Seryn

For folk band Seryn, 2014 was a transition period. At the beginning of the year, the group of young Dentonites was forced to shuffle its roster after losing two founding members. Then, in the fall, the six musicians left the North Texas college town and headed east for Nashville. These unexpected obstacles delayed the release of Seryn’s sophomore album Shadow Shows, as its members worked on performing as a cohesive unit.

But now with waves of change at bay and a solid lineup featuring Trenton Wheeler (ukulele/vocals), Nathan Allen (guitar), Aaron Stoner (bass), Jenny Moscoso (banjo/guitar/vocals) and recent additions Jordan Rochefort (drums) and Scarlett Deering (violin), the band has never felt more situated for success.

Part of that has to do with Seryn’s new home base. During a recent phone call, Wheeler admits he and his band mates thought they could “be a band from anywhere.” Who needs the big city when you have the Internet, right?

Seryn had already made decent headway, captivating writers at Paste Magazine with its live performance and earning the title of best show at 2011’s South by Southwest. But when a friend and music promoter suggested Music City as a fitting environment for Seryn, the prospect of an established industry and more convenient tour launch point were, eventually, enough set the plan in motion.

“Most of us were pretty against [the idea] for a while, and then I remembering waking up one night and I couldn’t stop thinking about Nashville,” Wheeler recalls. Guitarist Allen relocated in September and the rest of the band followed in October.
Seryn’s first priority for 2015 is putting out Shadow Shows, which listeners can expect on Feb. 17.

Sonically, the album is beautiful. Over the course of nine songs, band members layer heartfelt lyrics and effortless harmonies atop an upbeat folk-pop foundation. Like a summer storm, the album swells, intermittently bursts with energy and then retracts in more solemn moments.

Thematically, Wheeler says Shadow Shows explores the cycle of life, death and rebirth. It’s an accurate depiction of what Seryn experienced while writing the album in 2013, he adds, weathered and nearly penniless from two years on the road.

“We nearly broke up at a few points,” he says. “We struggled through to figure out what to do creatively, what to do financially, what to do personally.”

Where Seryn’s debut, This Is Where We Are, chronicled the band’s coming together, the band tried not to disconnect from that synergy in the follow-up album. But out of hardship came songs, such as “Headache” and “Ivory Black” that acted as mantras for a newly adopted ride-or-die mentality.

After a tumultuous last year, the move to Nashville has reinvigorated the band, Wheeler says. In fact, Seryn is eager to seize the momentum, write new material and get back in the studio.

“It’s all or nothing,” Wheeler says. “We’re not trying to make a name for ourselves in Nashville, we’re trying to make a name for ourselves period.” - Dallas Morning News

Seryn, an ambitious six-piece located in Nashville, TN (via Denton, TX) are readying their sophomore album, Shadow Shows -- a collection of delightful, and soothing modern folk tunes.

Their latest single, “The Fire,” is no exception to Seryn’s rule of sweet and melodic folk-pop. It’s catchy and unassuming, clear and polished.

"’The Fire’ is about those flash moments in life when something that has been dormant finally comes to life. There is a lot of push and pull in the song both lyrically and musically,” the band tells The Bluegrass Situation.

“The rushing rhythms represent the momentum that is carrying us onward, while the sweeping strings and odd-metered chorus lend themselves to the uncertainty we feel in those moments.”

One thinks of tides coming in and out, long days spent seaside. Seryn’s ear is tuned to the first of things, that is, nature.

Shadow Shows is available February 17. Stream “The Fire” below. - The Bluegrass Situation

--- - NPR All Songs Considered

It was a happy homecoming for Seryn last week. Nashville transplants originally from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the band has experienced its fair share of challenges in recent years—from leaving its label to acquiring new management, to losing several members, adding several members, and moving to the fiercely competitive Music City itself. And with a new album in tow, their first record in four years, the sextet might have a lot to prove.

But despite change, and fans’ high expectations, one thing was certain to the Fort Worthians who packed into The Live Oak on Wednesday night—these hometown heroes we know and love are still very alive and well.

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The thing to know about Seryn is you can’t truly grasp the mystical nature of their sound through headphones. With members articulating a vast range of instrumentation—from guitar to ukulele, banjo and violin—and harmonies composed of all six voices, the band wields the rich sonic power of an orchestra, more than a folk group. Songs rise and fall like tides, sending you out to sea one minute and pulling you back to shore the next. Impassioned shouts and hard-hitting percussion build up and billow over one moment into ethereal harmonies and subtle strings the following—swelling and exploding and then finding peace all over again.


When matched visually by members’ honest and reckless performances—sweaty long-haired heads thrashing and guitars breaking as songs crescendo, then bodies still and eyes closed as the sound subsides to a haunting calmness—their music becomes larger than life on stage. It’s wild and beautiful and strikingly authentic. It’s more about the human experience than anything; on Wednesday night, it brought together plaid-clad hipsters and Cowtown conservatives alike to share in one joyous, harmonious event.

Highlights of the night included the band’s unplugged version of “Sideways,” a song you won’t find on either of their albums, and their encore performance of the 7-minute-long beauty “Beach Song,” a fan favorite off their debut record. The fact that these folks can bare it all at the front of a stage with a raw, acoustic performance of a track most haven’t heard, then end the show with a cinematic execution of one of their most instrumentally intricate songs—and move you in equally powerful ways during both—is a true testament to the depths of their artistry. - The Vinyl District