INTERVIEW: Jayden Panesso – Sylar

There’s a real surge of combining many of metal’s longer standing sub-genres in the collective musical minds of today’s community. While prog, thrash and the like bring forward their modern-day champions, metalcore and nu metal announces its freshest blend of talent, SYLAR. With a solid foundation as a group of musicians, a drive and personal tolls to push the album, we spoke to vocalist Jayden Panesso about touring, inspiration and how the band use their past and futures to make the most out of their music in the present.

The new album, can you tell us a little about the naming of the album, Seasons?

Jayden: The thing for me about this album is that I wanted to write a really straightforward record, especially lyrically, I feel there are different ways to write lyrics. For me personally this time I wanted to go straight forward, so there was no reading between the lines to try and figure out what the album is about. With this one I wanted to be really straight forward about change, because I feel that change is such a massive thing in our lives. I feel like if we didn’t have change in our lives, it would be absolutely dull, you know what I mean? Change, you need it in your life. That saying, when a door closes another one opens, you know what I mean? So, I feel that is what keeps us going. It’s about getting that promotion at work, or getting fired from work, that gets something in you going. That’s been a big thing for me over the past two or three years, going through the motions, living the band life, being on tour, away from my loved ones, all that big stuff. There’s a lot of change I had to go through emotionally and I just really wanted to write about it. So I wanted to write about change, but not call it Change, so I called it Seasons, because that’s change with time. I find it really interesting how as the seasons change, different moods and vibes come with it, so I wanted the listener to get the record, understand the name Seasons and understand the changes through the record. You’re going to have your sad, soft songs, you’re going to have your songs for the middle of summer. That’s the main thing behind it, the changes in life with the change of the seasons.

With that theme of progression in mind, there’s a step up to this album from you that you can feel that’s in the music as well.

Jayden: Yeah definitely. It’s inevitable too, for the most part we’ve grown up as humans, but also as musicians. We went from being a band where we were trying to stay on tour, and travel all over the world, and staying on the road and getting a lot of fans. That really opened out eyes a little bit, and we matured as people and as musicians, because we were playing shows all the time, talking about music all the time being around music all the time. For this record I think we knew what we wanted going into the studio, not that we haven’t been before, but this was the most on the same page we’re been as a band. It felt good! It felt good to talk about the record months in advance, and go in to the studio and execute what we talked about. It feels a little more mature, it’s easier to listen to and more organised. I don’t know, I’m just really excited about it.

With your experiences, both as a band and personally, does that edge give you the name you’re getting yourselves at the moment?

Jayden: Yeah, when you’re around it so much, it really keeps you going. Even if there’s a so many good things with it, there are a lot of struggles. Being away from loved ones, like for me now, I have a daughter so to me, every time away from home with the band, we have to make the best of it, because I’m losing time away from her and my family. Everything is so important and valuable with the band right now. Every moment counts.

People have sighted that SYLAR have got a very modern day LINKIN PARK sensibility around you, with the struggle through strife themes you cover. Would you say that’s a fair comment?

Jayden: It’s a fair comment. I think I would be ignorant if I were to sit here and say “how dare you compare us to LINKIN PARK, because first of all, yeah, you can’t avoid it. I’ve had a conversation with many people before, but a big thing is when people say “a lot of bands are doing the nu metal thing”, or people will come up and say we sound like LINKIN PARK and we’re like “yeah, because you’re hearing that music surface in the music, because all the kids that were growing up listening to that music in the early 2000s are all old enough to have bands of their own”. That’s why the music sounds alike. You know, I grew up on LINKIN PARK, you know I could be eighty years old and think back to bands that inspired me to I do what I do, I’m going to think of LINKIN PARK. So I’d be ignorant if I said no, because they are an inspiration, which is crazy because as a band we have our sound, but you can hear the bands we love in there too. that’s what is cool about our band, we’re all fans of the same bands, we’re all kids who grew up listening to the same stuff, and just not know each other fully yet. So it’s a natural thing.

SYLAR have got quite a hard sound to pin down, there are a lot of different genres and elements in there. How would you describe yourselves as a band?

Jayden: Thank you, I take that as a massive compliment. It’s so funny, I sometimes get this question, or something like, describe your band in five words. I’m going to go and say, I find that the hardest thing to answer, I don’t know how to fully describe and tell them who we are. We’re a mixture of our own environment. For me, I grew up in Queens, New York city, and to be honest, metal and rock wasn’t a dominant think in my neighbourhood, I was in a more urban environment. I would wake up and go to the store for a soda or candy and all I would hear was hip hop stations airing through car windows or out of doors, so that music came first into my life, rock and metal came second. In New York, that’s all I knew. So when I heard bands like LINKIN PARK and LIMP BIZKIT incorporating rap, I felt so at home with it, but it was also such a new thing. I feel we’re a massive product of our environment, and the way I like that we’ve got a rock beat, but we’re still all about hip hop, we mix our worlds.

To move slightly away from making music to preforming it, how are you feeling about the upcoming tour with BEARTOOTH?

Jayden: Ah, we’re so excited. The thing is, the last tour we did was in the UK with OF MICE AND MEN, back in April. Four months doesn’t sound like that long ago, but I’m itching to get back out. We’d been playing the songs from Help! the last few years, and even though we still love the songs, when you’re on tour and you’re playing the same songs every night, you want to play something new. So I’m excited to go out on tour, play songs we’ve never played before, see how people react, see a fresh excited outlook right of the record, see how people like the songs. Being in a band is awesome in so many ways, but the best part for me is the performance part. The energy and vibes you capture on stage, that’s something else. So I’m really excited, we’re good friends with BEARTOOTH, so there’s nothing cooler than doing what you love, but doing it with friends.

Are there any songs you’re looking forward to preforming for people?

Jayden: Yeah I’m looking forward particularly to All Or Nothing and No Way. All Or Nothing is like a summer song, it’s got a positive, upbeat feel, whereas No Way has a fall/winter vibe; you feel those motions, those ups and downs. It’s very exciting to see how people react to those different settings. I think people will get a feel for the record from these, you know, a sad and hopeful song.

Is there anything that you as a band try to give as a message to your fans, or is it more focused on personal progression for you in the music, with the hope that people pick up that vibe?

Jayden: That’s a really interesting question. Lyrically, I’ve always just written about my emotions. I was reading an article recently about Hyper Sensitive Personalities, and I feel like a sensitive personality. I feel like I’m a sponge. If I feel a bad vibe, it brings me down. I have a lot always going on emotionally, so I like to write about that, and it turns out, people relate to it. So it’s kind of in the middle; I never really wrote or had the intention to be a role model, or write a message, just to vent, honestly. When I write, it’s like an open diary. So when people tell me they felt good about something we wrote, I feel good because we put that out there. So it’s all a cycle, so with that been said, while I used to write certain things intentionally, after being the band for a couple of years, listening to when people tell me things about the songs, the stories of how they relate to them, you know, something that I really want to push is that we’re all the same. Something I want to push is that like the seasons, you could be on top of the world right now, and within a breath you could be on at the bottom. We all go through it we’re all the same, and it’s about staying strong. It’s cool to hear someone say “it’s going to be ok”. When I was younger, I needed to understand that. That’s why bands like LINKIN PARK hit me so hard, because it felt like “yeah, someone feels the way I do”. So, that’s my main thing.  We all have to grow and be strong and accept the changes, let them happen.

Seasons is set for release October 5th via Hopeless Records. SYLAR are featured in the latest digital issue of Distorted Sound, grab a copy here.

Like SYLAR on Facebook