By Kristi Alexandra
@kristialexandra

Many Canadian music lovers already know Syd Warwick as the alt-folk songstress Abraham, a BC-born singer with a penchant for spare but dark guitar sensibilities and an emotive, near-infallible voice that palpably touches on the listener’s pain.

As “Abraham,” she released and toured her EP, This Old Heart, which notably captured the attention of The Juno Awards and CBC Radio.

Now, Warwick is striking away from her old moniker as a sort of identity reclamation–a rebirth, if you will.

I caught up with Warwick to chat about her true origin story, and “Moon Kin,” the debut single from upcoming album Oceanica.

Listen to “Moon Kin” here and read our interview below.

Syd Warwick · Moon Kin – Syd Warwick

Tell me about your iteration of yourself as Abraham, and why move away from this now as Syd Warwick?

I made the decision that if I was going to [be a musician] professionally, I wanted to keep a little bit of me that is just for me and no one else. Especially when all my songs are already so personal, it felt like I was already giving so much of myself away. 

I was going to be born a boy. The ultrasound is wrong sometimes and that’s what happened— it is super common. They were going to name me Abraham if I was a boy, so when I came out and I was a girl my mom named me after a character from the book she was reading while in the hospital.

A big part of the album I was releasing [as Abraham] was kind of about being kidnapped the day I was born. That day, this happened eight hours after I was born, I had just come back from the nursery and things were pretty quiet in the hospital. My mom was just holding me and my whole family had gone to get food because we had been in there for hours. This woman walks in wearing a nurse’s uniform with a man who is standing by the door guarding it. 

She says, “It’s time for Sydney to go to the nursery.” But I had just been in the nursery, so my mom grabs me back. They were essentially playing tug-of-war with my body and after my mom started to freak out because she could feel it. This woman had a complete mental break and started chanting various religious prayers really fast in different tongues. They didn’t make it out of the room with me, so after a bit my dad came back and saw what was happening. 

My mom is screaming and this woman is trying to take me, while physically assaulting my mom. The RCMP got there really quickly and apparently the couple had the whole trunk of a cab decked out ready for me, with like a basket and stuff. The woman [had] escaped from a local mental hospital… She had severe schizophrenia and had her own baby taken away from her after she [was diagnosed]. It’s actually super common for women with schizophrenia to kidnap babies because their children are taken from them. 

I was terrified for years that I was going to be kidnapped… I’ve always felt I’m on the edge of something awful and it’s almost like this strange imprint. 

Warwick is actually a variation of a family last name. My grandpa and his siblings were orphaned when he was a kid because both of his parents died. They went to a family that was named Warlick.

We originally thought it was Warwick, then found out it was Warlick after. Then, I decided to keep the name. 

Tell me about your debut album, as Syd Warwick, called Oceanica.

It was a pretty hard decision because I have become well-known locally and have been touring Canada for years. It was more of a business decision for me. People thought I was a religious artist most of the time and I felt uncomfortable because I don’t belong to any religion and I didn’t want to seem like I did because it felt inauthentic. 

It’s also really hard to find me online because Abraham is so vague. It was something I had to sit down and really think about whether I was going to continue doing music and whether I would push for success in not just Canada, but the USA. I feel like I have to make myself accessible to the public.

It does feel like a debut album in a lot of ways because it’s been so long since I’ve recorded  something full length. It was really hard to leave that album behind because I love it so much and every single song has an extremely personal meaning to me. 

This album will likely be no different because that’s just how I write. I have more to gain than what I’m potentially losing. 

“Moon Kin” is about the pain of not being able to connect with the people around you, when all you want is love. Does that loneliness hit even harder now with COVID being our reality?

I feel like in a way it’s always been a thing. With COVID, it is a little different because you don’t have a choice. It’s like I can’t access you or put love and effort into a relationship with you. 

This song is more like there are people around me that don’t see my value, who hurt me, and I’m trapped in this place. I can’t go anywhere because that’s just a condition of my life. But I won’t be so foolish as to mistake these people and conditions as permanent because I know I am so much more. I’m not afraid to walk alone to find the people and the places that are right for my heart and soul and that I deserve. 

As a sensitive person, is it your gift to express yourself through song when you can’t through regular communication? One of my favourite quotes by Tori Amos was “If we could express ourselves in another way, we wouldn’t be writers” and that has always stuck with me.

I was talking to my mom on the phone yesterday about exactly that. I think that’s so spot on for so many writers. I think for me, I was really lonely as a child so I ended up spending so much time in my world that the gifts I had were developed so intensely. I built a shell around me and worked and lived on my own. Then I come out with all of these gifts that are so sharpened and fresh and raw in my mind— it’s everything I have to offer. It’s still not quite valued. I clinged [sic] to art because it’s like my home. 

I think it’s such a common story for highly sensitive and artistic folks. 

Tell me about the layers of “Moon Kin.” How many instruments do you play? As a solo artist, how do you do it all?

For this song in particular, I had a specific vision. It is kind of odd and I wanted the instrumentation to bring out the different parts of the song. For example, the bridge is kind of like a break from the intensity. I think I was just looking for a producer who could bring it to life and not try to change it. 

I have worked with a lot of people on this song in particular and they tried to change it and it never sounded quite right. Working with Scott, I wanted to work with someone who is a multi instrumentalist so we could lay it all out together. 

It feels kind of like a shell you find at the bottom of the ocean. It’s polished, but still natural. That’s my favourite kind of stuff. 

For this album, I wanted to make it accessible to the public. This meant making it more lush than what I play live, so it can exist outside of me in time. My big goal is to get a publishing deal one day so I can write for other artists. 

What are your next steps?

I think that the live stream [August 28 on Facebook Live] is going to be really fun. It will just be me, but with some band members to play along with a few of the tracks. This will be in my own home, unless I find another spot—which has been hard during COVID. 

Basically I’m just working on the album and trying to get everything ready and get it feeling as authentic as it can. Originally I was supposed to be on tour, but this is good. I’m grateful for the time since it’s been a while since I’ve been in the studio. It’s nice to get back into the groove of it and figure out what works for me. 

I’m really lucky to have a group of people that are along for the ride, it’s always a team effort. 

Listen to “Moon Kin” on Syd’s SoundCloud account now. Oceanica will be released in Summer 2021.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Kristi Alexandra is an unabashed wino and wannabe musician. Her talents include drinking an entire bottle of cabernet sauvignon, singing in the bathtub, and falling asleep.