Sycco to Release Debut LP 'Zorb;' Drops New Single

Sycco — 22-year-old First Nations singer, songwriter, and producer Sasha McLeod, who’s syrup-textured sonic world that blurs the line between psychedelic rock, hyperpop, and high-octane electronic dance music makes her “one of Australia’s most promising pop acts” (Vogue) — will release her debut LP Zorb on August 23. Ahead of the release, she has dropped her new single "Touching and Talking."

While glimpses of the glowing sounds in Zorb came with “Swarm” (a soaring track that operates a ground between SZA’s R&B smashes and Justice’s bass-forward dance productions) and the “catchy, tongue-in cheek” (Rolling Stone) “I’d Love To Tell You,” today's single, “Touching and Talking," sees Sycco swirling in her signature synth pop groove, yet justifying her sound to be as sophisticatedly sweet as ever. Watch a visualizer for "Touching and Talking" here.

Of the new track, Sycco says: "'Touching and Talking' was written the day after a party where I had met a girl and it honestly felt like love at first sight. A month before I wrote this song I had just accepted and acknowledged my sexuality and told people. I figure now that I hadn’t been truly open to connection until I accepted myself and I didn’t realize what I was missing out on and that I could feel so strongly about someone that I had just met. Not to dismiss that me and that person went on to have a beautiful 3 year relationship, but I think that I maybe wouldn’t have allowed it to happen if those revelations didn’t happen.

I had this beat from Thom Rawle and just unleashed it felt like. I never really belt in my songs but I was so overcome with emotions. It felt special and has stayed feeling special for about 4 years now in the vault."

For the past three years, Sycco has lived in a crumbling apartment in Brisbane with a resident crew of housemates who have become each other’s chosen family. Zorb was born out of that scrappy apartment and the experiences she had there: first love, first heart-break, and forming the friendships that sustained her through it all. They referred to that inner sanctum as “the Zorb” – an in-joke that captured the way they felt like they were in their own private Zorb ball. Hence, Zorb.

Sycco penned some tracks together with her housemates, as they together poured the feeling of big group hugs and living room dance parties to song. Others are her own private ruminations on romantic entanglements, growing up, and coming to see the world in wholly new ways. Sycco wrote and co-produced every track on the album, completing it with collaborators including Chrome Sparks, Flume, Mallrat, Banoffee, and Styalz Fuego. Made electrifying by Sycco’s unique synth-driven, psychedelic pop music, Zorb is a journey through the wonderful chaos of your early 20s; a love letter friendship and the chosen communities that hold us when it feels like the world is going sideways.

Having garnered over 65 million career streams to date (with help from “Ripple,” her hit track with Flume), Sycco’s also seen praise from Billboard, NYLON, Paper, KCRW, and triple j, to name only a few. She has supported Tame Impala as well as Glass Animals on tour, played some of Australia’s biggest festivals, and already accumulated a list of industry accolades: a Times Square billboard as the face of Spotify’s Equal Campaign, named one of Apple Music’s “Up Next” artists,  honored with Australia’s prestigious Levi’s Music Prize, and more.

TRACKLIST

1. Buttered Up
2. I'd Love To Tell You
3. Meant To Be
4. Swarm
5. Bad World
6. I'm Here Now (feat. Redveil)
7. Monkey Madness
8. Touching and Talking
9. Ripple [prod. by Flume & Chrome Sparks]
10. Crossed My Mind
11. What a Wonderful Surprise
12. The End
13. Zeitgeist