SILVERSTEIN: WHEN IT’S GOOD, IT’S TOO GOOD NOT TO SHARE

“I want to be articulate, to communicate but in my own way. … If it’s good, it’s too good not to share. That’s the way I feel about my work. So I’ll keep on communicating, but only my way.”
- Shel Silverstein, Publishers’ Weekly, February 24th, 1974

In a musical world of genres, sub-genres and combo-genres, it’s often times difficult to figure out which way is up and what kind of music we are listening to. Gone are the days of plain Pop, Rock, Heavy Metal and Classical. Now, we have to sort through Post Hardcore, Screamo, Emocore, Pop-Rock, Heavy Rock, Classic Rock, Punk Rock and the list goes on for days. Artists of today incorporate so many different sounds and instruments into their music, that it becomes virtually impossible to label them one thing and one thing only. Even within the confines of these categorizations, two artists of the supposed same genre can sound completely different. So why not just make music and leave the categories aside?

Silverstein, a Canadian band from Burlington Ontario, who chose their name in honor of popular Children’s author Shel Silverstein, have apparently decided to do just that. Formed in June of 2000 as a side-project for most of the original members, frontman Shane Told, bassist Billy Hamilton, guitarists Neil Boshart and Josh Bradford and drummer Paul Koehler, seem determined to do things their way.

Our interview with Silverstein took place on probably the worst winter day Montreal had seen so far this year. An ice storm was underway, the streets were wet and slippery, rain was never ending, trees were falling under the weight of accumulated ice and people were generally cranky. This attack by Mother Nature didn’t seem to stop a horde of eager fans from lining up around the block however, all huddled together under a sea of umbrellas, shivering and trying to keep themselves warm, as they impatiently waited for the venue doors to open. Not so much to get warm, but rather to ensure they had the best vantage point to see that night’s concert. I was impressed by the dedication they showed thinking to myself that this band must be pretty incredible to warrant such behavior.

We were greeted at the door of the tour bus by Silverstein’s tour manager, who was in a hurry to get us and himself out of the freezing rain and after walking through a mountain of shoes left in the steps, we were taken to the back where Josh and Neil soon came to join us; both were snuggled in thick hoodies, hands hidden inside their sleeves. We sat opposite one another and given the late hour, didn’t waste much time getting to know each other before getting to the heart of the matter.

Beginning an interview is always awkward, much like being forced to have a conversation with someone you’ve only just meet. As I launched into my usual opening diatribe about who and what CONFRONT Magazine is, I was surprised that Josh was actually showing some interest. Artists do so many of these in any given week that I’ve come to expect a certain level of indifference. When I asked if they could tell me a little bit about how the band got started, Josh was quick to answer.

“Yeah! I guess we just wanted to do a band that sounded a little bit different from what was going on in our local scene at the time, so I started writing songs with a guy called Rich that I went to high school with and we started to put together a band, decided to take it more and more seriously. Richard had to go do school. Neil started to play guitar and we got really, really serious about it. And we decided to start touring.”