Reel to Real Q&A

Sybris: The ones that you love?

Local Chicago band is beginning to get noticed

By Dan Ochwat

Bassist Shawn Podgurski is a bouncer and full-time social worker; lead vocalist Angela Mullenhour works at a Chinese restaurant; guitarist Phil Naumann works at a restaurant; drummer Eric Mahle’s the sound man at Subterranean. And yet they’re going on tour with the Fiery Furnaces and playing a weekend show with some high-profile band at SXSW that they can’t disclose yet. They also may play Europe this summer.

To say the least, reverb-happy local act Sybris could be on the brink of losing those jobs — should they continue to nail major gigs like playing with one of indie music’s darlings The Fiery Furnaces. Podgurski spoke with me just before a Valentine’s Day show at the Double Door. He’s emotional. He likes Kelly Clarkson and has cried drunk in a corner over an ex-girlfriend to the song “Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. His own song, “Blame it on the Baseball” on their self-titled album, also has gotten to him — that same damn girlfriend. The lyric: “It’s always between what you love and the ones that you love.”

When I hear it, that line almost gets me. Almost.

Q: So first off, I was telling someone that I was about to interview this band Sybris, but I realized that I didn’t know how to pronounce your name, or quite knew what it was. Then I read you were named after some Greek island, Sybaris?

A: Yeah, it was a Greek city in the boot of Italy. A Sodom and Gomorrah, hedonistic type city that got mad with power. The Spartans came and wiped them off the face of the earth.

Q: So how did you come up with that deep of a name? Because I don’t entirely buy it, since you could be named after the local sex-haven Sybaris.

A: (Laughs) No, it’s a true story. It’s 100-percent true. We have a book called “The Search for Sybaris.” They just unearthed it in like 1969. It was believed to be one of those fabled cities like El Dorado. But we took the ‘a’ out, so not to get sued. Also, if you Google us, we’re the only Sybris out there. Well, there’s a bra company in Japan and a toy company in Britain.

Q: Where do you guys hang out in the city?

A: We all live in Wicker Park, so we go to the Rainbow and the Empty Bottle.

Q: I love the album, but I’m sad to say that I haven’t been able to see you guys live yet. I’ve heard it’s much heavier.

A: It’s more intense, but that’s live versus the album. We do want to be a premier live band. We love playing live. That’s what it’s all about. The whole experience is fun, meeting people, getting drunk, flirting. We try to rip it up.

Q: You’re playing with The Ponys. Do you local acts all sort of run in the same circles?

A: Melissa, the bass player of The Ponys, is a school friend of mine. We lived in the same apartment building, but we kicked it all the time. This is the first show we’ve played with them with Angela. Phil and I were in a band before and played with The Ponys all the time.

Q: I saw The Ponys open for Bloc Party, and the bass player had a huge following there.

A: Yeah, I was at the show. I was standing right in front of her, rootin’ her on.

Q: It seems like you guys have been touring heavily. You were just in Montreal, what was that like? Is it sort of the new “It” city?

A: It was fun. They were the best out of town show’s we’ve had. The people were so nice. There were a lot of people when we played in Toronto, as many as in Chicago.

Q: You still get the biggest crowds in Chicago?

A: Yeah, nobody knows who we are out of town, unfortunately. Once in a while though, we’ll get some Pitchfork (www.pitchforkmedia.com) fans. You can see who the Pitchfork people are. They’ve got that look.

Q: Yes, that classic indie, hipster look.

A: Yeah (laughs). We play bingo on the road of what we’ll see at every show on tour. Like there’s this one type of girl at every show, in the right spot. Bingo.

Q: Hilarious. I saw you’re joining the Fiery Furnaces on tour. How did that come about? And these crowds should be intense, the ultimate music geeks.

A: Ahh, we have a very good booking agent (chuckles). Yeah, and the other band playing is Deadboy and the Elephantman. It’s us three.

Q: What? They’re up and coming, too. Just got a four-star review by Rolling Stone.

A: They’ve got the bands on the rise. We went out with Anathallo in Canada, and that was the only time we played with a band for more than one day. And now we’re playing with The Fiery Furnaces. We’re kind of nutty, so they’re probably going to think we’re immature. But I love the Fiery Furnaces, so I’m excited to see them every day.

Q: I know you also opened for The Stars, which is pretty heavy pop music. How is it you fit in with both groups?

A: We got our worst blog reviews off of Stars shows. The Stars were great, I love them, they were fun to hang out with and the crowds reacted like, “You guys were great.” But the next day reading the blogs: “You guys were horrible.” The Most Serene Republic opened up, they’re like Belle and Sebastian, and then we’re like, “Hi, we’re Sybris,” and then just scream and yell.
But we fit in with a lot of people because we’re fans of all music. We listen to everything from Kelly Clarkson to Slayer to classic ’90s Chicago indie rock like Polvo. We love dance music, so it all comes out in the music. I feel confident that we can play with any type of band. Our very first review, we got compared to the Fiery Furnaces. It was a review in the Illinois Entertainer, and they said our songwriting was reminiscent of the Fiery Furnaces.

Q: That’s quite a compliment. I thought Pixies, but it could be the song “Neon” off your album. It’s like an ode to The Pixies’ “Where is my Mind.”

A: Yeah, a little bit.

Q: The lyrics are great on that song; it’s one of my favorites.

A: Really? I’m glad you said that, because it’s one we haven’t been playing as much. Because it’s so poppy, we thought we wouldn’t bring it out with the Fiery Furnaces, and showcase more of our wacky songs.

Q: Do you tailor your set lists to each tour?

A: A little bit. Mainly, we gotta do what gotta do. We’re sort of a love-us-or-hate-us band. Some people just don’t get us, and think it doesn’t work.

Q: If you’re on tour with the Fiery Furnaces, that’s the only answer you need.

A: And we got an 8.0 on Pitchfork, and we were just waiting to be ripped apart. We thought, “It’s gonna be funny, and I know there’s something we can salvage. It came out and we were like, “Didn’t expect that.”

Q: So, in March you’re going to SXSW, which I read last year you got signed at.

A: Yeah, Flameshovel Records were there as a label, but that story has sort of snowballed. They knew who we were, we’ve known them, we have friends that are on the label, but they did watch us there and soon after (we) got picked up.

Q: What are your expectations for this year?

A: We played an unofficial party last year on a Wednesday. This year, we’re playing the Austin Music Hall, which is a 3,000-capacity room, on a Saturday night! We know who we’re playing with, but I’m not allowed to say.

Q: Is it a big band?

A: It’s huge. It’s really surreal because last year we were nobodies, and we still are nobodies, but this is bizarre. We clicked on the Austin Music Hall website and were in awe. On the main page, it’s all these kids screaming, a packed house, and then you click on the virtual tour and see an empty hall. (Laughs) It’s like when the headliner plays, and when we play, click back and forth between full room and empty room. But it’ll be jammed. I don’t know how we’re going to get our friends in.

Click here for more Real to Reel