Bec Sykes Top 5 Cringe Moments
Photo Credit: Alex Starostin
Bec Sykes has just released a music video for her new single ‘At Least’. Inspired by some of the cringiest moments of her career, the video sees Bec go up against a magician, a metal band and a ukelele-wielding dance duo in an old-fashioned shopping centre talent show. You can check out the music video below.
I thought it would be fun to hand this article over to Bec and let her explain her top 5 cringe moments in her music career. Take it away Bec.
Bec Vs. The Horses
One of my very first gigs was at a pub in Wantirna. I arrived at the venue, along with my entire family who had come to see me play, and it turned out I was set to perform in the sports bar section. I ended up playing my sad, quiet folk songs accompanied by the horse racing commentary blaring from the TV behind me.
Bec vs. The Bikini Models
A few years ago I entered a competition called something like SeArCh FoR tHe StArS (no joke the name was stylised like that) which was a promo thing for a new recording studio that was opening. There was a range of entrants, from heavy rock bands to classical singers. An even more bizarre addition to the night's entertainment was a group of bikini models who did a catwalk show just before I played my song. I remember being so bamboozled that I still had my bag over my shoulder during my performance. I didn't win, but I did get a pretty decent audio interface as a runner-up prize.
Bec vs. The English Language
There used to be an amazing little venue in Ballarat called Babushka Bar that was run by a friendly goth called Garth. It's sad that it's not open anymore because it was a cool place. Anyway, my friends and I did a mini-tour of regional Vic and we played there one night. This particular night, I messed up my lyrics, and I started to sing the word 'pretend' but then I realised the lyric was actually 'you'. I ended up mashing the words together and accidentally sang the word 'poo'. I was hoping no one noticed, but then out of the corner of my eye I saw my backing vocalist grinning, and I knew she'd heard it too. We got the giggles and as hard as we tried, we couldn't hold it together for the rest of the song. Props to our guitarist for helping us get to the finish line.
Bec Vs The City
When I was 19 I got my buskers license for the city of Melbourne and I eagerly got the train into the city with my shitty nylon string guitar, imagining I'd be able to quit my supermarket job soon. With no guitar strap and no amp, I sat on the footpath on Swanston Street and began to sing my quiet folk songs, unplugged. I was no match for the traffic, and a couple of people walking past told me I needed to sing louder. Someone gave me a $20 note, probably out of pity, but at the time it felt like I'd won a grammy.
Bec Vs The Audience
I was playing a gig with my old band at one of the nicest venues we'd ever played. During our set, a man in the audience let out a big "woooooow!" which we interpreted as pure awe of our performance, so we were like "thank you". But then he was like "look at the dust on that guitar!"