Interview // "Frikvater" - February 2002

Saybia do not expect to make a lot of money, but they know they have talent. Saybia do not think about the fact that a rock band can party and get girls. But they do think a lot about their greatest love: music. They sing that it is okay to be sad. Meet a Danish, romantic, and philosophical rock band.
It is okay to be sad
You will never meet anyone like Saybia. That is why the meeting requires some preparation: Light a lot of candles and open a good bottle of wine. Put on Saybia’s album and you are in a different universe.
Here is a band that thinks a lot. So much that it is difficult to understand them. They describe their music as the soundtrack to life. They especially enjoy the downs.
- Even though it is really sad, you have to see the beauty in having love sorrows, the keyboard player Jess says. The rest of the band nods around the coffee table.
- So it is okay to be sad?
- Ha ha, yes! Instead of just moving on to a new girlfriend, you have to give yourself time to get over it, Jess says. Lead singer Søren Huss agrees.
- You cultivate your sad feeling, you surrender, he says. – If you are generally happy there is hope for you still. You can easily hear the album when you are happy. But I would never play it at a party.
But this afternoon Saybia are very happy. There is a week till the debut album is released.
(Jeppe makes a little rhyme, which would make no sense in English, but everybody laughs.)
Rock under the skin
Your impression of Saybia so far is: five guys, who like to be sad. Not very common. Then read on, because Saybia is very special.
It will be a long time before Søren, Palle, Jess, Jeppe, and Sebastian are allowed to be sad again. After nine years (yes, nine years!) of chasing the record contract they got it. Besides cultivating love (and sorrows) they are workaholics. When Frikvarter meets them they are sitting around five cups of coffee, which are never empty.
- We are addicted to coffee, they say.
The refusals from the record companies did not knock them out. After all it is okay to be sad. But it might require a bit more coffee.
- Instead of standing in the practice room, picking nose and waiting for something to happen we thought: We are going out to play and if we are good enough an audience will come. And then the record company will come too, Søren says determinedly.
- A rock band cannot release an album without going on tour. That is where we live, Jess says and ashes his cigarette. Søren explains why they, not until after nine years, play to full houses.
- You do not promote rock bands through music videos on MTV. That is more a boy band thing. Then you make an expensive video and become famous, he says.
But if Saybia did make a music video, it would not be about the wild tour life with the parties in the tour bus. No sex, drugs and rock’n’roll?
- No, we just drink coffee, Jess says sacredly. A discussion about the drugs in the coffee is started. Jeppe thinks they get “very stimulated” by it.
- There is a time, where you are tired after four days of concerts in a row, Jeppe says. Then the five guys choose the coffee, not the beer.
- The concerts are the most important. Not the beers before and after, Søren says.
- But it is becoming our job and some things accompanies, which are not in a regular 9-17 job, Jess puts in.
The definition of a rock band is difficult. Saybia is a rock band. The five guys do have half long hair, but it is not about “now we are going to drink and get girls” as Søren says.
But can you get girls with your songs?
- Aha, cunning question. We have not thought about that, but if there is anybody out there, then… The five look shy.
- We are very sensitive, otherwise we would be playing hard rock or techno, Søren says.
Fire, no five friends
Your impression of Saybia is now some sweet guys, who do all the right things and who have fought for success. Do they have high expectations of themselves?
-Yes!, Søren answers quickly, thinks about if this sounded too self-centred, but repeats:
-Yes, that is all we can say. We have expectations of ourselves and each others.
Won’t a possible disappointment be even harder then?
Well, we always have each others. We are four friends, who… Everybody laugh of Søren.
- We are five!, Jess says.
- No, Palle does not count, Søren laughs.
- No, I am just the drummer, Palle mumbles. Saybia’s jokes are very internal. They obviously know everything about each other, but do not tell. They will rather talk about music. Every five minute one of them says how much he loves music.
As early as 16 the friends thought of a name for the band. They were lying on the floor in the practice room.
- We tried to come up with a funny story about our name, but the truth is that a cymbal is called Sabian. That became Saybia, the five friends tell.
Were you good with playing with the language or were you bored?
- Hmmm, we were bored, they laugh, but Søren has to admit that he has been playing a bit with the word too.
- It also means fear of speaking. Phobia is the English word for “fobi” (the Danish word) and say means “tale” (the Danish word), Søren says. A light dawns for the entire band after nine years with a weird name.
- Yes, of course! That is a good story, you write that!, the five guys say eagerly.
- Because we are afraid of saying the things we play out our feelings instead, Søren says and looks philosophical.
The talk continues to the title of the album, which is equally as strange. The Second You Sleep.
What does that mean?
- It is the moment where you fall asleep. You go from being awake to dreaming, Jess says and frowns.
- You can never remember that moment, Søren says. The coffee gets cold in the cups of the discussion. Saybia burns for the music, life and love. The sad and the happy part.
- Actually pretty trivial, as the band says.
Your candles are burnt out, the meeting is over.
Right now Saybia are living in the second, when they are entering the dream world. Success is near. They have not gotten the girl and the money yet. They have won the music and the entire kingdom’s attention. And they are playing till the end of their days. At the next interview they will bring an acoustic guitar and play the answers on all the questions. Mysterious.