22-year-old First Nations singer, songwriter, and producer Sasha McLeod, aka Sycco, whose syrup-textured sonic world blurs the line between psychedelic rock, hyperpop, and high-octane electronic dance music has today announced her debut LP ‘Zorb’, out Friday, 23 August 2024, with its next single Touching and Talking out now via Future Classic.
While glimpses of ‘Zorb’ came with Swarm (a soaring track that operates a ground between SZA’s R&B smashes and Justice’s bass-forward dance productions) and the catchy, tongue-in cheek I’d Love To Tell You, today’s single, Touching and Talking, sees Sycco swirling in her signature synth pop groove, yet justifying her sound to be as sophisticatedly sweet as ever.
Of the release, Sycco says: “Touching and Talking was written the day after a party where I had met a girl and it honestly felt like love at first sight. A month before I wrote this song I had just accepted and acknowledged my sexuality and told people. I figure now that I hadn’t been truly open to connection until I accepted myself and I didn’t realize what I was missing out on and that I could feel so strongly about someone that I had just met. Not to dismiss that me and that person went on to have a beautiful 3 year relationship, but I think that I maybe wouldn’t have allowed it to happen if those revelations didn’t happen. I had this beat from Thom Rawle and just unleashed it felt like. I never really belt in my songs but I was so overcome with emotions. It felt special and has stayed feeling special for about 4 years now in the vault.
For the past three years, Sycco has lived in a crumbling sharehouse in Brisbane with a resident crew of housemates who have become each other’s chosen family. ‘Zorb’ was born out of that scrappy sharehouse and the experiences she had there: first love, first heartbreak, and forming the friendships that sustained her through it all. They referred to that inner sanctum as “The Zorb” – an in-joke that captured how they felt in their own private Zorb ball.
Sycco penned some tracks together with her housemates, as they together poured the feeling of big group hugs and living room dance parties to song. Others are her own private ruminations on romantic entanglements, growing up, and coming to see the world in wholly new ways. Sycco wrote and co-produced every track on the album, completing it with collaborators including Chrome Sparks, Flume, Mallrat, Banoffee, and Stylaz Fuego. Made electrifying by Sycco’s unique synth-driven, psychedelic pop music, ‘Zorb’ is a journey through the wonderful chaos of your early 20s; a love letter friendship and the chosen communities that hold us when it feels like the world is going sideways.
Touching and Talking is out now via Future Classic – STREAM HERE
‘Zorb’ will be released on August 23 – PRE-SAVE HERE
With thanks to Bossy Music
