A Handstamp Interview with Sydney Ross Mitchell
Friday Night Lights, One Direction, moving to LA and strip clubs
On a recent Wednesday afternoon off, I braved a trip out of the flat to wander around the Tate Modern, listening to a playlist of recent releases. Just moments after I was chased by a gallery employee for carrying a reusable coffee cup through the Josef Koudelka collection, the playlist ran its course. Auto-play ensued and it fed me a contemplative but soothing song about meeting a stripper. It was ‘Cynthia’ by Sydney Ross Mitchell, who I was due to interview later that week.
Viewing it as a sign, I brought the ol’ pre-interview research forward and found myself drawn in by her approach to lyricism. Naturally, I wanted to tap into the life she’s lived so far, which informs some of her funniest and most reflective lines.
Sydney Ross Mitchell: “I grew up in West Texas, in Lubbock. Pretty far from everything, but it’s a proper city, it’s a college town.”
Handstamp: Is it where Friday Night Lights was filmed?
Sydney Ross Mitchell: “I’ve been lying to people on the internet, by saying that show was based on my hometown. Friday Night Lights was actually based on Odessa, which is an hour or two away from Lubbock, which I think is close enough. The culture is similar though.”
Handstamp: Does the show properly represent the way that football can consume a town in Texas?
Sydney: “You’re going to laugh at me, I have never watched it. I kind of don’t want to, because people always assume I love the show. I lived it, so it’s not that interesting to me. Where are you from, originally?”
Handstamp: In London now, but originally from the Midlands.
Sydney: “Right ok, so I say to people that it’s kind of like the way that Americans are obsessed with The Crown and The Royal Family, when Brits are way less interested.”
Handstamp: Works perfectly. I certainly spent a good while caring about Tim Riggins from this side of the pond..
Sydney: “Yeah, so I haven’t seen it, but I’d go out on a limb and say it’s probably pretty accurate. My brother was an incredible football player, the star quarterback and they would write about him in the paper every week. So, it was huge, it was really pervasive.”
“I decided I would go to the strip club, go to the party even though there’s drugs there, it’s ok!”
Handstamp: Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose. I’ve only been to Austin, so my perception of Texas is pretty elevated from a live music point of view. What access to live shows did you have in Lubbock?
Sydney: “It was quite limited. My primary access to music was listening to early ‘00s country radio and singing in a choir at school. Choral music was the biggest influence in my life. Getting to perform with other people, then sing at Texas All-State Choir and things like that. Then I learned to play guitar in a church band. My parents would just listen to country music and there wasn’t a lot of live music around, except country bars. My first ‘proper’ concert was One Direction, when I was 14. I was late to the game. Now I have to remind myself, being based in LA, that I can go to a show at any time.”
Handstamp: One Direction is a pretty 0-to-100 introduction to live shows. The mania and intensity around them at that point would have been wild.
Sydney: “Oh, yeah. There are no words for that one. I believe it was at the Dallas Cowboys stadium too, so I remember being blown away. To this day, I’m pretty overwhelmed by the production with shows like that. I just remember being blown away by the big screens and the visuals. It was quite the first concert, I think I was deaf for two days afterwards.”
Handstamp: Who took you?
Sydney: “I had to BEG my mother to go. It was the night before the first day of school, so I think we stayed and then got in the car in the early hours of the next morning to drive five hours to get me to school. It was crazy and it took some campaigning to make it happen.”
Handstamp: The commitment is real. Did you get the bug for those mega shows then?
Sydney: “I’ve only been to a handful of major shows since then, actually. I saw Billie Eilish at the O2, I saw Lorde at Madison Square Garden. For a musician who plays live shows, I am probably on the low end of shows attended, honestly.”
Handstamp: I love stories like yours though, where you showed extreme commitment to get to that One Direction show. You were a true ‘directioner’.
Sydney: “Oh yeah. I would have done anything.”
Handstamp: Do you remember another show that maybe had a more direct creative influence on you?
Sydney: “I saw Mk.gee at the Hollywood Palladium, not long ago. It was such an inspiring live show. Sometimes at a concert I’ll want to go and sit down, because my feet hurt. But at this show, there was no such thought, I was totally hypnotized by the show. The pacing of the show, the lights were impressive, the show was emotional, exciting and fun. That was inspiring. I also saw Olivia Dean at the El Rey Theatre, which is crazy because now she’s already doing arenas.”
Handstamp: Wow, yeah. That has happened really quickly for her, hasn’t it?
Sydney: “SO fast. I remember that night my friend said that she wouldn’t be playing rooms that small again. I had just gotten hip to her, but she really inspired me, by how simple her show was. There were no flashing lights or crazy screens, they just had her lit and her shadow was a big part of the show. Watching how much fun she was having and how present she seemed to be, was great. That’s a way I like to measure my own performance, by how present I was during a show.”
“It’s really exciting and a special thing to get to perform. It can be what you want it to be and there are no rules, which is empowering.”
Handstamp: Well, it radiates with the audience and it comes back in the other direction.
Sydney: “For sure. You can tell when a performer is in their own head and when they’re truly giving themselves to the crowd. There’s actually an artist called Jackson Lundy, who I used to live with when I first got here. I think he has one of the best voices ever and he’s such a great performer. He has a way of manipulating his timing and tempo during the show, which creates an amazing tension with the audience. I always think of him and his style of performing.”
Handstamp: It sounds like you’re pretty tuned in and always trying to learn from those around you.
Sydney: “Well, I hadn’t played a proper show until about a year ago. So, this live world is really quite new to me. As a young person, there wasn’t a ton of exposure for me. It’s really exciting and a special thing to get to perform. It can be what you want it to be and there are no rules, which is empowering.”
Handstamp: Oh, no rules at all. Also, audiences connect to artists for a wide array of reasons. One mistake a performer can make is to go into a show with a set of rules and a game plan to follow. A lot of people don’t want a super orchestrated performance, so the only choice is to be the authentic version of yourself and hope that people follow.
Sydney: “Exactly.”
“I decided then that I wouldn’t give up on this. I was taking marketing classes, learning photoshop and recording in the studio, because it was free.”
Handstamp: You lived in Nashville for a while. Was that purely a music-based decision?
Sydney: “Yes. That combined with just not knowing what to do. I had just dropped out of college, because I knew college just wasn’t for me. I really wasn’t happy. Then through a chain of events, I met somebody who was a publisher living in Nashville, an older gentleman. He is such a great guy and had worked with Foreigner, Olivia Newton-John and others from that era. So, when he heard some of my stuff, he wanted to speak to my parents. I’m grateful for all of that and think that everything had to work that way. Hearing that he heard something in me was reassuring for my family, especially somebody of that age and generation because if I told my mom that Clairo’s producer wanted to work with me or whatever, she wouldn’t know who that is.”
Handstamp: “Clairo wasn’t in Grease!”
Sydney: “[laughs] yeah. That familiarity helped. I moved to Nashville, but the issue was that COVID hit pretty shortly after I moved, but also I was so young, I was 19 and had no clue what I was doing. I didn’t know how to write with anybody, I didn’t know anything about working in a studio.”
Handstamp: So, I guess that made you feel like you were back at square one a bit?
Sydney: “It was not the best timing with COVID. But after a couple of years, I had to leave. I thought I would never go back to Texas, because it felt like accepting defeat or whatever. There is a school called South Plains College in Levelland, Texas which is about 45 minutes from my hometown. For some reason there is a fantastic music program there. LeAnne Rimes went there, Lee Ann Womack went there, Natalie Maines of The Chicks went there. I remember getting up in Nashville one day and deciding I’d go home to study there.”
Handstamp: Out of nowhere?
Sydney: “Completely. It felt like a message or something. So then I spent a year at South Plains, but there were only like 4 kids in each of my classes, due to COVID. That meant that I had such great access to my professors and I spent that year setting my intentions. I decided then that I wouldn’t give up on this. I was taking marketing classes, learning photoshop and recording in the studio, because it was free. I picked up so much experience there.”
Handstamp: At that point, was a move to LA the goal?
Sydney: “Yes, around that time I started visiting LA, back and forth. Trying to create relationships and do whatever I could. I met a couple of producers that I’d like to work with and decided that was enough for me, so made the move.”
Handstamp: What effect has the move had on your creativity?
Sydney: “Really, it’s been so crucial for me. I wanted to live in LA since I was a little girl, which is crazy because my parents hadn’t even been here. Hollywood is the opposite to Lubbock, Texas, I’ll tell you that. I am SLIGHTLY grateful my grandfather passed away before I moved to LA, because if he knew I was living here when he was alive, he would have had a heart attack. Culturally, they are very different, but when I moved here, it just made sense to me.’
“I feel that I’ve always been drawn to things I wasn’t supposed to do, the ‘bad’ thing. When I moved here – and a lot of this project is about this – I decided I would go to the strip club, go to the party even though there’s drugs there, it’s ok! Doing those things has contrasted so much to how I was raised, which is very conservative and religious. It’s brought up so much rich material for me to think about. LA is the perfect place for me to confront anything I want to, it’s all here. It’s not always a positive experience but I appreciate the chance to explore.”
Handstamp: It’s a great place to write songs about, as proven over the years. Even by me!
Sydney: “Oh yeah. You need to live a life to write about and there’s plenty of life to live here.”
Handstamp: Right. Grandpa doesn’t need to know about Cynthia, the stripper you wrote about.
Sydney: “[laughs] exactly.”
Handstamp: On that note, the Cynthia EP is out in February. How do you feel about sharing those songs with people in a live room?
Sydney: “So excited. I think there’s something about playing them live that makes you understand them in a different way. I’ve found that when I’ve been playing them solo, people are laughing at certain lines during the songs. I love that, it doesn’t upset me at all, because I’m aware that some of the things I’m saying are a bit funny, if I mean it or not. I love my band, love playing live. I also love playing those solo shows, because that is such a different experience.”
Handstamp: I’m not surprised the crowd are laughing. You are in the sweet spot of biting and sincere, lyrically. That’s what I connect to the most, honestly.
Sydney: “Oh yeah. I’ve heard people say that a lot of your best ideas come from your jokes. Maybe Phoebe Bridgers said that. A lot of the time, that is true. When you’re talking about really big, overarching emotions, it’s very easy to sound pithy and full of platitudes. I think the best thing you can do is get down to the specific realities of the situation, like a dog eating shrooms off the kitchen table. I love being able to take people on that journey.”
Sydney Ross Mitchell will release her EP ‘Cynthia’ on the 6th of February. Subscribe to Handstamp Substack for future interviews, follow @itshandstamp on social media and just bloody listen to Chief Springs on your chosen platform, will you? Illustrations by the excellent Alice Bowsher.