Songwriter's Monthly, February 2014

don’t think of myself like that, at all. I’m a caring person. I really care about people and the struggles of humanity, in general. I’m not a dark person . . . well, not in a bad way, but I have always been attracted to that kind of thing since the first time I saw a goth girl at school. I was like, ‘What is that?! Why are you wearing so much black and eye liner?’ I’ve always been attracted to that sensibility, the darkness and the mystery . . . I probably have worn a lot more black than most people,” she laughed, again. “But exactly how much of Betty Black is me? I guess there is a part of her that is.”

The inspiration for “Bad Weather” isn’t quite as menacing as the lyrics or music might lead you to believe. “The real story probably isn’t as interesting as you’d think,” Sylvia began. “It’s just a thing that most girls go through at some point when you fall for somebody and they are fooling around all the time and they simply don’t have the capacity to give back. Maybe it’s because of their age or they’ve got too much testosterone or whatever, but you will never be able to have them. Yet, you are dying for them! And, as much as you want it to, that feeling won’t go away. Logically, you know you just want it to stop, but you can’t and there’s nothing you can do about that. Being attracted to somebody whom you can’t have can drive you crazy for a couple of years.”

In much of her press, Sylvia receives accolades for her vocals. And justly so, for it is their warm, intoxicating resonance that pulls the listener so deeply into her world. Time Out New York, for instance, has called her voice, “a supple coil of smooth velvet.”