Sumo Cyco Interview: Chris Jericho “… Knew How To Party”

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Sumo Cyco may be one of the most unique bands in the heavy music scene at the moment which has seen the excitement around their upcoming album ‘Initiation’ reach all new heights. I’ve had the privilege to talk with both Skye Sweetnam and Matt Drake about the new album, How the pandemic has been on the band and much more. Here’s how the interview went down!

You have your new album Initiations set to release May 7th and it’s safe to say there is a lot of hype around the release. What can fans expect from the new album?

Skye: Well, for us it was a bit of a process writing this thing through one of the craziest times in our lives, it went from massive highs y’know, touring on the road non-stop with bands like Jinger and going all the way to Las Vegas to record a couple of our songs, and then massive lows like the pandemic and realising that we couldn’t play live anymore, and what the hell are we doing with our lives. So I think that’s really reflected in this record. A lot of roller coasters as far as what we’re talking about, like in the lyrics as well as musically. We kind of go through the gamut of different kind of tone styles and genres.

Matt: Yeah, Like our first two records had a very similar style whereas this record certainly has a lot more experimentation throughout it. 

Nice. Your most recent single is ‘Vertigo’, and I think it’s safe to say that it’s done extremely well in terms of streams and views and stuff. Have you been surprised at how well it had done since it came out?

Matt: We are going back and forth about if it’s doing well or not, y’know when ‘Bystander’ and ‘No Surrender’ came out, they were both accepted pretty well, but ‘Vertigo’ has had a much wider impression. It’s had even more exposure cause it’s more of a commercial song, I’ve also had a lot of love and some hate too, so it’s been really interesting to see.

Skye: Yeah it’s polarising. It’s causing a lot of talk which is good. That’s a good thing. You know, for us we are the type of band that likes to take risks but y’know, we’ve been around for 10 years. So for us, we know a lot of our fans know what to expect that we can run the gamut from, super pop to super heavy, but someone whose first impression of us is ‘Vertigo’. Y’know, especially somebody who’s used to listening to artists on the label like Napalm is kinda scratchin’ their heads wondering like what happening? So for us, it feels like it’s definitely one of the colours on our colour wheel of different palates. But it sucks when somebody judges too quick without seeing the fact that we do really have a gamut of different kind of vibes but whatever.

Matt: you know some people are just not going to like what you do and then there’s people that do like what we do. It’s just nice reaching a lot more people, that’s for sure.

Skye: Yeah 100%, that’s what’s really cool. You have to kind of dig through the dirt to find those gemstones are and then there are the fans that are really going to understand what we’re doing. Y’know, it is what it is. Sometimes you’re going to have to deal with a little bit of backlash, but we’re OK with that.

Yeah, I think no matter what you do, You’re always going to have those few people who will say negative regardless, unfortunately. You Mentioned the pandemic situation, how has it been for your music videos and getting the album recorded and ready to go during this whole pandemic situation?

Skye: So, If there’s any type of like training in a way that we’ve had. It’s to prepare us for this moment because Matt and I have always been very self-sufficient DIY focused people that take a lot of the work on ourselves. when it comes to recording Matt’s an excellent Producer and engineering, he records in our home studio here most of the time and y’know, we both really enjoy making movies and films and we have this attic type of space that we make a lot of our videos in. So in a way, we were kind of prepared in a weird way for this thing because we do so much ourselves, whereas a lot of bands I think are left in situations where there used to hiring a big crew or going to a studio and that has been a huge roadblock to get through.

Matt: I think even indie bands still struggle if they just haven’t even bothered trying to learn about camera gear or editing programmes. Even just having to hire out that one person or two people that would help on a small indie video is almost impossible during this lockdown. We are in lockdown still right now actually. For us, it’s been ok. We’re the kind of people to usually only have two or three extra people. We’ve got the band and then maybe one or two other people besides extras that we put in the videos. Now, there are no extras. We just can’t get them. As for some of the crew, the same thing. We just can’t. You know we’re playing by the rules here right now and we’re trying to be responsible so it’s been tough, but on the other hand, no matter how tough it’s been, we’ve produced and directed and edited and done all the effects for three music videos in three months. It’s like we put them out in three months, and it’s been almost right on the point where we’re working on it. Dropping the video to napalm like two or three days before the release, because we’re pretty gun-ho and Skye has a lot of huge ideas and she wants to make them happen and you can’t rush that. For us,  it takes a lot longer to make a music video than just like two or three days. I think some bands might have it a little easier in one way where they can put up a camera and go, “Hey, we’re just going to shoot a live thing and we’re just going to film it. Really Well and, maybe put it a green screen behind us or whatever” but a lot of times you’ll see music videos shot in one or two areas or scenes. In the last video, Skye went for like 6 scenes that she wanted to build and that meant three weeks of building scenes. So it’s been tight, but we’re good at it. I think maybe a little overambitious but we like to shoot for the moon, right, why not?

Yeah, I would not be able to tell you that it been such a tight time constraint to get those videos out. They all looked so smooth and just came out great. So fair play to you guys.

Skye: thanks

Matt: Thanks, Nick. We were literally colouring ‘Vertigo’ the night before it went out. It’s tight, but we do all-nighters to get it done. I guess it’s the price you pay. Skyes actually doing one right now, We’re hoping to get another one out before the album drops and it’s the same thing y’know. How much are we gonna get done plus we also have something like 800 packages to send out from our own store so it’s gonna be a busy week.

You Mentioned Napalm records, How has it been working under them?

Skye: Yeah I can safely predict that I probably talked to my product manager more than any other bands probably do. Me and Alvaro are super tight. I’m always emailing him directly because I’m very hands-on with every single aspect of the band. Every single detail of how we’re gonna monetise every single sale and how we’re going to make sure that everything is done properly in the most Sumo Cyco way possible so that we do have a say in every single aspect of how this band is released.

Matt: Yeah, they deal with Skye really well. They’ve been nothing but pleasurable. They don’t seem to ever get ruffled when Skye started saying “oh I need to do this in this and in this way”, they never give us trouble for getting stuff to them late because they told us to give them stuff at least two weeks ahead and we were like, “Yeah, sure that’s gonna happen.” We did manage to get ‘Bystander’ to them about a week and a half ahead and they loved the video and since then they just were like OK, this is how the band works. This is the way it’s going to go.

Skye: I remember Alvaro was messaging me like that. You do realise your video supposed to come out tomorrow and we haven’t seen it yet and I was like “I’m working on it right now.”

Matt: Hopefully they still like this, by the time we’ve done this whole record cycle with them. Maybe we’ll have another relationship and make another record. Or maybe they’ll be like “these two are just too crazy” or not. We will have to find out.

Fingers crossed for you guys. Obviously, you’re a female-fronted band in what is quite a male-dominated genre and it’s great to see more and more female-fronted bands come out now, but how has it been for you guys personally to try and break the mould yourselves?

Skye: Yeah, I mean you know it’s Something that I feel we still need to support those females in this industry and to me, it’s all about trying to make it a more inclusive, receptive place for young women, especially to come out to shows and to be part of the scene. And for me, I can see why It’s been hard. It’s hard for girls to feel accepted in some ways because of the misogyny that you come across because of the types of atmosphere. So I’m trying to do my part to try to make it a safer space. I love when I see young girls come to shows and get excited and tell me things like “hey, this is the first rock show, metal show I’ve ever been to” and to me that is so important. We need to diversify and show all the different gamuts of metal fans out there. It shouldn’t just be a boys club. I’d like to think it’s gotten better but you still run across the misogyny, you still run across people that will judge you because of how you look. Before you open your mouth, they are making opinions about you. We can see that. We don’t have blinds blocking it out.

Matt: We don’t invite them out were like, “yeah you guys stay home. Don’t come to our shows we don’t need you buying tickets.”

It’s a shame that we still have that in the scene so it’s great to see more and more like female advanced coming out breaking the mould.

Matt: It’s true, and it’s growing more and it keeps coming. More and more people are getting more aware, and I’d like to think people are getting more sensitive to the fact that we don’t need to be so protective of our metal scene or whatever that it is we call it and just kind of go like “hey everybody is welcome to be involved in it and if they want.”

Skye: People should be able to be involved In any way that they want to. If they want to be involved a little bit and not necessarily go full out and wear a full metal leather studded outfit. You should still be able to accept that person if they wanna come in looking different or acting different like it shouldn’t be like you have to fit a mould to be part of the scene.

Matt: I get it though. I understand what it’s like to be that kind of way when I was younger, I felt like I was in that punk scene where it was like, Your either one of us or your not. My brain expanded over the years and I think I’ve become more sensitive to every type of genre. I don’t feel like there is even, you know, genres anymore.  Everything’s breaking in genres now, so it doesn’t make sense anymore. Everybody should just be comfortable with what they like. Either you like it or you don’t. But I don’t think there has to be hatred in there. Where people are trying to diss women for doing rock, I think it’s great when women do rock. Women can kill it. And I think it’s bold when I see you guy, kind of throwing a sexist comment and saying that they’re not talented. She’s just showing off her skin. I’m like, yeah, have you watched Steven Tyler back in the day with Aerosmith like where’s their T-shirts? You know, guys like Axl Rose from Guns and Roses was not selling his chest to men. It was for Women. People are just out there performing, and they’re entertaining and they like to show their bodies a bit, and people make a choice to condemn somebody for being kind of free and comfortable with themselves. That’s kinda wack. So yeah, I’d like to think we’re kind of against that kind of stuff and trying to always voice that stuff out. Skye’s been battling that one since day one. People get upset when she wears her bikini top, which I think is ridiculous coz I don’t see men yelling at women on the beach like that but in a music video that’s through the Internet millions of miles away from these people, they feel that they should just be brutal to somebody. Some of it is actually entertaining to read and what’s nice is we have enough fans that have no problem going on and letting some people know that they are overstepping their boundaries when they’re saying some of the rude things.

Skye: The trolls will be trolls. You know, it’s the Internet, you can’t stop that kind of thing.

Hopefully, in the near future, live shows will be coming back. Is there anything like in the pipeline or any sort of plans or anything to go out?

Skye: Well, fingers crossed right now. Like Matt mentioned, we’re in one of the harshest lockdowns in North America. We are banned from doing anything other than going to the grocery store to get groceries. We cant even go and play in parks! So it’s pretty tough right now. So in our world, it feels like it’s still so far away.

Matt: Our vaccines are rolling out, The reason we’re in the lockdown is that the hospital’s numbers are really high but our vaccine is going out so it should get better. Skye’s more freaked out than anybody else I know actually.

Skye: It’s Because I really want to go back to live shows and also the travelling too with the travel bans and stuff. Even getting over to the states. Right now you’re not supposed to leave our country and things like that.

Matt: But the UK is possible though. There’s already been talk about possibly at the end of November maybe heading that way if we can get it all locked. Fingers crossed but that depends on your country so if you guys screw things up over the next couple of months theirs no hope.

I hope we don’t. It’s been too long since live shows have been a thing and it’s crazy to think that it’s been over a year for everyone. How has it been trying to live without the income from tours?

Skye: It’s definitely not been the same as other years but I’ve got to give it up to our fans because they have been really supportive with every weird endeavour and I mean I’ve done some weird things to try and make money over this pandemic. Whether it’s conning Matt into taking photos of me to make a calendar to me making candles.

Matt: We just tried to put our heads into making as much merchandise or product that has the sumo vibe. Skye could kinda just hope that our fans would be involved and understand that we need to make a little cash and they were really supportive. They bought tonnes of candles. Skye was making candles like crazy. In fact, I couldn’t get near the stove. Sometimes, and I was like “what’s with all this wax in my food?” She’s been really smart about trying to hustle. We made a puzzle of one of the albums, pillowcases and we still have all this stuff in the store. If anybody’s interested. It hasn’t been easy. we’re also the kind of band that has always TAKEN risks so for us we put ourselves at risk years ago when we started putting ourselves on the road as an independent band before we even got this label deal. So it was like we’ve always been fighting the not having enough money thing and always spending tonnes of money on her credit card and then just barely paying it off and then starting again and then off again. Even though it was hard, there was also this other thing that we didn’t have to spend as much cause when you go on tour, when we leave you’ve already spent like $15,000-$20,000 before you even hit the road when you’re looking at your flights, your vehicle, your merger, work visas. When you put it all together. You wonder if your gonna sell enough merch to make that back. We could take our little bit of funds that we had put into all the music videos and all this merch going out. It balanced itself out. We’re surviving. I guess that’s the best I can say,

Skye: It is so awesome to see the fans out there like supporting their favourite bands and supporting their local venues because I know a lot of local venues have been having a really tough time. So whatever you guys can do, It always helps to keep the scene alive so keep doing that stuff.

I’ve got one final question. Is a bit more light-hearted than all the lockdown stuff and it’s just if you could think back. What is your craziest experience while you were on tour?

Skye: Crazy experience while on tour? Lots of fun things have happened. I mean everything from partying with Chris Jericho, to being in New Zealand and playing in front of thousands of people on top of this beautiful mountain top. But the one thing that comes to mind is when we got our passports stolen in Ireland. Not only was our vehicle broken into, but we also got our merch stolen, We got our passports stolen, our whole camper got ransacked and then we had to basically figure out how are we going to get new passports coz we have to get home and we’re in Ireland.

Matt: So we had a show in Scotland the next day or two days after so it was like we couldn’t even stop in London. So we drove out to Scotland. We got through the Ireland border but we weren’t sure if Ireland would let us back into the UK, but they did and we drove out to Scotland, played with CKY and at 11:00 or 12 midnight the show is over. We packed up our camper and drove from Scotland, straight to London, with a fully broken window, and parked up North of London and took a tube early in the morning and went to the Canadian Embassy and they were open till 12:00 o’clock in the afternoon.

Skye: What hours are 9 to 12. Three hour day

Matt: It was just a really long two days. Needless to say, we got temporary passports and we could leave the country, although I would have liked to stay. I love London, it’s one of my favourite places ever.

Skye: Then we had to drive back to the next show. I forgot where that was but it was like Matt. Thank God he was like just he was gonna do all-nighters and stayed up. All night, just driving for us. That was pretty insane.

Matt: We’ve had some great time’s. When Sky brings up storeys like Jericho I forget about that, but we partied with Chris Jericho coz we opened for him for like a month. That was an interesting party. He knew how to party in a really good way. Nothing too over the top, but just, he could go out drink anybody. He could go out. He never had a hangover.

Skye:  Our drummer at the time was a massive Chris Jericho Fan and everyone, including Chris, was in on the joke to try to make sure that Chris never got a photo with him. Whenever Andy would go over to be like “hey man, can we take a photo?” Chris was just like “sorry I gotta go.” He would just do all these things to keep the joke alive.

Matt: And then we started coming back with photos of our own. All of us are getting selfies with Jericho.

Skye: There was this one time where I was like “hey Andy?” and I open up my computer and my screensaver is me and Chris Jericho. Like all buddy buddy. It ended up becoming a complex for him coz he wanted a photo so bad.

Matt: So for like 2 weeks he wanted this photo so bad and then Jericho through this cool rooftop party in London, and we went to this rooftop party and it was like everybody was there. Andy goes over and Jericho has already given him two weeks of a hassle so he finally goes “Come here Andy. I’ll give you a photo.” he puts his arm around Andy and he grabs the cell phone. He takes like 50 photos, boom, boom boom all this stuff and Andy’s so stoked and when he hands the phone back and he looks at them… Andy’s face is cut off in every one of them. He did it on purpose, every single photo fucking Andys faces was cut. Jericho totally fucked him again and we thought it was really funny. We try to do our best to just survive out there and then enjoy yourselves

Skye: Let me just remind Matt of the snowstorm we had where we were stuck on the highway for 12 hours.

Matt: Oh yeah,  And our newer drummer almost died near Mexico, from heat exhaustion. We didn’t have air conditioning in our car. We had to go to the hospital coz he really was almost dead and we were like man he’s really in bad shape. We got to the hospital and we were told he was Really dehydrated.

Skye: We played in LA. We were driving to Arizona that yeah, we’re in the middle of the desert and we didn’t have any AC so it was just like a really long hot drive and I guess he just did not do well during that trip.

Matt: That was a rough one, we had to Cancel that next show too.

I’m Not surprised, Thank you guys for your time. Is there anything you would like to add?

Skye: Well, thanks to everyone for paying attention to our band and listening. And if you guys want to know more about Sumo Cyco you can check out the website sumocyco.com or follow all of our social medias. it’s just SUMOCYCO.