American pop artist Sydney Jane takes us through her brand album Water On Mars , working with producer Ray Alex and more

American pop music has been dominating the charts for decades and we're so happy to have so many makes waves across the pond and enable themselves to do really well and we're joined by a new upcoming mega star in the making. Introducing singer, songwriter and artist Sydney Jane who has been a trailblazing talent over the past couple of years. The Germany based artist has been making huge waves across the Atlantic with her super impressive run so far. The Connecticut native who has over 14 million streams on Spotify and across other streaming platforms her music is truly fabulous. Known for tracks such as her feature on Ray Alex' single Erased , her feature on Shosh's single Cry No More, Your Kiss and Turn My World Around and also her featured on Ray Alex' 2024 album EP Disbelief on the upbeat jumpy song Grey Rock Shuffle. Now Sydney Jane returns with the release of her electronic pop single What They Seem , produced by British artist and producer Ray Alex. This song is a breathe of fresh air and is a wonderful addition to her musical catalogue. The music video is a truly beautiful, vibrant and colourful piece of visual presentation. Sydney Jane fuses her love for UK Garage, R&B and electronic pop and includes her buttery, sultry and perfect vocals and harmonies on any song. With years of training as a classical vocalist Sydney Jane is a name to watch out for in the charts very soon. She joins us to chat about her new single, what it was like working with collaborator Ray Alex, her favourite artists growing up and also shares news and expectations for her upcoming 14-track debut album WATER ON MARS which debuts in July 2025.

Stream What They Seem on Spotify and Soundcloud  

1)    Welcome Sydney, Thank you for joining us .  we love your single What they seem,  It’s a beautiful track. Could you tell us about how it first came about ? SYDNEY JANE: Thank you so much for having me, and I’m so glad my new single resonates with you! Ray Alex, the producer of the song, and I do this thing where we schedule mixing and mastering sessions before the music is finished to give ourselves hard deadlines, and we did the same for this song, along with a batch of 3 others in early 2024. I scheduled an entire week before the sessions to finish writing and to record the song, during which I got extremely sick with COVID. I almost had to cancel my trip to London for the sessions we booked with Brett Shaw at 123 Studios, but I was able to haul myself onto the plane to London from Cologne (where I live), with a lost voice and no final song. Luckily, we had a day off in between our two mixing and mastering days and I used that time to finish the song in just about 5 hours at Pirate Studios. It was the hardest session I’ve ever done, but I was extremely happy and relieved with the result. The next day, Ray Alex heard the final song for the first time in our mixing session, and it even became one of his favorites! That first batch of songs was supposed to be an EP, but we enjoyed the process and the music so much that we decided we should try to make an album instead.

2)    What do you hope listeners take from the song, are there expectations from this release?

SYDNEY JANE: I hope that when you hear this song, it awakens curiosity inside of you. Curiosity about life, the meaning of it, your relationship to yourself, your relationship to the things around you, the music itself, or even about Ray Alex and me. I hope it’s a little spark, a sound reminiscent of something you’ve heard, but not quite it. I realize our style is so unique, but it’s a blend of the music we, and a lot of other people, love most. This song is just a first glimpse into the word we’ve created to share with all of you. As far as expectations go, I’ve released 34 tracks (not including the ones I burned to CDs when I was a teenager recording my bedroom) and I’ve done all the metric-tracking, relying on labels, and trying to be the biggest and most played artist. Right now, I’m taking the pressure off, and all I want from this first single is to practice sharing more of myself in this new era of my music, with the hopes of igniting new connections and building my community through heartfelt interaction. I’m doing that now, step-by-step, so in my eyes this single is already a personal success.

SYDNEY JANE AND PRODUCER RAY ALEX

3) You’ve come a long way from your early days , tell us who were some of the artists you grew up watching, did any them inspire your current sound?

SYDNEY JANE: I grew up listening to all sorts of music, from soul and rock to pop and classical. Some of the biggest artists that I grew up listening to who really influenced my current sound are Destiny’s Child and Beyoncé, The Neptunes, Missy Elliott, Jill Scott, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and early 2000s UK Garage. I lived in London for less than a year when I was 11 and hearing UK Garage for the first time changed my life - it was, and still is, so important to me. Also, studying classical music from my teenage years through to now, with my voice teacher, Tona Brown, gave me a grounded approach to all the genres that I’ve performed, and has really allowed me to experiment in really fun ways with my voice!

4) Now with your upcoming album Water on mars dropping in July. What can fans expect from this release, do you have any features,  does it have a specific sound?

SYDNEY JANE : People can expect early 2000s R&B, underground UK, and shimmering progressive electronic sounds with lyrics that pierce through everyday noise and go straight to the heart. I can honestly say this album doesn’t sound like anything you’ve ever heard, and I’m so incredibly excited to see how people react and connect to it because it’s the most musically vulnerable I’ve ever been. I have a lot to say in this album. There are no features, but I have two incredible instrumentalists that blessed me with solos. The first is a bass solo from my insanely talented husband, Freddi Lubitz-Ragland, and the second is a piano solo from German keyboard genius Axel Steinbiss. Other than that, people can look out for some of Ray Alex’s vocals sprinkled throughout as well :)

5)  What was the process like working on the album with producer Ray Alex ,   did you two produce songs together,  what was your writing process like?

SYDNEY JANE: Working with Ray Alex on this album was an absolute dream. I couldn’t have wished for a better musical situation in this process and we enjoyed it so much that we’ve already started working on the next album ;) I’m such a fan of Ray Alex’s work and have been for years, so it was just such an honor to work together on what has been the most significant professional project of my life so far. Our process is honestly so simple: He usually sends tracks that’s he’s made that he thinks fit my current musical taste, I write to them, we go back and forth usually 2-3 times, during which he gives lyrical/melodic feedback and I give production feedback, then he makes a final version of the instrumental and I record and edit all the vocals, and, lastly, we go to our favorite mixing and masering engineer, Brett Shaw at 123 Studios. We’ve got it down to a science now. The thing I love most about our process is that it’s effortless between us and we leave room for each other to play any role within the writing/production process - it’s true creative freedom. We do most of our work remotely, but for the album a lot of our song ideas were started in person during visits to London or Cologne. You can check out Ray Alex’s YouTube page for behind the scenes videos of the production of our album here: https://youtu.be/PfwjYJaQ8nE?si=5PdH8abm1Djchb2q

6)  Lastly, you’ve had a brilliant year so far with your work steadily rising in popularity what can your fans watch out for from you. Could you expect a live show, music videos, a  short film or something like that coming soon ?

SYDNEY JANE: Thank you so much. As far as visuals go, I’m so excited to share 3 more music videos for the album, and I’m creating even more videos where people can get to know more about me on my social media. I’m committed to building community through my music, so I’ll be doing some guest teaching in Germany at the Hochschule in Cologne in June, as well as a free community offering in the form of a songwriting class as a part of my residency at Matter of Time Studio in London this June. I’m also very much looking forward to live performances as the album comes out and throughout the rest of the year. I also have a podcast called Sacred + Sound if you’re like me and spiritually curious. My purpose is to help uplift everyone through my music, to help usher in a new era of love and unity while the old paradigms of fear and separation fall away. With that in mind, I encourage you to join my mailing list, to stay up to date and get involved as we embark on this creative journey together!

For more info and updates follow Sydney Jane on Instagram, Twitter and her official website