Artist Spotlight is a segment that we started to introduce our listeners to some deserving up and coming artists/ bands. They have made an impact on us for all of the right reasons. We think they kick ass and we hope you do too! Today, we’d like to shine the spotlight on Sylvia Rose Novak!
Sylvia Rose Novak has always come out swinging. This is as apparent on the opening track, “Fallout”, of her fifth studio album, A Miss/ A Masterpiece, as it is in the fact that she’s been releasing a full-length studio LP every two years since 2014. She’s been called prolific more than a handful of times but the Athens, GA bassist and songwriter simply prefers to think of herself as driven.
Met with acclaim from publications such as American Songwriter and Billboard, Novak’s aptly-named 2020 release BAD LUCK carefully bridged the gap between her former life as an Americana artist – a genre that she felt put into because the music industry and fans alike had issues boxing her into one space – and her foray into pure rock and roll. However, when it comes to A Miss/ A Masterpiece, Novak is expecting fans of her previous work to leave their preconceptions at the door and realize that the Sylvia Rose Novak they thought they knew is a Sylvia Rose Novak who never was. Novak wants to see her name in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, not the Country Music Hall of Fame. She closes her eyes and sees herself selling out Wembley, not the Ryman. A Miss/ A Masterpiece is deeply reflective of the person and the artist that Novak has always known herself to be.
It is high time the world meets her as she was meant to be introduced: in her favorite Black Sabbath tank top, black jeans, and a scuffed pair of well-loved motorcycle boots.
A Miss/ A Masterpiece, though recognizable in the sense that Sylvia is and always has been a poignant writer with an unshakable sense of rhyme scheme and brilliant imagery, is far different than anything she’s ever released before.
The drums hit hard and loud. The bass and guitars are down-tuned and heavy. And Novak’s voice, though clearly hers, hasn’t so much matured as it has tapped into something raw and real that’s been buried deep within her all of these years. A Miss/ A Masterpiece is also deeply personal; touching on her fears of nuclear fallout in “Fallout”, hitting hard notes about reproductive rights in “Stress Fracture”, offering a glimpse into bipolar depression with “Rage”, and penning a memoir about the time she was addicted to uppers via “The Window” – a track on which she also played violin for the first time since she put down the instrument in 2019 to focus solely on bass.
The bass was Novak’s first instrumental love. Though she’s multi-instrumental – having learned everything from Trombone to pedal steel over the last two decades, something about the bass has called to her since she was twelve years old and first heard the introductory bars to “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” Duff McKagan’s counter-melody reached out to her as if it was an old friend, a kindred rebel soul. From that moment, her relationship with the instrument has only grown and is now the bedrock for the sonic rebirth that’s so evident throughout A Miss/ A Masterpiece.
A Miss/ A Masterpiece, as well as the follow up singles “A Better Euphemism,” “Still” and “Evermore” are now streaming on all platforms.
We sat down with Sylvia for a fun little Q&A session!
Every superhero or villain has an origin and a band is no different minus the radioactive spiders and secret government experiments. What is the origin of Sylvia Rose Novak? If this is a singer and not a band, tell us the origin of how you got into music?
Come with me, if you will, on a journey.
I (Sylvia) was playing fiddle with some outlaw country outfits – I’ve been playing bass since 2002 but nobody in that particular area of Alabama in 2013 wanted a girl playing bass in their band. So I learned to play the fiddle/violin at 23 years old and got surprisingly good at it in a very short amount of time – and one of the guys I played with, Chris Posey, was really encouraging about the two songs I’d written and thrown up on reverb nation for fun. So I started writing songs. Most of them sucked, I’m pretty sure, but the people in my camp encouraged me and a solid handful of amazing friends helped me record a full-instrumentation album for free. The engineer and I played most of the instruments on the project (everything but drums and pedal steel).
After that, I was hooked on the recording and production process. I was in the midst of writing my second album when my now-bandmates, Blake (drums) and Kelen (guitar), actually hired me to play bass in their band (I’d moved to a larger city at that point and had been getting some steady bass work on top of my fiddle gigs). They ended up playing most of my shows with me and ended up doing some tracking on my second album. And then my third. And my fourth. And my fifth (released in May).
Last year, my longtime friend Graham joined the band on guitar and here we are – a high-energy rock band that was largely born out of the southeastern outlaw country scene.
Band names can have a meaning or it can be a name pulled out of a hat. What’s the story behind Sylvia Rose Novak?
I use my name because it’s easy. And I use all three of my names because they’re awesome. I wish I had a better story but this is the name on my birth certificate and it’s the name on my albums.
Sometimes people think it’s a band name in the way that Mallory Knox is a band name and not the name of someone in the band, so I guess it works. Other times people think I’m a solo artist which, unless you just want someone to show up and play bass while singing over it, is not the case.
What are you currently working on?
We just released two follow-up singles to my fifth album! We’re looking at recording another EP later this year and also have some sparse show/tour dates through the end of 2022.
If you have any tattoos, what was your very first one and does it have any meaning behind it?
I think this is a great question because I am covered in absolutely beautiful traditional and Neo-traditional tattoos. My first tattoo was not one of these and it would be so hard to cover up because, as brilliant as I was at 18 years old, it’s basically all black.
It has no meaning. The rest of mine do, but not this monstrosity. Unless you consider “I’m not a real adult and have made the fact that I’m going to Bonnaroo later this year my whole personality right now.”
It’s a sun/earth that sits right in the middle of my shoulder blades. And it’s the size of my hand.
What are your 5 favorite albums?
This honestly changes season to season, so I’m listing the five I’ve found myself returning to most frequently throughout my late-teenaged//adult life.
Jimmy Eat World – Futures
Dashboard Confessional – Dusk And Summer
Foo Fighters – In Your Honor
Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Cold Roses
