THEt's a balmy Monday afternoon in London when NME meets Syd in the lobby of Shoreditch's Aethos Hotel. Dressed in a charcoal co-ord and cool gray Air Jordan IVs, she's in a chirpy mood, laughing about how her longtime barber back home recently recommended she buy her own clippers while she's on her London retreat. The conversation soon drifts to her 2025 run supporting Billie Eilish on the Hit Me Hard And Soft Tour – shows she jokingly “didn't tell my fans about” because tickets sold out lightning fast.
The exchange serves as a reminder of the many hats Syd, now 34, has worn across a career spanning almost two decades – quietly popping up in some of modern music's most influential corners. Born Sydney Bennett, the Los Angeles native first emerged as part of the cult 2010s rap collective Odd Future (alongside the likes of Earl Sweatshirt, Frank Ocean and Tyler, The Creator) before forming The Internet with beat maestro Matt Martians. Joined by Patrick Paige II, Chris Smith, Jameel Bruner and Tay Walker – with Steve Lacy later rounding out the line-up – the band evolved from an Odd Future offshoot into one of alternative R&B's defining acts, culminating in 2015's Grammy-nominated breakthrough, 'Ego Death'.
Few new-gen R&B acts have cast a cultural net as wide as The Internet has. Heralded by critics and fans alike, the group's four LPs have Syd's silken voice firmly at the bedrock of their sound. Still, despite a career that's taken her from cult hero to Grammy winner, she likens her third solo album, 'Beard', to a coming-of-age romantic comedy.
Gems like the poppy, plucky and romantic 'Jasmin 17' and the soft rock-tinged James Fauntleroy collaboration 'Any Time' capture an artist comfortable in her own skin – embracing experimentation and calculated risks without losing sight of her soulful centre. “For the most part, it's just feeling grown up,” Syd tells NME. “It's this newfound confidence and contentment with where I'm at and the skin that I'm in.”
That sense of artistic openness extends to the album's enclave of collaborators, with Syd inviting a wellspring of creatives into the fold across the 11-track LP, including the R&B legend Raphael Saadiq as well as Big Sean, Jordan Ward and Cube – with Syd producing the bulk of the record herself.
“The title is probably deeper than most people would guess,” she explains. “Growing up as a girl, there are standards we're supposed to meet, and I've always fallen short of those standards. At some point, I just stopped trying. When I was making the album, I started letting my facial hair grow. My wife liked it. I shaved it, and she was like, 'Ew, put it back.'”
When we last caught up with Syd in spring 2022, it was for a session at the 'Broken Hearts Club' – a soulful love letter underscored by balladry and besought thoughts. It was the kind of album you keep stashed in a boombox ready to blast outside of your crush's window. Behind the scenes, Syd's real-life romance officially became bound by diamond rings and eternal vows – mirroring the album's smitten worldbuilding.
Syd announced her longtime partner at a Boston gig in June 2022, but another lifelong milestone proved far more elusive. Buying a house, she says, took “an extra 10 years” longer than she expected. “My mom bought her first house when she was 23. I expected to be able to do the same,” she says. “Until I did it, I felt like I was failing at those dreams. Back in the day, a crazy album placement with a superstar could set you up for life, but it's not like that anymore.”
“Growing up as a girl, there are standards we're supposed to meet, and I've always fallen short of those”
Naturally, the rollercoaster nature of Syd's life funneled its way into 'Beard', giving the record a newfound sense of confidence and pathos. Away from her own catalogue, she has quietly become one of contemporary R&B's most trusted collaborators, lending her pen, guest vocals and production chops to acts like Giveon, Disclosure, Kilo Kish and Zayn. Despite Syd's sonic side quests and natural ability to provide a voice for others, lead single 'Callin' saw her offload the narrative work to the Grammy-award-winning production duo Nova Wav, who've previously worked with Rihanna, Ariana Grande and Jay-Z.
“When their name came up, I was like, 'Hell yeah. I'd love to work with them,'” Syd states. “They're awesome. We connected after both being part of [Beyoncé’s] 'Renaissance' a few years back.” The pair first crossed paths during a three-day writing camp organized by Syd's new label, where 'Callin' emerged as the very first song they made together – and, as it turned out, the only one from the camp to survive the album. “Initially, I didn't even send it to the label,” she admits. Blu June, one half of Nova Wav, handles the track's bubblegum R&B hook because, to Syd, doing it herself initially “felt like a parody of myself”.
'Callin' relishes in starry-eyed brunch dates and years for one's significant other. Elsewhere, 'Beard' standout 'My Love' might sound similar at first glance, but in reality, Syd says, it's “on some R&B gangsta shit”. She jokingly recounts the song's origins, which spawned from a real-life sour scenario.
Recorded during a two-week stint at Raphael Saadiq's studio, the track came together almost entirely through improvisation after a colleague made an ill-advised pass at Syd's wife. The result was a tender love ballad with a slightly armored edge – Syd's tender yet wry response to the situation – with mellow percussion and glossy synths to boot. “That whole beat was recorded in one take,” she explains. “I wrote the melody in one take as well.”
HThe musical co-pilots are cool, but Syd's diaristic detours make for some of the most compelling material on 'Beard'. The soul-struck, slow-rolling closer '2 Many Days' (a track originally cooked up in the sessions for her last album) is equal parts meditative and rightfully big-mouthed. She briefly revisits her early “Syd tha Kyd” days, reminding listeners she's “been on it since MySpace”, before barreling into suffocating contemplation. “Early in my Odd Future days, and sort of recently too, I think I looked like I knew what I was doing, but I really didn't,” she reflects before pivoting her headspace to brighter pastures. “The anxiety was crippling, but it got better over time.”
When pressed on the exact moment her mindset began to shift, Syd points to one career-defining moment: co-writing 'Plastic Off the Sofa' for Beyoncé's Grammy-winning 'Renaissance'. “To this day, it's probably one of my biggest accomplishments,” she says. “Honestly, I didn't feel super secure before that. I guess I didn't feel validated because it had to come from within, not through external factors.”
That shift in perspective ultimately informed the sharp confidence of her latest album. “I've never tried to make a hit,” she says. “Career-wise, the difference between this album and even the past two [albums] is that I really had one foot in and one foot out of being an artist – maybe not musically, but definitely career-wise. I feel like 'Beard' is me in complete control.”
Still, as Syd looks forward to her post-album celebrations, hitting the stage remains the priority – especially with a reunion of sorts on the horizon as she joins longtime friend Tyler, The Creator at London's All Points East Festival. “What are the odds that we'd all be somewhere else, separate, but still together and as a family more so than a collective now?” she expresses.
“The Internet is bigger than all of us; it's super special to me”
As we near the end of our conversation, Syd reflects on her journey from Odd Future's quietly understated DJ and crooner to a Grammy-winning solo artist, songwriter and producer in her own right. “In less than two years from now, it'll be like 20 years since Odd Future, and I kind of blew up,” she says, equally startled by the clock's unruly wrath and grateful for all of her soaring accomplishments. Still, Syd's creative coasting hasn't been all bump-free. During The Internet's 2018 'Hive Mind' era, she was still battling the performance anxiety that had followed her since the group's earliest days, with pre-show push-ups becoming part of her ritual to settle her nerves.
But as one chapter closes, another appears to be opening: Syd offers a glimpse into the future of The Internet, revealing the beloved collective has quietly been back in the studio and is nearing completion on a new project. “Me and Steve [Lacy] releasing our albums on the same day is very much intentional,” she says, before turning her attention to the fans still waiting for signs of a reunion on the group's dormant Instagram page, where comments on a 2024 studio post have continued to pile up.
“You could probably find my mom in those comments talking about, 'They're not lying. It's happening,'” she laughs, explaining how the group have spent the past year carving out time to record whenever Matt Martians is back in Los Angeles. “We'll spend a week, a week and a half in the studio just vibing. It's been almost five years of recording, but we're almost done now. The Internet is bigger than all of us; it's super special to me. The great thing about it is we all have flexibility and our own solo thing, and that's dope. It allows things like 'Beard' to be all that they can be.”
In the time since The Internet were last active, Syd has grown a lot, and she quantifies her independent development by the numbers on the boards. “On 'Fin' [Syd’s debut]I think I only produced three songs,” she reasons. “For 'Broken Hearts Club', I did five. For this new one, it's 10. I'm doubling up; it's crazy.”
Syd's 'Beard' is out now via Warner Records.
