Sycco has released new single ‘I’ve Loved and I’ve Lost’, the second taste of her forthcoming album ‘Look Up’, due October 2 via Future Classic. It follows a surprise carpark performance at BIGSOUND and finds the Melbourne-based singer, songwriter and producer Sash McLeod turning her attention to the vulnerability and uncertainty that come with falling in love.

Produced with Chrome Sparks and Oscar Sharah, ‘I’ve Loved and I’ve Lost’ puts Sycco’s melodies firmly at the centre. There is melancholy running through McLeod’s vocal, but the production remains restrained around it, giving the song space rather than burying its emotional pull beneath layers of studio decoration.

The track follows ‘Look Up’, the album’s title track, which picked up immediate rotation at triple j and FBi and is also set to appear in ‘EA SPORTS FC 27’. McLeod has been busy elsewhere too, recently earning a co-writing credit on Jess Hitchcock’s ‘Burn It Down’ from the ‘My Brilliant Career’ soundtrack.

‘Look Up’ will be Sycco’s second album, following her ARIA-nominated and J Award-winning debut ‘Zorb’. That record established McLeod as an artist largely uninterested in keeping genres in their assigned boxes, moving through psychedelic pop, electronic music and more intimate songwriting while working with collaborators including Flume, Chrome Sparks, Mallrat and Stylaz Fuego. Her catalogue has since accumulated more than 80 million streams.

For the follow-up, McLeod headed to Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, where much of ‘Look Up’ was recorded on a farm with co-producer Sharah and additional input from longtime collaborator Chrome Sparks. The trio built much of its sonic framework from scratch, including synth-created drums and layers of manipulated vocals around McLeod’s lead.

Sycco has already taken her music from Australian festival stages to support slots with Tame Impala, Remi Wolf and Glass Animals, alongside international radio support from BBC Radio 1, KCRW, KEXP and SiriusXM. ‘Look Up’ now arrives at a point where the experimentation of her debut is being channelled into something more intimate and exposed.

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