Sonic Truth:An Interview with The Silent Years
November 16, 2006, 05:20 AM   My interview with the good ol’ boys [and girl] of The Silent Years, the next pending indie rock sensation…err, next great band you should hear.
During the Socal stint of their latest tour, I had the marvelous chance of speaking with Pat [among others…in a sense] of The Silent Years. We [mostly me] rambled on about Spinal Tap, Mexican food and making some great sounds.
J: So your 30 shows into your tour now?
P: Uh, I think somewhere around there. We started in the second week of September, out in New York, up through Canada, spent a couple days home in Detroit. The through the Midwest, Texas, Arizona, and now we’re heading out to California now this weekend then back across the middle of the US to the CMJ thing in November. And then back across the top of the country.
J: Back home?
P: No well, we’re actually going to go down through North Carolina, South Carolina, Missouri and head up to Minneapolis. We got a gig in Seattle then the west coast , then back home in December.
J: Well, you gotta make a name for yourself.
P: Well, yeah, that’s what we do, we show up in towns and nobody knows who the f*ck we are and we play our hearts out, and by the end of the show we sell a bunch of cd’s and make a bunch of new friends.
J: That’s the band dream I guess?
P: Yeah, it’s a blast, but it’s a lot of hard work.
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At this point I inquired about the bands formation. And I was assuming that they formed in 2000, broke up and reformed now in 2006. But I suppose that’s the cliff’s notes of the bands history as, they all have been playing together [not always collectively] for almost ten years, being as they had all known each other for longer than that. Jon had been going to school for music [guitar] and decided that it was better to actually live his dream and rejoined the band. Josh went to school in North Carolina and Pat attended a school in south Florida. They then, reformed as the diverse, more rounded group heard on their record and apparently in just about every state in this free nation.
J: It’s just better, now,[because they all got back together and came from the same place], that you all knew each other.
P: Yeah, it’s a hugely personal thing, writing and playing with people. And when we’re home we practice just about everyday, and when you get off work, you practice until you have to go to bed and then you’re in the studio for weeks on end…and you’re in the van for months on end.[laughs]
J:I know, well, it shows [the practice], the songs are great and the video is really cool. How did that come about?
P: The video, we started brainstorming on it in July. And I think we were at Coney Island, the greasy spoon of Detroit.
J: Uh uh...[honestly at the time I wasn’t sure what that meant]
P: And we were throwing around ideas. We all sort of came up with the story line and Jon the guitar player, was responsible for all the art direction. He drew all the backgrounds, we all cut them out, Jeremy story boarded it with Jon, then we had this guy, a friend of ours, Tristan Allen…he flew out to Detroit for two weeks, hung around taking pictures of us…my day job is right next to a video house and so we borrowed a bunch of lights and a green screen. We did it shot by shot and did all the little puppet movements…it was very DIY…and fits with the whole concept of what we’re doing. We also had a guy in Detroit who edited it…at his home.
J: Well, your sound is like beautifully Lo-Fi…I don’t know...it’s hard to explain.
P:I like to think of it as having a child-like innocence to it because as a group and as people we’re very unpretentious and when we play live we try and get the crowd involved. We bring things. We usually stop at the dollar store and get a bunch of noise makers and tambourines and shakers and stuff. We try and get people to come play with us and you know, it’s like a party. There’s no point of being on stage and being like super introverted and shy.
J: It’s more fun to get everyone involved with the show.
P: Oh yeah, it’s totally more fun.
J:I heard about your SXSW show and I guess it converted a lot of people. 
P: Yeah, we just played Austin last week, and there was a ton of people out there who were like “yeah we caught you guys at South by Southwest and it was great.” So everyone was paying attention in the room and really into it.
J: They were actually looking at you, nodding their heads.
P: [laughs] Yeah, exactly.
**********
The talk turned to sound, as I’m a music nerd at heart. I wondered about all the little accent noises, things just going off in their music. It really keeps the song going and crosses the boundary into being an essential part of the song as opposed to a novelty. Pat illustrated all the great bits and pieces that help create their musical atmosphere including but not limited to: modified drum machines, children’s toys, great space echo’s of yore, various effects pedals, and a vibraphone. And somehow all these sounds come together to fill out this sort of grandiose, DIY, thriving and somewhat warm music. I asked Pat what he thought about critics saying that they’re sonically related to, The Shins, and The Flaming Lips. “A Shins song came on in the van here and I didn’t think we sound like that.” Not that they’re not fans. He also described how they signed to their label:
“Josh [singer] was following Devendra Banhart around and he started talking to him after a show. And he said “well, I know this guy in Minneapolis and you should get in contact with him.” And we started talking to him and he came out to South By Southwest and he’s a really great guy, really down to earth, kind of more our mentality rather than a big label that we can get lost in.” We discussed around Santa Monica, the big four record labels, and how they set up shop out here in California. Pat replied “See, that part of the industry is dying, the way they do there business, the only people who win is the label…or the shareholders.” This is of course right, unless you’re a 16 year old hot chick, who can barely sing and you sell a billion records because of one catchy but otherwise crappy song that you didn’t write, which was played a million times on the biggest cheesiest record station because your label paid them some hefty cash. [ok, I’m done]
In the end, there is light but before that you can enjoy some life, listen to a little bit of The Silent Years and eat some mojos. Or Mexican food. And at the end of this interview I shared a kinship with Pat and the rest  [Gilligan's Island reference...anyone...anyone], about the future of music, what making music is all about [the people, and creation and…dare I say it art], and the fun and sense of accomplishment in the DIY ethos. I really hope this shed’s even a tiny sliver of light on a band that deserves more than that. You stay classy The Silent Years.
check out their self titled debut on No Alternative.
Jonny the Saint.
Last edited by altsounds : February 9, 2007 at 03:02 PM.
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