SYML Shares “Wildfire,” Debut Album Out May 3rd

Having recently announced his self-titled debut album, set for release on May 3rd, Seattle-based artist and producer SYML (AKA Brian Fennell) shares the official video to accompany the new synth heavy fan favorite track “Wildfire.” A collaboration between SYML and Mark Ralph (Clean Bandit, Rudimental, Rag’n’Bone Man), “Wildfire” is an incredibly emotive and moving comparative. The accompanying visual is the perfect companion, breathing life further into the stunning song and personifying the struggles Fennell documents within. The track premiered yesterday on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 Show on Apple Music.

WATCH (AND SHARE) “WILDFIRE” HERE: 

Speaking about “Wildfire” and working with Mark Ralph, SYML explains, “This song started as a gentle production, comparing the devastation wreaked by wildfire to what some experience in their everyday lives. It was invigorating to work on the album version with someone as imaginative as Mark Ralph. He really made this song sound as powerful as its theme.”

Going further into its inspiration, Fennell says, “I wrote this song when all I could see was smoke and falling ash outside of my studio. It struck me that in these seasons of destruction and loss, someone might need to hear that there is hope and that they matter. There can be beauty in destruction, literally and figuratively.”

Fresh off a sold-out North American tour with Dean Lewis ending with a slew of shows at SXSW, SYML will play a small headline west coast run including sold out shows in Portland and Seattle before heading off to Europe for several festivals. In February, NPR picked SYML as one of the Best 11 Songs We Heard, calling new track “The Bird” “fantastic” and “takes him to glitchier and more soaring terrain, like some sort of gorgeous pastiche of Hozier and Sigur Rós.”

Watch SYML perform live from Paste Magazine’s Bungalow at SXSW HERE.

Focusing on the things that matter is how Fennell writes and records under his alias. Simplicity is what moves SYML – pronounced “simmel,” it means “simple” in Welsh. A child of a closed adoption, Fennell only discovered his Welsh roots as an adult shortly before naming the project.  Recorded in his basement studio, 20 miles outside of Seattle, his forthcoming debut album was mostly produced by Fennell himself (in addition to Mark Ralph he also collaborated with Chad Copelin on four songs including the current top #30 alternative radio single “Clean Eyes.”) It was mixed by Grammy award winning engineer Joe Visciano (Beck, Adele), SYML by SYML is 12 tracks of transcendent and emotional dream-pop, synth-rock, and cathartic, uplifting emotion.             

See SYML live:

4/14     Bellingham, WA @ The Shakedown

4/15     Portland, OR @ Doug Fir (SOLD-OUT)

4/16     Seattle, WA @ Columbia Theater (SOLD-OUT)       

5/5       Groningen, Netherlands @Liberation Festival

5/18     Glen Allen, VA @ XL102 Big Field Day

6/8       Landfraaf, Netherlands @ Pinkpop

6/21     Neuhausen ob Eck, Germany @ Southside Festival

6/22     Scheessel, Germany @ Hurricane Festival

6/29     Werchter, Belgium @ Rock Werchter