Editor's Note: Shawn Rhea, singer for Norman-based screamo/hardcore rock band Sycamore, spoke recently with me about the band's gig today as part of the musical showdown A Fight for Fame at 7 tonight at Kamp's Deli, 1310 NW 25th Ave. in Oklahoma City.



By Adam Scott

entertainment editor



pop: First off, who are the other guys in Sycamore (last names, please!)?

Shawn Rhea: Trent Langrehr, he's our guitarist. Trey Davidson plays bass and George Braswell plays drums. And Chris Borah also plays guitar.



p: Speaking of Chris, what, exactly, does being a "temp" as listed on the band's MySpace page mean for him?

SR: We had another guy named Jesse that played guitar but he left in August to go to law school in Atlanta and at the time we thought Chris might be a temporary fill-in guy but he's played with us before and he's a good guy. It's looking like he's gonna be a permanent part of the band.

He plays guitar but it says "temp" on there and he actually does the MySpace page, so he put that on there.



p: How long have you guys been together?

SR: I think we've kind of seriously been doing it for about a year and half, almost two years. It's been a year and nine months, something like that.



p: Any members' past band experience you'd care to mention?

SR: George, our drummer, used to play in a local band called Midamerica. They were one of those bands that was almost there, playing a lot and close to getting signed by a bunch of different labels but they decided to go back and finish school.

At first we had a different drummer but things didn't work out with him and so I teamed up with George ...

I used to live in Arkansas and played in a band there called Sevens. I played in that band for four years from 2000-2004. A few things got me back to Norman and I moved back to Norman and through mutual friends we met the other guys and started playing together and that's how that worked out.



p: How does your songwriting process begin?

SR: It always starts with one person's idea. It's kind of just a skeleton of an idea and they present that to the band and each member, they add their flavor to it.

A lot of the time me and the other guitar players, we sit down with acoustic guitars and do most of it and we take it from there.



p: What do you think of Norman as a place for developing musicians?

SR: Our kind of band, we haven't found many places in Norman to play. A lot of the venues are college rock or indie and stuff; a lot are folk or singer-songwriters and our band plays more to a younger crowd, more high school and college. While Norman is a college town, I think that's been more toward one end of the audience.

I mean, there's a few venues in the city but a lot of the shows we've done have been out of the area.

One thing I would add is I think our sound has been influenced by heavier, hardcore music that we kind of like but that's changed recently to maybe not be "radio friendly" but appeal more to a ... broader audience. I think anyone can listen to it and appreciate it, get something from the music.



p: What are the specifics of today's gig?

SR: It's at 7 p.m. at the Kamp's Deli in downtown Oklahoma City (1310 NW 25th Ave.). The show is put on by Overtone Media. It's a battle of the bands. "A Fight For Fame," that's what it's called. Overtone Media does these battles of the bands all over the country and right now they're doing this Oklahoma City one and another one in Tulsa and the winners of the OKC show and the Tulsa show will compete and the winner of that will get different prizes and one of those is to play the House of Blues in Las Vegas.



p: Anything else you'd like to let people know about Sycamore?

SR: People ask what we sound like. I would say that, well, I could compare us to bands but I don't know if that would be fair and it would be just me saying it ...

I would say it's fun to listen to and it's fun to watch. It's just rock music so its something people can sing along to. Everyone in the band's a Christian although we're not a "Christian band."

A lot of what we sing about is uplifting and has a message of hope. We're not pushing our faith or anything on anybody but it's maybe something that someone out there is looking for and not that "hate my dad" kind of music that you hear on the radio.

For more about Sycamore, visit www. myspace. com/sycamorescreams. For more about A Fight for Fame, visit www.afightforfame.com.