“The first time I was in Philly, I had a cheesesteak five minutes before I went onstage, which was the worst decision of my life,” Sydney Sprague tells me, laughing. However, the indie pop singer/songwriter has had some more enjoyable experiences playing the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection since then. In 2021 she opened The Fillmore for The Front Bottoms and last summer she played Ukie Club alongside Pool Kids, before hitting up PhilaMOCA in November on her first-ever headlining tour. That tour was in support of sophomore LP somebody in hell loves you, which she tells me during a recent phone chat went much better than she expected: “I have toured a lot. I did my first headlining tour for this record and people showed up! I freaked out that I was gonna sell zero tickets!”
Just this April, Sydney Sprague played Theatre of Living Arts with Spanish Love Songs and oso oso, which was captured by our own Payton-Jade. “I love Philly! I feel like the last time I was there was the first time I got to chill… We went to a little deli, and of course I can’t remember the name [Famous 4th Street Deli?], but it had incredible vibes,” she tells me of her most recent experience (She also tells me that she and her band are quite big fans of Middle Child Clubhouse.)
Sydney Sprague is gearing up to kick off two months of dates opening for Super American, her Spotify artist of the year for 2023, and she’s very excited about it: “I’m just a huge, obsessive fan. I’m crazy about the new record… I mean, I’m excited to play these shows, but I’m more excited to just be in the pit during their set!” The tour kicks off August 1st in Toronto and includes a Wednesday, August 7th stop at The Foundry at The Fillmore (presented by Emo Night Brooklyn), which she tells me she’s expecting to be an exceptionally good show: “Certain crowds get more hype than other crowds… and I love the whole East Coast. I’m based out of Phoenix, and I love it there, but the crowds over [here] I love.” And she tells me that fans at the August 7th show can expect to hear some new songs, in addition to a very special surprise guest who will be joining Sprague.
“I’m always surprised by people’s favorites. Like, ‘big star go’ is my favorite song on the record, but it’s not a single or anything,” Sprague tells me about reactions she’s gotten to somebody in hell loves you. And when Payton-Jade and her boyfriend, Dean, caught Sydney Sprague this April supporting Spanish Love songs and oso oso at the TLA, Dean became an instant phan, especially loving the album’s seventh track, “god damn it jane,” so I ask Sydney how that particular track came about, and she actually has quite the story…
“That one is really funny. It’s based on a true story that happened like 12 years ago. It was Valentine’s Day and I was hanging out with a friend on his couch, watching movies, and the couple in the apartment next door started having a huge fight. And they were so loud and so drunk that we turned the TV off and just started listening to them… and I decided to turn the things they were yelling into a song [laughs].”
somebody in hell loves you, which was released courtesy of Rude Records (who picked up the singer/songwriter shortly before her first LP dropped), has produced a number of exceptionally fun (and funny) music videos, which Sydney tells me had her approaching music videos very differently than she did on her 2021 debut, maybe I will see you at the end of the world: “For the last album, we did very serious videos with a serious budget, so for this record, I just wanted to have fun with it, like, ‘What if we get really silly with it?’”
Sydney goes on to tell me that she had an extra fun time making the video for “overkill,” which features a new friend that she made last summer: “For ‘overkill,’ I decided to hire a live racoon actor, which turned out to be kind of a complete nightmare, because racoons are not that trainable [laughs]. The racoon had to always be eating, because racoons are really food-driven, so we had to do some creative editing [laughs]. But I had a great time hanging out with a racoon, so I got my money’s worth [laughs].”
This April, while on tour with Spanish Love Songs and oso oso, Sydney Sprague released single and music video “the cards,” a follow-up to her sophomore full-length that was recorded during the sessions for somebody in hell loves you. And while Sydney tells me that she’s anxious to start writing again after her dates with Super American wrap, she also teases that fans can expect to hear some more unreleased music in the very near future…
*Get your tickets here.
