Synesthesia brings music for all your senses to Purple City

On September 7, Edmonton-based band Synesthesia brought their music to the Starlite Room as part of Purple City, downtown’s underground music festival. Through fusing metal, punk, and psychedelic rock, Synesthesia aims to make music “that you [can] feel with all of your senses, not just your ears,” according to band member Charlotte McInulty.

Originally formed four years ago, the current lineup — consisting of Kaylee Boyko, Adrian Knull, McInulty, and Chloe Reichenbach — began working towards this goal two years ago. McInulty and Reichenbach are the founding members. In addition to being bandmates, the pair were childhood friends, having met at the age of ten. Boyko and McInulty met in a guitar class at Victoria School of the Arts. Knull, McInulty’s partner, was also integrated into the band. 

The band’s name is representative of their goal. Synesthesia is also the name of a neurological condition. For those with synesthesia, when one of the five senses is in use, it often triggers an associated, involuntary reaction in a different sensory or cognitive stream.

Synesthesia pens songs about shitty men and vampire sirens

While Synesthesia has yet to release music, they bring their original songs to their performances. The bandmates identified one common theme that provides them inspiration — shitty men.

“We’re very angsty,” Reichenbach said. “We channel our inner teenage girl quite a bit and sing about men that have wronged us.”

Additionally, Synesthesia is designing a vampire siren character at the heart of a trilogy of songs. This character — named Vestera — steals people’s souls, Reichenbach said.

“That was like a foundation idea when it came to starting the band. We wanna have a really cool kind of lore to us.” 

The first song in the trilogy is titled “Synester,” the second “Fatal Attraction,” and the third “Vestera,” named for the vampire herself. 

Currently, Synesthia is working on an EP which they hope to release this year or early next year. It will feature a mix of new and old music. 

“It feels very rewarding to know that we were selected to play that stage,” Reichenbach says

For Synesthia, one of the most exciting things about playing in this year’s Purple City Music Festival is the chance to play the Starlite Room.

“A lot of famous names have played on that stage. It’s a little bit intimidating, but at the same time it feels very rewarding to know that we were selected to play that stage,” Reichenbach said.

Purple City attracts local acts as well as artists from across North America. “It’s a really cool opportunity” and something Reichenbach said the scene in Edmonton should do more to spread the word about.

“It brings in so many insane artists from all over the place just to come to Edmonton for a couple days. Just [to] have over 100 bands playing is insane,” Reichenbach said. “I think the Edmonton music scene is hopping right now and it’s super cool to see all this gone down and be a part of it.”