Quil Lemons.
Syd is The FADER's newest cover star. It's not the first time the Odd Future alum has graced the cover; she joined fellow The Internet members for a 2016 story.
Syd has released three solo albums since then, including this year's Beard. With that, the Los Angeles born and raised singer had a lot to reflect on. In a wide ranging interview with Evan Nicole Brown, Syd spoke extensively about growing up in Mid-City Los Angeles's Black creative community, staying connected with her family, recording her "most personal" album yet, and a pending new album from The Internet.
Below, check out 11 things we learned about Syd from her The FADER cover story. Read the full story here and watch and a video interview with Syd and writer Evan Nicole Brown here.
Syd recorded Beard at her parent's home
Syd revealed that she recorded her newest album at her parents' guest house in Mid-City L.A.
That's actually where her music career started, when she opened a studio and sold session time — to “Tyler, the Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, Casey Veggies, Vince Staples, and countless others” — after she outgrew her first music space, a sunroom inside the family's home. “My parents never came up there,” Syd told The FADER of the guest house studio. “They really gave us the space to express ourselves.”
She shot Beard's album cover at home
Syd told The FADER that she shot her latest album cover — a blurred, black and white portrait — at her home. Her house is a 15-minute drive from her parents' in Mid-City Los Angeles. “Maybe it’s a do-it-yourself spirit that I have where I’m just like, We could do this at the house,” she said of shooting the cover. “Personally, I think I thrive more in relaxed energies and spaces.”
Syd never intended to be the "front woman of a band or a singer"
Syd talked about how it took her time to become comfortable in the spotlight. "I started a band because I wanted to write some songs and didn’t know enough singers to sing my songs," she said. "It took probably 10 years of doing that before the worst anxiety ever started to subside," she said of performing.
Quil Lemons.
The Internet has been working on their next album "for years"
Syd opened up about the long awaited next album from The Internet — the follow up to 2018's Hive Mind. “We’re actively working on it. The music is there. We just need to lock in and finish a few things up, do some background vocals and stuff,” Syd told Nicole Brown. The writer reveals that The Internet (Syd, Steve Lacy, and Matt Martians) started making the album years ago, but didn’t turn their full attention to the music until everyone’s solo albums were complete.
Syd identifies most with the genre of "soul"
Syd said that she connects with the genre of "soul." "“I try to put some of my soul into everything that I make. I feel like bossa nova is soul, house is soul music, I feel like most genres are soul music. Everything except for maybe AI music,” she shared.
The discussion come in connection to the ongoing conversation about how race and genre interact in public discourse, specifically around how Black relate to the label of R&B — like Ravyn Lenae who told The FADER: "When people call me an R&B singer, that feels right. People call me a pop singer, that feels right. I don't know, but I do think pop kind of encapsulates all of it."
Recording vocals is Syd's "least favorite" part of making music
“I record in private,” she said. “That’s where I have to be [most] disciplined in my career. There’s so little control with the voice. There’s control, but half of it is an illusion of control, because your body is the instrument.” She also shared that her ability to record her own voice is deeply tied to her mood. "If I’m sad I can’t sing or I’ll start crying,” she added. “You’ll know I’m in a good mood if I start stimming random vocals. When I’m not in a good mood you won’t hear me at all.”
Syd lives a full (and fur-filled) life at home
Syd married her longtime partner [Ariana Simone] in July 2025. Together, the couple have fostered “about 24 or 25" dogs, keeping two: "number 10 and number 14.”
Quil Lemons.
Her first album Fin had many songs written for others
Syd — who has major writing credits on songs for Beyonce, James Blake, and more — told The FADER that her first album, Fin had many songs she wanted to give to other artists. “That’s why this album, Beard, feels the most personal,” she said. “I wrote all of these songs for me to sing.”
Her collaborators have plenty of praise to share
Many of Syd's key collaborators shared kind words with The FADER for Syd's cover story. "She can see the end, you know, in the beginning. That’s what producers do," storied musician and producer Raphael Saadiq told The FADER. Rapper Big Sean said she's "modest, very masterful, calm, and sweet ... She deserves the whole world." Singer-songwriter Jordan Ward said: "Her vocal performance and the instrumentation and the chords she uses all pull at me emotionally. It’s just how organic everything feels, how raw her voice is, and the simplicity she implements. Her minimal approach is super effective.”
Syd recently took up painting
Syd shared a bit about her garage, which is "filled with paint supplies." She began painting when she realized she wanted more art on her walls. “It’s my flex space,” she said of her artist studio. “My fantasy factory.”
Quil Lemons.
Her brother is surprised (and proud) of her trajectory
Syd's brother Travis Bennet (f.k.a. Taco) told The FADER that Syd has "done everything I didn’t expect her to do as far as who I know her to be, [which is a] more quiet homebody." He went on: "For her to evolve from that to where she is [now]…she is truly a caterpillar that turned into a butterfly. That couldn’t be more of a metaphor for her.”
