Sayphonik
Phillip Saypanya’s, a.k.a. Sayphonik, adventure began in the Phillipines where he was born on June 2nd, 1985. Shortly thereafter as Laos-Thai ethnics, Phillip’s family found their way to the United States to start anew. Landing in North Carolina, he was inspired by the predominantly ‘blues’ and rock rooted state until his ears discovered a new sound at the age of 8: freestyle. It was love at first sound. Little did he know the electronic rhythm, up-lifting melodies, and sappy love vocals would set him up for a future in electronic dance music.
At 12-years old, and in time for the Internet boom, his first downloads came in the form of Beam vs Cyrus - Thunder in Paradise and ATB – 9pm (Till I Come). Still not truly compliant with Trance , he turned toward a common noise heard in the east coast scene: breakbeats. Breakbeats sharpened his acuity of drums, chiseled an edge on his music, and gave him a groove he could move to.
After creating an extensive library of music, Phillip said “I really want to get out there and try to DJ myself.” But with zeal and passion comes apathy, and many family and friends overlooked the true interest he had in music. With no support for music from either parent, he was forced to find virtual software alternatives. Bypassing a few uninformative programs, Phillip found Fruity Loops, Acid Pro, and Sound Forge. “I didn’t even know what beat matching was,” he states. There began his journey into music production. By the age of 13 Phillip had made a few remixes and mix cds. He even tagged himself as ‘DJ Laoboyy’, a named “made for fun” used to imprint his tracks. It was under this alias where he produced primarily trancy/melodic breakbeats. When he turned 16, Phillip relocated to Seattle, WA where he began to attend underground parties, seeking familiar names in the headlines. It was there he was introduced to hard dance, a subsequently more professional sound in EDM. He then ordered some Stanton STR8-60 turntables and due to his previous progressing skills in production, he beat matched the first pair of vinyl’s he ever played.
Barreling out into the Seattle underground scene as DJ Laoboyy, Phillip caught the attention of major promoter and music supporters Whistler, Soulkid, Flave, and Kid Kaboom. Armed with a box of noodles full of vinyl, he blew Soulkid away the first time he had ever used the legendary Technics turntables. Enamored with his young talent and music selection, Soulkid began to book him for a number of gigs in which he would become a staple Seattle local in the scene for the years to come. Phillip played a lot of hard dance in the Seattle scene, but produced primarily breaks in the bedroom. Progressively outgrowing breakbeats in skill, he decided it was time for change. “I figured that pursuing breaks in the long run would be too easy for me so I decided to slowly move into producing pure trance, mainly because of the quality of trance that was coming out. It was a bigger challenge and a much bigger market. The main reason though, was that no other music has ever made me feel the way trance music has. It felt so universal and emotional, which was the best outlet of self-expression for myself. Music will always be the best expression for my emotions.”
Battling with the hardships of teenage years, Phillip began to find himself in a rut. Alcohol, drugs, and gangs were not uncommon in Seattle, and without the support he needed from family Phillip slowly turned to the substitutes. The presence of authorities started to become a recurring theme, and the drain of personal issues stacked with family became too much. “I wanted to kill myself,” he said. “But music saved my life.”
At a mere 19-years old with five hundred dollars and a box of records to his name, Phillip finally moved to Hollywood, CA to begin life on his own. He had left behind the scene, the friends, the drugs, and the problems to focus on himself for the first time in his life. He enrolled at SAE Institute in Los Angeles and was educated in the professional side of music. With the proper tools presented he was able to concentrate on the quality of his production. Armed with Logic Pro, Pro Tools, and many other various audio programs, he began to refine his skills in arranging, recording, mixing, mastering, synthesis, etc.
“After moving to Hollywood, I figured it was time to give myself a new image because my previous alias was often conflicted between whether I was playing trance or breaks so I came up with a new main name that I wanted to rebuild from scratch, Sayphonik. Sayphonik is a blend between my last name and euphoria/euphonic, which best describes my style.”
With the tools provided to him by SAE and other various software Sayphonik has never been able to spend the amount of money he has wanted to on the equipment he needed. “I have always made the best of what I have available in my bedroom relying on the most important thing.” he stated. “My ears.”
After graduating from SAE in 2007, Sayphonik began to concentrate on his releases. In 2009, he released his first single for Televisionary Records, “Hope for Change”, a track inspired by the just then elected President Barack Obama, which featured audio clips from the President’s speech and a ‘Seattle Club Mix’ for the masses. Soon thereafter, a 2007 project named ‘Sex on the Beach’ resurfaced from his hard drive and became ‘Western Sunset’, which is being released under his alter ego ‘Venice Blvd.’ Western Sunset is set to stir up a fuss on the same label with the sweet, melodic guitars befitting of his favorite beach in Venice, CA. Sayphonik has also recently won a remix competition provided by Silent Shore, a label with a handful of releases but much support from many top DJs including, but not limited to, Armin Van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk, Aly & Fila, Sean Tyas, and more. The original track (ReOrder and Jaycan – Come With Me to Varanasi) was given an overhaul, and became subject to Sayphonik’s Hot n’ Spicy Blend!
With ten years of experience Sayphonik is no stranger to sound. As a child of the 80’s, his arsenal of audio knowledge continues to grow. 2010 is just another start of this young new stars adventure in to the EDM world. At the age of 22 with a stead-forward pace and no less passion then there was ten years ago, don’t be surprised if you find ‘Sayphonik’ on your future favorites playlist in the near future.
