A SPOTLIGHT ON OUR SALT LAKE CITY HOST; SYDNEY CHRISTENSEN
GOLD HAND HAS A WEBSITE? YEAH? OK. COOL.
Mid January of the year 2016, I got an email from a stranger. The title was "connections" and I somehow knew that this unknown emailer was soon to be much more than just that. Now, a connection within the music business can have both a positive and negative connotation- you never want to think of your friend as solely a "connection," you want them to also be a letsgohaveadrinkandtalkaboutlife friend, too. Though, you also know this friend would be your "connection" to your missing puzzle piece if need be (and you would be theirs). I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine type of thing. The stranger within this email spoke of the unseen side to the music business, and within ten seconds of reading I knew I could relate.
World, meet Sydney Christensen. Sydney, meet world.
Sydney Christensen attending Coachella in 2016
Sydney, and I quickly bonded over email the fact that we both aspire to be within the music business in one way or another. Over time, we spoke of our aspirations, and similar interests. In fact, she was one of the first people I called after forming Gold Hand last April. She was nothing short of ecstatic after relaying our goals.
A year later, Sydney is our first host to host a show outside of our home states (WOO!) Below you can see that I spoke with her a bit about her future career, who inspires her, and how she met the music world.
Alexa: HI SYDNEY! I'd like to start out with telling the universe your age, and how you got to be in the music business!
Syd: HI ALEXA! Ok sooooo... My body is 19 but my soul is at least 1000
I knew at a really young age that studying what you have passion for can color your world immensely. I'm most passionate about music so I knew that's what I wanted to devote my energy into. I knew by high school that I'd want to study music. I'm really fortunate I knew by then because it gets you going on your path. My freshmen year in college I was studying music, media, and film right outside of Portland. I decided to reach out to the owner of a concert venue to see if I could intern. He hired me and I shadowed the sound engineer to start learning show production.
Alexa: So you want to be in the production side of the business some day? I studied production once but failed graciously. Deffo took a proud L.
Syd: Haha! Well kind of.. I actually hope to work for a smaller, independent record label and gain experience there, full of a genuine work ethic. I'd love to branch out from there and start my own label, full of all kinds of artists to make one unified creative outlet.
My dream though is to work both out of the country and stateside. I'd love to get experience internationally and then move back to the states after I've ran that course. Or vice versa. I'll always be attached to Portland, Oregon so I can definitely see myself moving back there and working. France's music scene really interests me, along with Sweden's and Iceland's. There are so many suitable countries and cities with flourishing music that I'd love working in, which is nice because I'm open to it all.
Alexa: Super cool. What kind of music are you into then?
Syd: I listen to such a large spectrum of music. I always want to reveal my entire music library when asked questions like this. I'm on a huge Radiohead and Pink Floyd kick lately. I always circle back to Modest Mouse, Fleetwood Mac, Jamie xx, and a lot of others. Both Mr. Gnome and La Femme are favorite bands of mine so they're a frequent, too. The Octopus Project and any kind of experimental music has really peaked my interest in the last few months.
Alexa: Would you say that the same music you listen to also inspires you?
Syd: I mean yeah, totally. Bon Iver, Mr. Gnome, and CocoRosie all really inspire me. They all write lyrics and create sound in such an open way. Their sounds are so different from anything else. I'm continually blown away by the depth
Alexa: Last but not least.. Beatles or Rolling Stones?
Syd: Ah. The Alexa Ace famous question. I choose The Beatles. I haven't gotten lost in The Stones's music as much as I have The Beatles, so maybe I need to explore more so I'm unbiased.
Sydney's GHG show will be tonight, March 9th @ Kilby Court, Salt Lake City, Utah |
Doors: 7:00pm | Ticket $6
You can follow Sydney on Instagram @sydchrish
