Review Fix Exclusive: Saticöy Talks “Nice to Know”

Review Fix chats with singer/songwriter Saticöy, who discusses the inspiration behind their new single, “Nice to Know.”

About Nice to Know:

‘Nice to Know’ reflects on the long term impact following the loss of a mentor. In this case, lead singer Derek Long’s father who fell to cancer in 2007. Since his father passed on the cusp of Derek’s formative years, they never had the opportunity to share an adult relationship. The sounds on the record pull from a sense of nostalgia and express the feeling Derek has in his struggle to remember exactly who his father was, and how those formative life experiences would differ having a father to share them with. That desire for a mature relationship drives Derek just as much as it burdens him. His hope in writing this song is that people going through similar struggles can find comfort from the loneliness that comes along with grief. Strength always comes from triumph over tragedy, and while ‘Nice to Know’ expresses a yearning to return to happier times, it also shows a fortified determination to carry on a legacy.

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?

Saticöy: We all found our passion for music at a pretty young age. I (Derek) first picked up my brothers guitar after it had been sitting untouched in his room for weeks. I distinctly remember listening to In Utero by Nirvana and thinking, “yeah, thats what I want to do.” Haven’t looked back since. 

Jaron took guitar lessons at a very young age, however was uninspired to practice until a couple years later I started playing the drums on rockband and found out I was actually pretty good at it. Eventually, I convinced my dad to to get me a drum set who said “I’ll give you two weeks and you won’t touch these again”. Well, around 10 years later and I’m still going!

Jonathan was initially “forced” to play classical piano. Knowing this definitely wasn’t the instrument for me, I started to learn how to play guitar. I joined the Paul Green School of Rock from my hometown and learned how to play and perform with others. This was when I knew music was all I wanted to do with my life. I never figured i’d be playing bass but that’s a different story

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Saticöy: Since we’re all musicians, the instrumentals are very important to us. We like to take our time, and craft an interesting instrumental groove/loop. Usually this starts with a lead line or chord progression. Once the groove is set, we work out some top line melodies that are catchy and supportive of said groove. Lyrics come last, either as a collaborative effort, or written by me (Derek) independently before bringing it to the group for their thoughts. Thats how we’ve done it so far, but the creative process is always changing. We have been working with a lot of other writers and producers that do things very differently, which is always interesting to experience and learn from. 

Review Fix: How was “Nice To Know” written?

Saticöy: Nice to Know started when Jaron sampled an old recording he made with his high school band. The result was this really nostalgic vibe. Nostalgia is powerful, we all like to reminisce. With that in mind we wanted to nurture that, while still maintaining a fresh, modern production. Writing the song about my father seemed like a no brainer to me, so long as it didn’t just come across as a â€œwoe is me” sort of track that just makes us look depressed. We tracked and wrote everything in our apartment in North Hollywood.

Review Fix: What does your music allow you to do that another career wouldn’t?

Saticöy: Working on music gives us creative freedom. Thats incredibly important to us. Even when doing work for hire projects outside of Saticöy that need to follow certain guidelines set by the client, we are able to put a piece of ourselves in every production. Many of my friends who work sales jobs, though they make more money, complain about a void of creative expression and the mundanity of the 9-5 work schedule. 

This doesn’t mean our work isn’t hard. Working and making a living in music is incredibly taxing. For a time, unless you’re lucky with great connections early on, you need to sacrifice your health and financial stability to work late nights on projects that are underpaid, or for gratis. Thankfully we’re reaching a point where we can sustain ourselves from music, and that feels incredible. 

Review Fix: What inspires you?

Saticöy: The people that our music impacts. Recently we’ve been starting to get more consistent traffic in our instagram DM’s from fans, and its been really inspiring. One message came following a performance that was streamed live on twitch. A fan from Italy mentioned being bummed he wouldn’t have a chance to see us live, but was “over the moon” to have found us performing on a twitch channel that he frequents. Others have messaged us asking for chord sheets so that they can do covers. Finally, one youtube user commented about faded from color “Ive yet to hear a song that better captures the feeling of listlessness from being trapped in a deadend job while believing you’re destined for more”. It feels good to hear how closely some people are listening to the music, and makes all the hard work and sacrifice worth it.

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?

Saticöy: Alt-Pop with a hint of soul.

Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?

Saticöy: When starting Saticöy, one of the things we talked about was making content that was catchy, digestible, and unique. We are all seasoned musicians, and used to play in a jam band in Ohio, so we COULD go in on some more complex musical arrangements, but then we’d be in direct competition with incredible artists like Vulfpeck, Lettuce, and Anderson .Paak’s more live oriented content. Putting out the more stripped, digestible content from the studio, however, allows us to pull out all the stops we held out on in the live show. We extend sections, add guitar solos and drum breaks, get the crowd involved, and all in all try to make the show more musical and engaging. It makes the live show something fresh, rather than just a regurgitation of the songs you hear on spotify.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of 2019?

Saticöy: We have one more song on the way from this project, and a couple videos, but after that we just want to take some time to write new material and to get some paid work in order to fund the next project. The music we’ve released so far was written a year or so ago, so this brief hiatus will give us an opportunity to build content that more accurately reflects the current state of our production as well as a spectacular live show with music that the LA crowd has yet to see. After our recent show at the Troubadour was sold out, we realized that we need to start preparing for the next chapter in Saticöy. 

Review Fix: What’s next?

Saticöy: Writing new material, and making money to fund the content that follows is our highest priority right now. In the meantime, keep an eye out for the music video for Nice to Know and one more single within the next month or so!