Life is basically a highlight reel of firsts: the first time you phone-lit swayed to an emotional banger at a concert, the first time you realized friendship bracelet letters have a cruel character limit, and the moment singer-songwriter Sydney Rose’s latest EP, It Was My First Time, waltzed into your ears for the first time. Maybe you were method acting her breakout hit ‘We Hug Now’ by hugging yourself for emotional support, or maybe you were so deep in the Genius lyrics tab that you just let that single tear slide. No judgment either way. We caught up with Sydney to talk about the EP, those dreamy angel wing aesthetics, and a whole lot more.
You were dropped by your first label in 2024, independently released the voice notes EP, and then ‘We Hug Now’ went viral and landed you at Mercury Records. Now you’ve got two EPs on Mercury, a gold single, and a sold-out world tour under your belt. If you could send a voice note back to the version of yourself packing up her label desk in 2024, what would it say?
If I could go back to my freshly label-dropped self and tell her anything, I would tell her that there was a reason why I got dropped and saw Chappell Roan live the same day. (Because she got dropped by her label too, and was absolutely blowing up.) Being dropped wasn’t going to set me back. The reason I got a label deal in the first place was because of all the music I made by myself in my bedroom. Sydney, you’re going to be JUST fine. You’re going to lose your head about all the things you’ve accomplished. You just have to keep doing what YOU want to do.
You’ve said Phoebe Bridgers is your biggest inspiration, and you literally wrote a song called ‘phoebe told me’ on your debut EP. Now that you’re a few projects deep and you’ve found your own voice, do you feel like you’ve graduated from being a student of Phoebe’s songwriting, or is she still the voice in the back of your head when you’re writing?
Haha, I forgot about that song. It still haunts me to this day.
Phoebe continues to be my biggest inspiration, especially with the new album she has out. I contribute a lot of my songwriting to the things that I’m inspired by, whether that’s a TV show, a movie, or an artist that I really love. I’m definitely more secure in my songwriting now that I’m older. I feel like I’ve finally found my own voice without trying to make myself sound like someone else. That doesn’t stop me from being inspired by Phoebe. I’m a fangirl at heart.
You’ve talked about recording songs in single takes on previous projects. Did you carry that raw, one-and-done approach into It Was My First Time, or did this EP demand a different process—and if so, what changed?
Recording one takes and voice memos are some of my favorite ways of recording a song. I wanted to include that in this EP. ‘Plans’ is a voice memo I recorded in my bedroom. I added my own synths using my OP-1. This EP definitely has more elements and instruments in it than what I did for I Know What I Want, but I think I’ll always find a way to sneak in a voice memo here or there. I’d love to do another project of just voice memos one day.
Ryan Linvill is a prominent producer on this EP, and he’s worked with Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan and Conan Gray, to name a few—artists who all so perfectly bottle the growing-up experience. What’s something about adolescence that you learned from working with him that you wouldn’t have unlocked on your own?
Music is supposed to be fun. I’ve only found a few producers that I find myself comfortable to work with. I often don’t know how to put into words what I want a song to sound like. Ryan makes the producing process so fun and easy—the way it should be. He makes the space so comfortable that way I can really focus on the emotions of what I’m singing and trying to portray.
On the Blonde Vibrations podcast, you spoke about how your songwriting is rooted in honesty, and therefore there’s a tension between writing about people who’ve left your life versus the ones still in it—and that same tension translates to performing for close ones versus strangers at a festival. What do you do for yourself so you can still express yourself fully through art while keeping a protective layer so no one can completely see through you?
I’m not sure. With this music, I feel like people can completely see through me. And that’s one of the downsides of this type of music I’m making. To me, the best music I make is my most vulnerable. And that’s the type of music that people are going to relate to the most. I try to put myself in the listener’s shoes. There are songs out there that portray an emotion that I don’t even know how to begin to describe. There’s obviously a protective layer to me where I keep all the details private, but I feel pretty see-through when I’m singing these songs.
You’ve mentioned writing ‘We Hug Now’ two to three years after the experience it captures, and a lot of this EP revisits high school. Is there a songwriting topic you’d like to write about as a future projection— something you haven’t lived through yet but want to explore preemptively?
Most of this EP is about liking someone and being confused by their actions and ultimately feeling hurt and betrayed by them. It’s called ‘It Was My First Time’ because it was my first time experiencing a heartbreak like that. ‘Track Team’ is the only song included that is related to a friendship breakup. And that definitely felt like going through a breakup for the first time. A lot of what I went through during this relationship burned me. I have a lot more songs under my belt that deal with heartbreak and confusion, especially how I viewed myself in those situations.
You did something on ‘Track Team’ that we’re absolutely obsessed with other artists doing: referencing their own prior work. Of course, for you, it’s ‘We Hug Now.’ Was slipping that in a deliberate Easter egg for the fans, or did it sneak out of your subconscious like a Freudian musical slip?
I wasn’t really fully intentional about it. It was about the same person, so it kind of just slipped in very easily. Once I wrote it, I was like, “haha, they’re gonna love this.”
Angel wings are a recurring motif throughout this EP—from the ‘Track Team’ music video to the cover art of the EP itself. What is it about angel wings that captures adolescence for you? Because there’s something poetic about a stage of life where you feel like you could fly but haven’t quite figured out how yet.
I’m beginning to fly! I want to fly! But I just haven’t really figured it out yet. No one gets it right on their first try. They’re gonna fall, and they’re gonna fail. I think that was the point of the wings and what I wanted them to represent.
We noticed your guitar in the ‘My First Time’ music video is decorated with a cute gold star. If you could theme your guitar to match the It Was My First Time EP as a whole, what would it look like?
It’s kind of a perfect guitar for this EP if you really think about it. I got that guitar in January, so it was pretty new to me, and I was writing new songs on it for the first time. The stickers and bow really represent something that feels innocent, especially with how small it is.
You came to Australia for a headline tour earlier this year. What’s one thing about Australian audiences that surprised you—and is there an Aussie snack or slang you’ve taken back to Nashville?
They’re so energetic and fun! Every time I think about that trip, I think about how good the breakfast was. I remember the day after one of the shows, we went to a little breakfast spot up the street. My music was playing over the speakers, and I got super excited because I had never heard my music in public before. Turns out the barista was a huge fan and was at the show last night. We got to talk and take pictures. It was so sweet, and I think about that interaction often.
We’ve got plans to loop It Was My First Time into oblivion as a full-blown manifesting ritual—tour dates aren’t going to conjure themselves. Which song has taken up permanent residence in your brain? Drop us a comment on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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