'...an incredibly rich and deep narrative of high-concept science fiction that’s absolutely mind-blowing...'
– Epitome of Epic (Album Review: Apocrypha)
// MELBOURNE CYBERPUNK ELECTRONICA
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////BIOGRAPHY
NAVIGATE: SIRUS || MEMBERS: JOSH ROMBOUT | KEEVA LEO | RYAN PERILLO
NAVIGATE: SIRUS || MEMBERS: JOSH_ROMBOUT | KEEVA_LEO | RYAN_PERILLO
ABOUT SIRUS
SIRUS is a high amplitude Cyberpunk music project based in Melbourne, Australia.
Long regarded as one of Melbourne’s leading Electro-Industrial acts, SIRUS have established themselves internationally as a force to be reckoned with, thanks to their uncompromising efforts in production and experimentation with hybrid electronica. With influences spanning World Music, EDM and Glitch, and with each live performance including unique elements not present in any recorded material, they now reach out to conquer even more sonic territory- by incorporating Progressive Metal influence into their already packed arsenal of audio weapons.
Signed to international powerhouse Digital World Audio, a boutique label with a reputation for identifying and nurturing emerging talent across the Industrial music scene, SIRUS have enjoyed critical acclaim both within the alternative scene and beyond. Sharing the stage with scene heavyweights such as 3Teeth, Combichrist, Suicide Commando, Aesthetic Perfection, Hocico, Grendel, and Savant, to name only a few, SIRUS have proven themselves a formidable ally in alternative electronic music.
2013 saw SIRUS release their label debut, ‘Broken Hearts Corporate Minds‘, an album which would make it onto many curator’s ‘Album Of The Year’ lists, including Wax-Heart Records Ltd. and Russia’s Dark Belarus webzine. The album was also crowned Brutal Resonance‘s ‘Album Of The Month‘ in March 2014, and “a breath of fresh air” (Miles Jones, Brutal Resonance) for the scene. That same year, BHCM also featured in the political press, ranking in Green Left‘s ‘12 New Left-leaning Albums Worth A Listen‘ (at the time Hitwise ranked greenleft.org.au as the most popular Australian-based political site on the internet).
2015 & 2016 marked multiple milestones for SIRUS, with the release of ‘Satellite Empire‘, a highly regarded follow-up album which saw the band chart across the DAC (Deutsche Alternative Charts) and GEWC (German Electronic Web Charts) alongside the release of their first two music videos. The album was particularly well received by critics, with Stéphane Froidcoeur of Side-Line Music Magazine noting that certain tracks had “the complexity and genius of Frontline Assembly”, whilst Steven Gullotta of Brutal Resonance called it “music for the future punk revolution”.
Along with a plethora of webzines, SIRUS has also appeared in physical print, with features in Fiend Magazine, Magazin nachtaktiv, Orkus!, Sonic Seducer Musikmagazin and Zillo.
MEMBERS
JOSH ROMBOUT
The driving force behind SIRUS, Josh Rombout serves as writer, producer and designer, as well as lead vocalist.
A student of pre-millennium Cyberpunk, Rombout is an aficionado of dystopian fiction and it’s real-world parallels. A multidisciplinary multimedia artist and academically trained audio engineer, Rombout strives for aesthetic synergy across all things SIRUS, from directing and editing music videos, to merch design, package design and webdesign- to name only a few disciplines.
A much sought-after producer and remix artist, Rombout’s works have been featured in various international installations such as 公司奴隶 2525 [Corporate Slave 2525] – Tomorrow Art Museum, Beijing and his work across both video and audio has extended to other electronic acts, including DSLAM, KHIN, Damage Control and Chiron. Rombout has remixed a barrage of influential artists such as 3Teeth, Combichrist, Freakangel, TERROLOKAUST, Die Sektor, NITRONOISE, Angelspit, Ego Likeness and many more.
Rombout is also an accomplished DJ, with a history of mixing current Electro-Industrial sounds with the dark hybrid dance music styles that are the unique trademark of his own musical foray.
Over a decade before anybody had ever uttered the words ‘Industrial Bass Music’, Rombout was already specialising in a cutting edge blend of EDM and Industrial-inspired Electronica. Along with live performances, Rombout has spent plenty of time behind the decks, from Sheffield to Chicago, as a supporting DJ act for artists such as Organ Donors, Nachtmahr, Angelspit and Snog; whilst also being a resident deckhound at some of Melbourne’s most memorable alternative club nights.
KEEVA LEO
Keeva Leo is SIRUS’ additional vocalist, bringing their ethereal world-music inspired fem-vox to bear across much of the SIRUS discography.
Legend has it Keeva has been singing since they were 18 months old, but it wasn’t until their second year of elementary school that Keeva’s journey through music really began. Attending a rural school in Central Australia, Keeva forced the small desert faculty to start a choir, where their formal vocal lessons and stage performances started for the first time.
At the age of 8, Keeva took up the guitar, and by 12 had transitioned to Bass Guitar where they performed in Stage bands, as well as alongside community choirs and symphony orchestra performances. Keeva would go on to study a Bachelor Of Musical Performance (Majoring in Bass Guitar) whilst playing Bass in Alternative Rock band Pyrené- but would soon leave both behind to reskill in a truer calling: cross-cultural vocal performance.
With musical influences including Lisa Gerrard, Azam Ali, Amy Lee, Sarah McLachlan and Isabel Bayrakdarian, Keeva’s performances are often praised for their viscerality and ability to transcend lyrical content.
An active LGBTQIA+ and BLM supporter, Keeva’s blood runs altruistic. Their involvement in community projects has led them through Animal Rescue volunteering, Anti-hate campaigns, and even the completion of a month-long expedition in Madagascar: rebuilding and helping fund a rural hospital that had been knocked down in a cyclone.
RYAN PERILLO
Ryan is SIRUS’ drummer and all-round rhythmic authority.
A self-described ‘towbar to the shins in most social or musical scenarios’, Perillo’s sense of humor belies his accomplished musical background.
Perillo’s passion for hitting things has seen him recruited into many music projects over the years, right across the alternative spectrum- from Metal to Indie Pop. Reaching tremendous personal milestones- such as playing 100 shows in a single year- early in his career, Perillo is now focused on a burgeoning channel of drum covers.
Born in a rural farming town, he spent his early years living in a mudbrick home, farming olives and berries. Ryan has traveled to practically all corners of Australia- including time spent amongst Native Australian communities, the underground (literally) communities of Coober Pedy and the recondite sea bohemians of the West & South coast. This isolation and hermitic lifestyle proved fruitful, fostering an atmosphere of hyperfocus that would open the door to compulsive practice and eventually, to an early mastery of percussion.
In a twist stranger than even Perillo himself, Ryan now spends his days far from the rural spaces of his youth, navigating the online pathways of the financial oligarchy as a cretin of inner suburbia. With his proficiency across percussion reaching terminal velocity, Perillo has begun several additional journeys- teaching himself new disciplines across both audio and video.