Syd talks Beard, soul music, and The Internet: The FADER Interview

Syd's career was born in her parent's home in Mid-City Los Angeles, so it makes sense that that's where her and journalist Evan Nicole Brown's conversation starts for the latest FADER Interview.

Sitting on a blanket in the grassy lawn of L.A.'s Westwood Recreation Center, now two decades after she got her start producing and engineering in that little makeshift studio, The FADER's latest cover star can't believe how much her life has changed. "Once I hit my 30s, late 20s, 30s, is when I was able to reflect," she says. "I looked up and looked around and was like, Oh, wow."

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Syd has been an engineer for Odd Future and still is the silky voice behind The Internet, but neither of those roles have so clearly shown her innate gifts as an artist as the music she's released as a solo artist. Her third studio album, Beard, released in July, represents an apex for her musically — and is the purest distillation of her intimate and sophisticated soul music.

For this FADER Interview, shot for our October 2026 cover story, Brown and Syd met for a career-spanning conversation to unpack growing up in L.A., blowing up with Odd Future and The Internet, suffering for fame, why she never wanted to be a frontwoman, making "soul" music, and recording Beard. Watch the full conversation above.

Producer: Evan T. Cohen
Director: Evan T. Cohen
Director of Photography: Gabriella Salinardo
Camera Operator: Cece Hubbard
Talent: Syd
Interviewer: Evan Nicole Brown
Executive Producer: Steffanee Wang, Jon Cohen, Anthony Holland
Special thanks to Tara Aquino / A Bunch of Savages