, the breakdown of that relationship, and me coming to terms with my own alcoholism. It’s not light stuff, but it has always felt meaningful to have a place to put all of my feelings and tribulations.

It’s not light stuff, but it has always felt meaningful to have a place to put all of my feelings and tribulations.

AM: What does the process look like when you guys are writing a song? Do lyrics or melody come first/easiest?
LJ: When we write songs, usually the song starts to form around sounds, or a chunk of work that Jason has laid down. We start shaping it from there. I do a lot of improvising after the song is taking shape. I try to write lyrics every day, so sometimes I pull small pieces or themes from what I’ve been writing about; sometimes I come up with something completely new. I try not to ever force something previous word for word into a song, because that usually ends up feeling quite unnatural. It is important to all of us that a song feels super natural and not forced in any way. A lot of songs meet their end because they feel a bit too mechanical or manufactured.

AM: We love your album art, too! How do you think it complements your sound?
LJ: Every album ends up having different inspirations art wise. The first album came from a lot of the simple videos we were making of landscapes, and it felt like something we wanted to keep throughout that cycle. For Don’t You Worry, Honey, it was important to me that I hand made all of the different art we were doing, so I went and bought a bunch of ink and brushes to work with. I ended up borrowing a lot of the old stuff I had learned in high school art classes to cobble together the art work. For this upcoming album, I have had a blast working with my friend Amin on all the flower scans and manipulated word art. Each album ends up getting paired with art that lends a bit of a visual element to the feelings and sounds that make up the record. Sometimes there are direct parallels, but more often than not, it just feels great to make something that looks beautiful or striking in some way.

cover art by Landon Maslyn + Amin Saghafi

AM: For first time listeners, how do you like to describe your sound?
Hayden Coplen: We half-jokingly like to call it Sly-fi. It’s an amalgam of things that interest us, broadly ranging from guitar music, to modern pop, to synth and sample-heavy dance music.

AM: What other musicians are you listening to in quarantine? Any top tracks you're into right now?
HC: There are so many up-and-coming and DIY artists who are inspiring me right now. I’m into this artist NNAMDI and his new album Brat. It’s like hip-hop meets art rock, and it’s totally fresh. Also, some loose songs I’m digging: Teen Flick by Photographic Memory, Feel Something by Rat Tally, St. Patrick’s Day by D.C.R. Pollock, and Absurdity by Trace Mountains.

AM: Does Los Angeles play a role in your work?
HC: I’m inspired by the long history of artists who made their way in LA before me. There’s a thread that runs from the Central Ave. jazz scene of the 1950s to modern jazz players like Kamasi Washington and then to mainstream hip hop artists like Kendrick Lamar. Jazz music is part of the original fabric of this city, and it’s being repurposed in such meaningful ways today. I’m also perpetually inspired by producers like Knxwledge and the Stones Throw scene.

AM: Are there any hobbies that you’ve recently picked up that you're enjoying?
LJ: I was actually asking friends the other day how to find new hobbies. Music used to just be a hobby, and now that it is also a “job”, I feel like I don’t have many hobbies. I game and skate. I also make collage art in my spare time, but even that stuff ends up filtering into what we do as a band. So, I don’t really have any hobbies, all of it ends up kind of coming back to Sir Sly in different ways. I’m lucky to have a place to put all of my interests and passions. That’s the lovely thing about being in a band.

AM: What is something that inspires you outside of music?
HC: Backpacking and hiking. The Angeles National Forest is full of so many awesome and isolated trails, peaks, and canyons.

AM: Where is one place that you feel completely in touch with your creative self and your music?
HC: Inside Jason’s studio with Landon and Jason. It’s such a comfortable and meaningful place to me. We work on music in our own spaces, too, but entering into that studio alongside the other two guys always feels so grounding.

AM: What can we expect to hear from you next? Is there anything you can tell us about the next era of Sir Sly?
LJ: I don’t know what to expect from Sir Sly in the future—that’s part of the fun. We have lots of new music on the horizon, but after LP3, I don’t know what it will look like. We will be looking forward to playing live shows once this global pandemic is under control. We love making music, and I hope we get to do as honestly and creatively as possible for as long as possible.

// listen to All Your Love:

Listen to more Sir Sly on Spotify.