Band: Synco Destroyo
Current Release: Synchronized Destruction
Genre: melodic punk rock, alt
New BTS Spotlight Q & A featuring Northern Florida’s local melodic punk rockers Synco Destroyo, with the inside scoop on their current EP, Synchronized Destruction, upcoming shows, selling surfboards for recording time, streaming music, and more!
Andy BTS: The formation of Synco Destroyo appears to be a fairly recent construction. Fill us in – how and when did you get together? Who are the main men?
Garrett Wadford: Initially, the band consisted of Mike Sikes (drums) and I (rhythm guitar) around December of 2010. I had a few riffs I had been toying with and Mike came in and laid some nasty beats on top of it and we were like “whoa… that sounds kinda sick!” It grew from there. Mitch (bass) came in a couple months later, but had previously been jamming with me a few months prior to that. It kinda came together from there. We wrote a few songs on top of what we already had laid down before Will (vocals) came in; I think we started doing some live recording with the four of us on about six or seven songs we had put together. Will had been singing for another band here in town and Mike and I had known him since we were in high school. Man, after we listened to the live recording, we knew we had to get a lead guitar that could shred… really shred. Ha-ha. It was cool music, but it just wasn’t cutting it. That’s when some friends of ours in band “Does It Matter” told use to go ask Joey Ball (lead guitar) if wanted to give a listen and see what he thought.
Joey Ball: They had been writing songs for about five months till I joined the group.
Garrett Wadford: Man, the first time we played in front of Joey, I remembered that he just kinda stared at the ground; I was like “I guess this guy thinks we suck” ha-ha. Apparently I was wrong; He said he was in “deep concentration.” After that it all kinda came together. Joey blew our minds with the stuff he was laying on top. The songs grew pretty fast and they finally had a thickness to them that was missing. Since then, we wrote a few more songs together as a “unit” I guess you could say. We are really stoked on what we are putting together at this point. It’s really exciting to hear the sound now vs. what it was in the beginning.
Mike Sikes: Yeah, we’re a pretty new band, but just really motivated! We had a lot of ground work already laid out for this first seven song demo, so it all came together pretty fast.
Andy BTS: You gents dropped your first EP, Synchronized Destruction, in February. Tell us about the recording process.
Garrett Wadford: We had been playing together as Synco Destroyo for about 4 months; when we decided to put a small EP/Demo together, which we named Synchronized Destruction kind of a self titled gimmick, so people don’t think we are a mariachi band. It seems quick, but we really were putting in some time and we made some sacrifices to get in there as soon as possible. Mike is a perfectionist and pretty much told everyone to practice to a click track everyday, so that when we went into the studio it would go quick. It worked. Funny thing is that we wanted a professional recording, but we didn’t have the cash to really invest $20K into a real deal recording, so when we went to A1A studios in Jacksonville Beach with pocket change and met with Daryl Phenneger, he explained that he could get us to about 85 percent of how good it could be on our measly budget! I sold two surfboards to get my share covered.
Mike Sikes: He’s really good at his job and we were all ready for it so the whole thing went pretty smooth. Most songs were landed on first takes with minor tweaks here and there.
Joey Ball: Daryl is an absolute professional. Within a week and half the album was mastered and ready for the streets. We were definitely strapped for time; more cash could have made it unstoppable, but saying that would be unfair [because] he did a great job and we were happy with him and ourselves for making things happen quickly and in time for our first venue.
Andy BTS: You’re opening for North Carolina-based bong-rockers ASG on May 4th. I caught them in NYC while they were opening for Motörhead and Valient Thorr on the Volcom Tour in 2008. This means you’re just one degree of separation from opening for Lemmy. Your thoughts?
Mike Sikes: We’re fucking STOKED on the whole deal! We have all been in bands previously so we can actually appreciate the momentum that we have already with Synco Destroyo. We all feel that we were born for BIG stage activity so we are charging full speed ahead. Not to mention that ASG is one of the bands that we have all been listening to for years.
Garrett Wadford: Wow, when you put it like that “one degree of separation”… ha-ha, amazing! We are just all really stoked to be able to play with ASG here in our home town. I’ve been watching those guys kill it for over 10 years now. They never disappoint and the home town crowd absolutely loves them. It’s always a sold out show with them, so we are just stoked to be able to play with them and hopefully they have to work a little harder than usual after the crowd gets beat down by Synco Destroyo.
Andy BTS: You guys also have some upcoming dates down in Central America with Strung Out at a tattoo convention, correct? Give BTS readers some details.
Joey Ball: – Those are actually two separate shows, both in Costa Rica though. They are one of my favorite bands, I couldn’t be happier about this.
Garrett Wadford: Yeah, we immediately leave that night after the ASG show and drive to Orlando to catch a flight to Costa. We were invited to open for the 1st annual Costa Rica Tattoo Convention held just outside of San Jose. We will be headlining Friday and Saturday night. Then we are going to Hermosa Beach and we are going to get shacked out of our minds with barrels of goodness! Confrontacion and Bufonic are two of Costa’s biggest punk/hardcore acts, so it’s also an honor to be able to play with them in their hometown. I’m sure its going to get nutty! The Strung Out show is going to be in July, date not set just yet. I can’t believe we have an opportunity to play with them. As a group, we couldn’t like a band more. I think everyone feels they are one of our biggest influences. Our music is obviously different than theirs, but it inspires us for sure.
Mike Sikes: – We’re playing with some really good ripping Costa punk rock bands. Almost all of us surf as well, so this trip will be an epic experience to say the least. We are going back in July to open for Strung Out. They are the God Fathers of today’s punk rock scene and idols to most of us.
Andy BTS: What gets the group supercharged? What other bands keep your music-motors running?
Garrett Wadford: I grew up on the mid 90s punk movement. Pennywise, Belvedere, This Is A Standoff, Pulley, As I Lay Dying, The Casualties, The Unseen, ASG; bands like this get me going. I love to feel the energy. I love to watch the pit get out of hand and I love everyone just getting amped out of their minds.
Mike Sikes: Strung Out and ASG are definitely on that list. We find influences in anything from Belvedere to As I Lay Dying and everything in between. Anything that really gets the blood pumping and makes us want to start a mosh pit in the jam room!
Andy BTS: What can readers expect from your live shows?
Garrett Wadford: I personally think the live show is where we shine. We try to go nuts. When you see a band just standing there – even if the music is good – the energy is low. With us, I think that you’ll be either bouncing around on the outside or you’ll be doing 90 in a 40 if your in the pit! Full blast! We try to give you a few seconds to breath between songs.
Mike Sikes: Fast punk with a touch of metal and a few melodic break downs. We try to mix it up and make the show as much of a rollercoaster ride as possible. We like to see people move and we come to tear the place down! Not really, but you get the idea.
Joey Ball: Expect lots of people hurting themselves uncontrollably with empty Natty Light cans everywhere, good looking girls, and music that soothes a wild man’s soul.
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