Introducing Sydney Quiseng: Echosmith’s Frontwoman on Her New Solo Career

Sydney Quiseng, the frontwoman of the band Echosmith, talks to Atwood Magazine about her new solo career, her single “Wonder,” and why girls who drum are underrated.

Stream: “Wonder” – Sydney Quiseng

One foot on the pedal, the other out the door
Bunch of what-ifs sneakin’ in
I know that you’re happy and I swear that I’m happy
It ain’t what it seems
I can’t help but wonder if you ever wondеr
Or is it just me?

The chorus from “Wonder” perfectly encapsulates Sydney Quiseng’s jump from band member to branching out on her own.

There is a beauty in the lyrics not being too specific, which is something that is perhaps Quiseng’s signature in her songwriting from writing for her band Echosmith.

Wonder - Sydney Quiseng — Wonder – Sydney Quiseng

Quiseng was born and raised in Southern California where she formed the band Echosmith with her brothers and co-wrote the triple-platinum-hit “Cool Kids,” which launched the band into touring the world and writing three albums, the third of which was released last year. Quiseng is now embarking on her own solo career.

Writing and recording in Nashville, with over 65 songs already written, including her first single “Wonder” and her brand-new song “Guilty,” Quiseng has hit the ground running.

When Atwood Magazine spoke to Quiseng, she told me that the whole thing started with songwriting. As her songwriting became more and more personal and how she would often finish a song by herself, she released that what she was creating was for her and her along.

You can hear this in her first single, “Wonder.” The song itself is a journey or unravelling with music that feels reminiscent of Kacey Musgraves’ dreamy introspective Golden Hour. It’s not until you get to the last lyrics of the song where Quiseng sings, “maybe I miss you or maybe I just miss, Who I used to be, I can’t help but wonder if you ever wonder, Or is it just me?”

“Guilty,” Quiseng’s latest single is more upbeat and less about figuring something out and more about stating this is how you feel. Her piano takes centre stage as does her steely self-believe. It’s no accident that Quiseng has released to two seemingly polar opposite songs in the space of month. She knows we all have different sides to us, and so it makes for those shades of grey to be explored through music.

I shouldn’t have to say
that I’m sorry for thinking about myself
for once in my life,
I’m not sorry that I’m trying put it softy
And don’t try to pin it on me when we both know
That I’m not guilty

27-year-old country/Americana singer and songwriter Quiseng (pronounced Key-Sang) sat down with Atwood Magazine in downtown sunny Nashville to introduce herself as a solo artist.

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:: stream/purchase Wonder here ::

:: connect with Sydney Quiseng here ::

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Stream: “Guilty” – Sydney Quiseng

A CONVERSATION WITH SYDNEY QUISENG

Atwood Magazine: What made you decide to go solo?

Sydney Quiseng: I’ve just started writing songs about 3 1/2 years ago with no agenda. I wanted to just free myself up as a songwriter to just process what I was going through in life and I just felt like when I wrote those songs that they didn’t feel like they were Echosmith songs.

They felt like they were just something else that I hadn’t explored yet so as I kept writing I felt like every day, every song just gave me some more confidence in moving that direction because I never thought I would do anything solo because I’ve been doing the band for 18 years now so it seemed really crazy to do anything other than that but as I let myself just explore that idea, I feel like it actually helped me with my creativity with the band and they both kind of feed each other since obviously I’m heavily involved in the band with my brothers as well.

Honestly, it was a very long process to get here of actually wanting to put out music but I think the past year and a half especially I’ve been really excited to like truly get it done and we’ve recorded a lot of really awesome things for it so I finally feel ready to put it out while also still doing lots of fun things with my brothers at the same time.

I also had told myself you are allowed to do both, you don’t have to ditch one because you want do the other, and I think when you’re a songwriter and an artist there’s a little part of you that wants to explore some different sides of yourself too and you can do it all at once, even though it’s kind of crazy to do it all but so far it’s been really fun and it’s been my dream to make music with my family forever, so it’s really cool to do some other stuff alongside that.

How did you know the songs you were writing were songs for you and not Echosmith?

Sydney Quiseng: For Echosmith songs we are very collaborative with each other, and we write with some other people too but there’s always been a foundation basis of us writing songs together. Even some of our songs will start you know with an idea that I had by myself or that Noah I had by himself, and then we bring it together and work on it as a team.

When I started these songs, I also was finishing them, so it’s not like I was, ‘oh I have a little idea here or this is a fun melody for chorus’, like these were songs that were brought to completion, which also made me feel like it was for something else. I think the subject matter too just feels so me as opposed to me and my brothers. When I put an Echosmith song out, of course I relate to it deeply as well, but maybe in a different way because as a band want to make sure that all of you in the band can stand behind that song and feel like you can relate to it in some way or you’ve been walking through it together so you can relate to each other.

I think also the subject matter really felt like it was just who I was as an individual. Plus, usually we do everything very much together with the band anyway so the fact that I was completing songs and finding a different sound as well really confirmed that I was making another project without really realising it.

How would you describe your new music?

Sydney Quiseng: It think it does come under Americana because the genre is such a wide umbrella. There are little taste of country in there and there are still some alternative flavours in there as well, and some singer-songwriter a little folk in the whole body of work, so it feels like the Americana umbrella sort of covers all those things.

But at the end of the day, it’s more about ‘do you like how it sounds; ‘do you like how it makes you feel’ and if so that’s great and we can listen to this music together. I know that “Wonder” has already been on a country playlist, which I think is awesome and it can live in a couple different worlds that I’ve never been in with Echosmith, so that’s kind of exciting to me to explore these different genres that I ever really dipped my toes in, and I think this music will allow for more of that.

You have been writing and recording in Nashville. How has the city influenced the music?

Sydney Quiseng: I think your environment influences what you’re making, and you get to also bring your past experiences in the way that you write songs, to a new place and see what happens when you blend those two things with people you’ve never met before.

I started writing songs with people I had never worked with before and I met so many great people around town in Nashville and in Franklin, and I started writing these songs that really meant a lot to me but also the process was so fun. We were able to get to know each other as people and then we would write a great song, which I think is cool about the environment here. It’s not just about getting work done it’s also what’s going on in your life and how we dig deeper into that for the song but also because it’s fun to get to know people, so I think that the environment really did influence what the music is now

There are some songs that I’ve recorded that were written out in LA or I wrote them in San Diego, so sort of this collection of songs from LA, San Diego where I was born and raised and where I lived for a time with my husband, and now visiting Nashville. It’s kind of this cool blend and that’s probably what also caters to the music having some different flavours in it is because I’ve lived in some different places just in this process alone.

Being out of your environment also leaves a lot of room for inspiration because I don’t live in Nashville, but I came here to record for like a month and a half, and I was in Franklin and out of my comfort zone a little bit. Also not sleeping in your own bed helps you get in that mind space of ‘I’m creating something brand new and what we’re making today didn’t exist yesterday’ and that’s an exciting feeling.

You opened yourself up to a lot of new experiences very quickly, which is very brave.

Sydney Quiseng: Definitely. I felt really stretched during this whole process because it meant a lot of time being away from home and going back and forth to be with my husband and make sure that we were living life together, while also getting things done. I think it really helped me grow a lot as a person and a wife. I’m grateful because I’ve even written songs about that process which is kind of cool. I’m becoming a new version of myself, and I feel like all these experiences really moulded me but hopefully for the better.

What are your plans moving forward? You hinted that there is more music coming.

Sydney Quiseng: There’s a lot more music coming, which is very exciting.

I’m actually playing my first solo shows this week and I have some more coming up as well, so I’m really excited to just share this music with people and share a different side of my heart with everybody, both online but also in person, bringing these songs to life, whether it’s just me and an acoustic guitar or maybe more of a full band, but I really want this to feel like I’m opening up my journal and sharing this side of myself with everyone.

I’m planning on releasing a bunch of music and playing a lot of shows to get it out there and also continuing things with Echosmith, so I have been very busy and I have a feeling it’s going to continue that way, which I’m really grateful for because a couple years ago I would have done anything to be busy and putting out music, so I’m really grateful to be here but there’s a lot a lot more I’m excited to share but “Wonder” is just the start.

Are we thinking EP, album, maybe, possibly?

Sydney Quiseng: Yeah… yes!

I’m working towards something that is more of a full project because I think that this solo project is more of an album project than a single based thing is what I will say. There is a lot more coming, and I’ve written a bunch of songs so when you’ve got 65 songs to choose from or something, I mean probably more now, you have a lot to say apparently. *laughs*

Are there any artists or music you’re listening to that have inspired your new music?

Sydney Quiseng: I’ve listened to a lot of different stuff over the past couple years.

George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass has been a big inspiration for me the past couple years and has really opened my eyes to using different instruments in different ways that I hadn’t really played with before, so that’s been a big inspiration for me along the way.

Joni Mitchell’s been a big inspiration as well. Some newer artists that I love, and I’ve been inspired by for the past couple of years have been Kacey Musgraves, and Gracie Abrams who I’ve gotten into more recently. I really appreciate their way of serving storytelling so it’s kind of cool.

I listened to a lot of old music, and I’ve listened to a lot of old Hawaiian music. I love the slide and all the steel guitar moments there, so it’s cool to listen to a lot of different things and let it infiltrate your mind a little bit and then go make something of your own.

What instruments do you reach for when writing and recording?

Sydney Quiseng: I started on drums. I mean I started singing but the first instrument I picked up was drums and so I still do some of that, but I would say that acoustic guitar is my most comfortable instrument and then piano has become more of an instrument overtime because I would play keyboard lines for the band and do things like that which was awesome.

I’ve gotten more into like writing songs on piano and coming up with parts and things like that, which has been really freeing for my songwriting so those are kind of like the top three. I do some percussion and stuff on some new songs as well and just little things like that.

That’s very cool that you’re a drummer.

Sydney Quiseng: It’s fun. I think girl drummers are few and far between, and I don’t get to play enough but you know I’d like to I’d like to do a little more of that.

Karen Carpenter is the drummer I think of. Does your songwriting change depending on what instrument you’re writing on?

Sydney Quiseng: I think it gives me a different feeling when I play each instrument, but I also feel like if I just throw a capo on an acoustic guitar, it can give me a completely different feeling than I had 2 seconds ago.

That’s the beauty of instruments is that someone could play a chord that you’ve heard a million times but just a little bit differently and it could make you feel a whole different emotion, or inspire an entire song, which is what happened yesterday in a writing session where Todd (Lombardo) was just playing a version of the C chord that I hadn’t really acknowledged before, and that inspired the whole song because it made me feel a certain way and pulled on my heartstrings a little bit. We ended up writing this cool song because of just one chord, so I would say I do feel my writing changes a little bit depending on what instrument I’m writing on.

90% of the time the song is starting on an acoustic guitar, so it is nice to mix it up and hop on a piano and see sort of what happens. Sometimes you’ll just go between the instruments as you’re writing the song to just freshen it up and see what else you can do on the second verse that’s different from the first but that’s the fun of songwriting: there are no rules.

You know this is a pretty cool job, where you can do whatever you want really and all of it’s just subjective anyways.

What is a favourite lyric from your song “Wonder”?

Sydney Quiseng: I love that question.

I think… gosh, there are several lines in the song that really hit home for me but I love the lyric in the chorus where it says, “One foot on the pedal, the other out the door, Bunch of what-ifs sneakin’ in”, because I do think that I can get that way and probably most people can where you can be one foot in, one foot out, because you’re trapped in this feeling of what could have been and feeling sentimental and sometimes you need to just get on board with your own life and stop telling the line between whatever it is an

I really wrote the song about making a big life transition and dealing with the questions that happened afterwards but I think wondering what could have been doesn’t mean that you made the wrong decision, it just is part of being human and I think that lyric really captures that feeling because there’s nothing wrong with making a change in your life and doing what’s best for you and your family or whatever that is but sometimes your mind still wanders and you need to push yourself to get on board.

Agreed. We’re told that if we’re looking back, it’s because we think we made the wrong decision, but you can just be looking back at the past with zero intention but just to survey it. I love that the song could be about anything from a life-change or a relationship that ended. My favourite line is at the end you say, do I just miss the person I used to be, and that really hit home.

Sydney Quiseng: Thanks. Yeah, I feel I feel that too. That’s probably my other favourite lyric because it always hits me hard because it’s true, we all sort of miss that, even just that childlike innocence or whoever you used to be, even if it’s just last year but I feel that too, so I appreciate that. Thank you.

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