An Interview With Connie From Seeyouspacecowboy | Volume 7

An Interview with Connie From Seeyouspacecowboy

by Kenneth Fury and Hugh Schmidt

Seeyouspacecowboy have been a band that has continually put out great material. With memorable changes, riffs, personality and art work, they're impossible to not love. The energy that emits through their work, coupled with lovable song titles has created a band that it's near impossible to not be their biggest fan. Luckily for Hugh and I, Connie the vocalist, lyricists and artist of SYSC gave us one of the most fun and worthwhile interviews either of us have done. Connie has personality, charm and overall- comes across as an fantastic person and one you'd love to hang out with. Below, we've put together our favourite answers from her.

While it's fun to talk about the most wild aspects of playing shows and recording, let's talk things that are a little bit more domestic.

Q: Do you have any pre-show rituals? From the day before to two minutes before you go on, what traditions do you practice? Do you just do what you feel like you need to beforehand? Some vocalists have lists of things they do before shows; special tea, stretches or maybe vocal warm ups. What does half an hour before a show look like for you?

A: I usually pace around for a bit as the band before us finishes playing, followed by taking a few drags off a cigarette realizing I?m too nauseous and anxious to smoke and work on settling in my spot as everyone gets tone/volume and all that. Other than that routine I don't really have a consistent ritual really, I don't really warm up or drink anything special.

Q: After shows, do you have a favourite dinner or "hole in the wall" food place to hang out at?

A: We usually round up a crew and go to a Thai place or a burrito spot when we are in LA, always kinda feel bad bringing 10 - 20 people to a restaurant at 1 in the morning. When we are on tour though it's usually Taco Bell most nights since it's usually the only spot to get vegan food after shows in most places.

Q: What's been the most spinal tap moment of your career? Even just "first note, first song, all the strings broke" type moment.

A: On our most recent tour we played this spot in Portland, Oregon It was a fairly packed show and we were all super stoked. But come the first song our bassist swung his bass around and ended up clipping me and I ended up with a cut that went all the way through my face haha. My mouth filled up with blood and started pouring all over my face and shit very quickly, I remember finishing that song spitting blood on the floor and asking our guitarist how I looked, they didn?t seem to freak out so I figured I was good and we finished the rest of the set with me bleeding all over myself. Luckily I got into the hospital pretty quick because they didn't like the fact that I was covered in blood in their lobby haha.

Q: Your art is to be found on numerous releases, including your own. When did art become important to you? Is it something you've always done or a more recent startup? Do you design what comes to you naturally or do you have some prominent influences that inspire and motivate?

A: Art became important to me late into high school when I started doing it for one of my old bands, I had enjoyed it before but that's when it really started to become something I wanted to pursue. I never really thought I would be able to support myself/life with it but here I am, haha. When I do personal pieces It's more just what I am feeling, but when I do art for clients I definitely try to take influence from their style of music or subject matter for the particular release I am doing work for.

Q: In terms of vocal styles, you've changed over your career. Was it more about finding new influence or what works for you? How did you reach what we hear today?

A: In the beginning I was just basically yelling and whatever came out came out, but more recently I have been trying to steer towards a style that I am actually happy with. I definitely started taking more influence from whitebelt/metalcore bands since SYSC started. I got a lot of help from our guitarist who actually is an experienced vocalist with like techniques and such, so they helped me go through the whole scream from your diaphragm and getting better range control.

Q: At the start of your career, did you have a local band who made you think "yeah, I could do this"? What kickstarted your drive to get involved?

A: Well I started playing in a really shitty hardcore band when I was like 15 and at that point I was in love with this show spot called The Che Cafe, so going to a lot of shows there definitely inspired me. Many of those local bands also helped drive my journey from just listening to streamline hardcore to expanding into screamo and other offshoots.

Q: Lyrically, the band hits different spots. When writing, do songs have lyrics written after the music is done or are previously written pieces (such as poems that have been waiting)?

A: I always write lyrics after the music is done, I usually sit down with songs figure out an interested meter and then fit lines/narratives in tho those meters. I feel like it's really important to first have a interesting meter and then weave words around it.

Q: How are you today?

A: I am fine.