After years of feeling limited and misunderstood by the Americana / Alt-Country genre category she was initially pigeonholed into and the expectations that came along with it, this is the first album that Sylvia has made so far far that she feels truly encapsulates the full person and artist she always knew herself to be, now finally actualized in the music. A Miss / A Masterpiece is her declaration of independence, trading in cowboy boots for her favorite Black Sabbath tank top, black jeans, and a scuffed pair of well-loved motorcycle boots – the look that she should have introduced herself with in the first place.
In our interview, Novak discusses how their gender identity and genre identity are intimately connected, and how coming to terms with one meant embracing the other. A Miss-A Masterpiece is a blistering rock album with occasional twang, pushing the boundaries of Americana in all the best ways.
Explain the title of your album.
The title, A Miss/ A Masterpiece, was grabbed from the second single release of the album, “To Ten.” The first line of the third verse is, “What’s this? A miss? A masterpiece?” It’s very self-referential (and, honestly, kind of navel-gazey) in that the whole song is about the song itself. If I think about it for even a little bit I know that the line/question is a small part of a larger existential crisis that I have to pull myself back from the brink of multiple times a week. Who am I as an artist? As a person? What am I doing? Does it even matter? Will anyone care?
I think any time an artist creates something and lays it out for public consumption there’s the underlying fear that it won’t be well received (ergo, “a miss”). But there is also the quasi-narcissistic belief – or maybe a silent plea to the universe – that what we’ve made may be a masterpiece.
How do you manage having a good time at shows, but also trying to stay mentally and physically fit?
This is something that I am really passionate about, actually. I consider myself a healthy eater and I am definitely an active person. I try to make sure that my diet doesn’t change much when we’re traveling and, if anything, I try to clean it up even more. I make sure to eat meals versus snacking throughout the day. At least one of my meals is a salad or something predominantly vegetable-forward. (When you’re not moving as much throughout the day// sitting in a vehicle for hours you have to eat fiber.)
Even if our load-in and check times are weird I prioritize food before we get on stage. Even if it’s something super light. I wasn’t always great about that but I know myself well enough to know that I’m going to drink – tequila on the rocks or with soda water is my go-to. Skip the sugar and your head and gut will thank you later – and if I don’t eat it’s going to be a disaster.
I also take my yoga mat with me and book hotels with gyms. I mix running 3 to 4 miles some days with power yoga other days depending on how my body feels. No matter what, I make time to move. I love grabbing a yoga class at a local studio if I have time before we have to roll out in the morning – checking out new studios is one of the coolest things about traveling. I also drink like 5 liters of water a day. No lie. We stop for pee breaks so much and my band hates me for it.
How do you feel your coming out journey plays into your music?
For a really long time, I hated myself for not being as feminine as I thought I was supposed to be as a woman making music in the country/Americana world. I also struggled with the fact that I didn’t want to be who I thought I was supposed to be within that realm. I tried to present as ultra-feminine and I felt so disingenuous and so wrong in my own skin. I seriously even raised the pitch of my speaking voice (which is naturally pretty low). So there was this super dark inner world that I navigated and I felt a lot of animosity toward myself for not “fitting in”or being “right”. I pinned my lack of immediate success on it. I blamed my appearance. Blamed my clothes. My demeanor.
All of the feelings that I’d had about myself that I shoved down when I realized that I was – and came out as – bi in 2009 started to come back up for me. Why did I live in this gray area? Why couldn’t I just be one thing or the other? And my music – nobody really knew (knows) what to do with it. What to call it. And my songs, though I loved them, always stalled at about half-potential because I couldn’t and wouldn’t put myself into them.
There was some clarity for me when I was introduced to the term nonbinary in 2018. Over time, I realized that that is how I identify. In small circles of trusted people I shared my pronouns – she/they. And over even more time I have started to make peace with who I am as a person and how I represent myself as an artist. Coming out, even in a small capacity and somewhat quietly (until now, I guess), as nonbinary has helped me be brave enough to start making the music that I want to make without being worried about how it will be perceived/what people will call it.
Instead of being afraid of the fact that people don’t know what to “do” with me or my music, I embrace it. Because I know who I am.
Is there a professional “bucket list” item you would love to check off?
I add a new one to the list almost monthly! I have a lot of goals.
Go on tour opening for Jimmy Eat World, sell out a major venue as the headliner, and win a Grammy are my top three.
Do you play covers at your shows? Why or why not?
I saved this one for last because I feel like it can be pretty polarizing.
I do. I’ll generally pick one cover that I’m really into at the moment and that I feel like the band can pull off really really well. From April 2021 to present we’ve been really into having a Foo Fighters song in our set. The first couple of months we were back to playing in early 2021 it was “Walk”. In late Summer 2021 we started subbing in “Dear Rosemary” instead after I made it apparent that I could and would not remember to take a breath during the bridge of “Walk”. I didn’t want to replace my semi-custom bass or eat a microphone because I was stupid enough to let myself pass out due to lack of oxygen. [My band and I adore Foo Fighters and look up to them tremendously. For obvious reasons we’re holding on those covers for a bit if not indefinitely.]
I’m also notorious for recording cover songs on some of my albums. I do it because it’s fun to put my own spin on songs that I love.
A Miss/ A Masterpiece includes a cover of “Dizzy” by Jimmy Eat World, Someone Else’s War has a cover of Warren Zevon’s “I Was In The House When The House Burned Down” on it, and The Last Three Years (now unavailable online) features my take on Gretchen Peters’ “The Matador” (which is, in my opinion, one of the most devastating songs ever written).