Biography
Drawing its name from a track by the British folk-rock group Matthews Southern Comfort, Sylvie emerged as a nostalgia-steeped collaboration centered on SoCal native Ben Schwab of Golden Daze and Drugdealer. Echoing the warm, amber-toned Laurel Canyon aesthetic, both the project and its self-titled 2022 debut were sparked when Schwab uncovered a collection of reel-to-reel tapes made by his father’s band during the 1970s.
After years spent composing, arranging, tracking, and playing with outfits steeped in 1960s and 1970s influences such as Golden Daze and Drugdealer, Schwab found the pivotal reels in a small Ohio town two thousand miles from his base. His father John Schwab and the band Mad Anthony had captured the material inside a Southern California barn in 1975; one of the songs was a version of the 1971 piece “Sylvie,” prompting Schwab to label the tapes “Silvies.” Treating those recordings as creative fuel rather than templates, he assembled seven tracks—six originals plus his own rendition of “Sylvie”—which he laid down inside his garage in Los Angeles’s Silverlake district. Pedal steel guitarist Connor Gallagher, drummer Sam Kauffman-Skloff, and vocalists Marina Allen and Sam Burton (the latter two each taking lead on two songs) joined the sessions. Full Time Hobby issued the Sylvie LP in October 2022.
After years spent composing, arranging, tracking, and playing with outfits steeped in 1960s and 1970s influences such as Golden Daze and Drugdealer, Schwab found the pivotal reels in a small Ohio town two thousand miles from his base. His father John Schwab and the band Mad Anthony had captured the material inside a Southern California barn in 1975; one of the songs was a version of the 1971 piece “Sylvie,” prompting Schwab to label the tapes “Silvies.” Treating those recordings as creative fuel rather than templates, he assembled seven tracks—six originals plus his own rendition of “Sylvie”—which he laid down inside his garage in Los Angeles’s Silverlake district. Pedal steel guitarist Connor Gallagher, drummer Sam Kauffman-Skloff, and vocalists Marina Allen and Sam Burton (the latter two each taking lead on two songs) joined the sessions. Full Time Hobby issued the Sylvie LP in October 2022.
Albums
Singles
