SYML: 2025

This  FUV Live session is also available as a podcast, "FUV Live Sessions." We're elevating WFUV's long history of live sessions and interviews via a podcast that you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.

In this intimate WFUV Live session, Brian Fennell — better known as SYML — joins us in Studio A for conversation and to play songs from his new album, Nobody Lives Here.

This is his third album under the SYML moniker — which is Welsh for "simple," a nod to his heritage as the son of Welsh immigrants. Formerly a member of Barcelona, the Washington-born Fennell reflects on his challenging experiences of being in a band versus the more relaxed, bedroom project of his solo work.

Recorded in his home studio, Nobody Lives Here was a low-stress collaboration with his longtime friend and fellow classically-trained musician Brian Eichelberger, who also joined him for this session. These two Brians have been best friends since the fifth grade and made this new record together on their "dad schedules" while their kids were at school.

Many of the songs began as bare-bones singer and songwriter compositions on guitar or piano, with subtle sonic textures added later to preserve their emotional core.

During our interview, Fennell talked about his dark romance and fascination with the concept of the apocalypse, a theme that has come up before in his music and again now on "Carry No Thing" from the new album.  He revealed that the original version of the song was really long —  he might one day release it in its full glory — but he opted for a more concise version on the album. Fennell and Eichelberger performed that song along with "Heavy Hearts" from Nobody Lives Here and "Fear of the Water" from SYML's 2016 EP, Hurt for Me.

[Recorded: 5/7/25; Engineered by Jim O'Hara with Erin Merriman, Zack Tomassi, and Julia Maling. Produced by Meghan Suma. Videographers: Anna Fahy, Louisa Schramm, Stephanie Lane, Lyla Toomey, Olivia Wahlert and Sydney Marovitz.]