SICAYDA (CANADA): The Shoegazing Butterflies of Toronto
Sicayda is a band from Toronto, which sound mixes the energy of Post-Punk and the Sound Palette of Shoegaze. You may detect in their music some hints of early Teenage Fanclub and other excellent influences.
The Four-Imaginary-Bugs are:
Kevin Tipan: Guitar & vocals
Marcos Villar: Guitar & vocals
Ian Fragomeni: Drums & synths
Zachary Clarke: Bass
SICAYDA’S MUSIC
Sicayda’s music work to date was released in 2019 and includes one EP (Sown) and 3 singles (Caught in the rain, It changes and Go on)
A lot of our music comes from our life experiences and our feelings towards a lot of issues we face being POC and just being musicians and people that lived in impoverished and lower class families in general.
With that in mind we tend to write lyrics more cryptically and try to keep it as "universal" as possible so our fans can not only understand what we're saying but since everyone has different experiences, relate to the songs, make them personal.
An example is our most popular song "Two's" which is a song about Kevin (singer/guitarist) meeting his girlfriend of seven years. The song doesn’t sound specific but specific at the same time. Their is a story being told and a person being talked to but it also sounds like any person with flaws talking about their feelings for someone and there’s a sense of real love which anyone can represent in their own way.
Another very personal song is "Only Worried" which is essentially a song about having to work everyday, being tired, depressed when you know that's not where you want to be in life. There's also a bit of self-reflection in the chorus "Only you can tell, only you can say, don't worry" which is a mantra to yourself that you can get through the situation with your own will, the "you" means yourself - at the same time the "you" can be someone else that motivates you and makes you feel driven, that makes you feel that you don't have to worry, that is the "universal" idea that we usually try our best to convey in our music.
SICAYDA’S HISTORY AND INTERVIEW
Sicayda was formed by Kevin Tipan and Marcos Villar in July of 2017. They recruited Zachary Clarke (bass) and Ian fragomeni(drums) around the same time to fill out the rythm section.
Kevin and Marcos have been friends and collaborators for over a decade, playing together in other bands and duo groups writing and growing their sound. The main sound and sonic vision was crafted by the duo over many years and many influences helping create something unique in the "gaze" world. When they formed what would become Sicayda they had ads out looking for a drummer and a bassist. Ian was recruited through Facebook, he sent a message to Marcos about trying out for the band, a short time later he showed up and we asked him to play anything and he blew us away with his playing making our crummy cheap drum set left by and old member sound amazing. Zach messaged us through kajiji asking if he could record us because he was starting his engineering business. He ultimately decided why not try out and see if he likes the vibe and he did and we were surprised with how quickly he learned the songs we were rehearsing and that’s how we became Sicayda
How did you come up with the name?
Sicayda comes from a few things. One is our Hispanic background Marcos, Kevin and Ian have latino parents or parent and we wanted to some way reflect that heritage in our music so we were thinking of names in Spanish. I (Kevin) liked the idea of "We fall" turning into a phrase "if you fall" or in Spanish "Si tu caida", which is incorrect Spanish but it would be "si te cais" but it gave us an idea by looking at it. "SITUCAIDA" It reminded us about the bug Cicada and previously we'd been named humbug in another band and liked the bug theme so Sicayda stuck and we really enjoy explaining our backgrounds and the origin of the name.
What are your goals?
Our goal really is to be able to play, write and tour our music comfortably without worrying about being broke when we get back to our families. We want to create a new art and push shoegaze and alternative rock in a different direction. We want to be able to make a living through our music at the basic level. Kevin and Marcos being the main components of the band were never well off and lived just above poverty a lot of their lives and know how it is to watch your family struggle through financial problems. They want to be able to be comfortable and provide for their families if fame comes then that's a major plus and we hope that is possible in our future.
Why do you think you make this music?
Kevin and Marcos created this music through their life experiences through their hardship and struggle and need to be creative. It is environment and it inside of us. We realized shortly after high school that we were talented and very badly needed to be creative to be happy and since we are hard working we wanted to push ourselves to achieve it.
What do you do to make your music, do you experiment etc…?
We have a lot of influences stemming from the mid 80's synth, alternative, goth to today very much all in the alternative rock scene. Where we started to really change our music is when we found shoegaze. Shoegaze is an amazing genre but we felt it stagnated into more of a mood then a genre and it stubbornly didn’t want to progress. We didn’t do it inherently but we just added different elements to our writing and realized a lot of the sonics were shoegaze influenced but nothing like shoegaze. Now a days we have a very good idea of what we're trying to do especially with an LP in the works already.
Your pallet of sound?
I would say we are a few major things Alternative rock, shoegaze, noise-pop, metal, ambient, and more so now a days hardcore and punk influenced.
If you could guest on an album with who and what would you play?
Kevin - Id love to play on a Sonic youth record as a guitarist and singer because i feel most of my need to be creative and try different things comes from sonic youths tendency to push boundaries and sounds and an My Bloody Valentine’s record as the same.
What musical skills would you like to acquire or get better at?
Kevin: I’d still love to improve my guitar playing and singing to have a bigger pallet of experience. And id love to learn the drums cause I’ve always loved that idea
Marcos: get better at piano, enhance my singing and improve my guitar playing even further
Is there a band that if they didn’t exist you wouldn’t be making the music you are?
For sure, if we never found the cure, sonic youth, Radiohead or MBV we would never be playing the music we are now.
You are from Canada what are the advantages and inconveniences?
A big advantage to being in Toronto Canada is, its a major music hub so our love for music has always been quenched by a lively scene, that we are around a lot of resources and accepting and helping people and of course everything that comes from being in a prosperous western country.
The inconveniences are how small that music hub is. There are a lot of people in Toronto but the music scene is very tight lipped and exclusive, its very difficult to get any traction especially for those not able to be socially active at such a high level.
The music here favors the rich and the socially active which is a shame cause there have been a lot of good bands that break up because of disillusionment.
What are some places around the world that you want to play at?
Definitely Greece at the acropolis. Travel all across Europe really
When the next project coming out?
Our single will be out on jan 29th and our 2nd EP is set for july or august of this year
Which artist do you recommend?
Listen to Senegal Astroturf, Fourthway, Losers, Bathouse, Hesitate, Daze, Koza, Eddyevvy, Roach,
Anything else you want your fans to know?
All that we love all our fans and really appreciate all the support we have and a big thank you to anyone who streamed, bought our merch or music online, we really do appreciate everything we get and hope you all continue to support us and we have big plans this year with a lot of great music coming soon.
WHERE TO FIND THE BAND AND THEIR MUSIC
Bandcamp (you can download their music free of charge but please leave a euro/dollar of two. Every little bit helps)
Band’s web site (with merch, tour dates, …)
YouTube channel (with very good 2 live videos)
