Silverstein

Canadian band Silverstein formed more than 10 years ago and are still going strong with Shane Told on vocals, Josh Bradford on rhythm guitar, Billy Hamilton on bass guitar, Paul Koehler on drums and Neil Boshart on lead guitar. In 2010, the band was switched from their old label to join the Hopeless Records family for future releases in the States, Japan and in Europe. At the same time, they signed with Universal for Canadian releases. Since then, Silverstein have put out two albums, “Rescue” in 211 and “Short Songs” earlier this year.The latter is a “mini-album” of 22 songs featuring 11 original songs and 11 covers. If you’re as confused as I was as to the mini-album term being associated with 22 songs, read on to know what they mean.

Apart from that interesting concept, I had the chance to sit down with Shane when the band was in Montreal last February to discuss the band’s career, their sound and how they don’t fit in on most tours. Shane also drew something he loves and he put a lot of effort into it so check it out!

CONFRONT : To start this off, can I have a little history 101 about the band?

SHANE : It started originally as a side project just for fun. And over the years, obviously it got more and more serious and became our full-time life project and we’re still here 13 years later!

CONFRONT : Lucky year?

SHANE : Lucky 13, yeah! This could be the year! It’s funny because I’m 31 and it’s 2012; 12 and 31 are my lucky numbers so I figure it’s got to be a good year. And it’s good so far!

CONFRONT : It will be, it has to be! So what pushed you into music?

SHANE : I don’t know! People always say they have really musical families or their parents but for me, I never thought of it that way but now that I look back, everyone in my family plays piano, my dad plays guitar. There was always a record being played around the house. So I think I really did come from a musical family and I remember when I was a little kid, my favorite band was KISS so my mom would paint my face and there are recordings of me singing the ABC song, Michael Jackson and stuff. I think it’s always been there. And my sister who is 7 years older than me, she got this awesome stereo for her 16th birthday and she had this Metallica CD and she would listen to it all over the house ad i found that was the coolest music; so powerful and heavy. So whenever she would go out or something, i would sneak into her room and listen to it and that’s how i started to want to play guitar. Now, here I am!

CONFRONT : Aw that’s really cool though! And your latest release was just a few weeks ago, how was the response to that?

SHANE : It’s been absolutely amazing. I think it’s very different for us. It’s 22 songs, all under a minute and a half, half of it is covers, half of it is original so it’s very different. The press and reviews, critics and everything have been super stoked on the idea. It was so much fun to make and playing it live, the songs go really well too because a lot of people have a short attention span, myself included, so just banging out a minute and a half song, everyone is still there. So it’s been really great!

CONFRONT : And where did you get the idea of doing a 22-song album of short songs?

SHANE : We did a 7-inch release last year for Record Store Say and we knew we were going to do one side with our song and on the back side of the album, we wanted to do a cover. But we couldn’t decide on just one cover we wanted to do so we decided to do more than one song. The thing is, a 7-inch vinyl holds about 4 minutes of music.

CONFRONT : Oh…so you couldn’t do all that you wanted to do.

SHANE : No! So instead of doing one 3-minute song, we decided on three shorter songs so we did 3 cover songs and just loved it. And it sort of got us to think about how bands used to do that all the time; short songs were part of a record. we thought we’d give it a try and originally, it was going to be a digital-only EP or something but as we started writing it and getting into it, we got really excited and decided to do a kind of mini full length album with our short songs and add 11 cover songs to it.

CONFRONT : That’s cool! It also makes me understand the “mini album” concept behind it. I was a little confused at first because the terms “mini album” and 22 songs did not seem to work for me.

SHANE : Yeah! Well with the 11 songs, rather than regular songs, they’re 11 short songs! But they have all the dynamics that a Silverstein album has in a shorter format.

CONFRONT : That’s cool! And actually, how would you describe the evolution of your sound throughout the years?

SHANE : I don’t know. It’s so hard when your immersed in it; it’s what you are. I think this record is just so different and so outside the box. It’s hard to say because we didn’t naturally progress to this album. It was an album that we did intentionally outside of the box. So you can’t really draw a straight line to it. I think from our first record to “Rescue”, our latest full-length, I think you can sort of draw the line between the two. But with this one, it’s almost as if we’re adding a z axis instead of staying on x and y. I think what’s going to happen when we do our next album, which we’re probably going to start working on this summer, that’s when you’re really going to see where we’re going to go, whether it’ll be on the track we were before or whether “Short Songs” will have an influence, it’s hard to say.

CONFRONT : Speaking of albums, you guys are always consistently releasing music. And in today’s generation where music sales are going down, do you think it’s still important to always release music nowadays?

SHANE : Yeah here’s the thing: we didn’t start this band to sell records. We started this band to make music for ourselves to have fun ad to enjoy it. The fact that we are able to do this as a career and make enough money to live comfortably is great! But that doesn’t change why we do this in the first place and why we continue to do this. I think new music for our fans and for ourselves is the most important thing. And our record still sells, even though it probable sells less than it could have before. But we adapt to it and to us, it’s all good!

CONFRONT : And how do you think the internet has affected the industry as a whole?

SHANE : The internet is not a new thing but i think generally, the internet is so vastly changing all the time, especially in the past 5 years where social networks have been taking over, which is really good because things can spread really quickly! Like that Gotye song that just exploded[Somebody That I Used To Know]. All those things wouldn’t have happened 5 or 6 years ago. So it can be really positive in certain cases but at the same time, those sales that artist is experiencing are not nearly the amount that a song with the same radio play 10 years ago would have. Everyone’s going to watch it on YouTube but not a lot are actually paying for it so it’s very weird how it’s a different popularity now, where it’s not all monetary. I think that’s really changed it.

CONFRONT : Yeah that’s true. And you mentioned people’s short attention spans earlier and it’s the same things for bands right? It doesn’t only apply to songs! People will like a band one week and the next week, they’ve moved on. So what do you think makes your fans keep wanting more and keep coming back?

SHANE : I don’t know! We don’t sit around and talk about it; we just do what we do. Which is trying to write the best songs that we can and try to write songs that are going to stick to people for years; songs that people will get tattooed lyrics on their body and that it’s going to mean something to them. That’s what we trite do first and foremost. And then, we try to tour, we try to put on shows that err memorable, we try to meet our fans and make a connection with them; all those things are important for what we do.

CONFRONT : Well it seems to be working!

SHANE : Yeah! But it’s true that people have short attention spans for bands now too.

CONFRONT : There are just so many out there now though, that’s why.

SHANE : Yeah.

CONFRONT : And being a Canadian band, how does it feel to have made it past the border and get international recognition?

SHANE : It’s great! We’ve actually always done better outside Canada. When we started, we got signed to Victory Records, which is an American label. So it was interesting how we were bigger in the States and then we came back and at the same time, it’s a lot easier from the music industry perspective to get your start in the US to trickily down to Canada. Or rather, trickle up to Canada! Rather than try to get your start here and then try to go down to the US. So I think we’ve been very fortunate that we started in the US.

CONFRONT : Yeah that’s true. I’ve heard that even Simple Plan, who are just huge here, they’re not nearly as big over there!

SHANE : Yeah they had a good following in the US for a while but what can you do? Canada’s embraced Simple Plan and they’ve had a good career going on for all these years so it’s good for them!

CONFRONT : Yeah! And speaking of them, you guys have toured with so many different kinds of bands, how do you think that works out for you guys?

SHANE : We’re the kind of band where we’re not heavy enough to tour with metal bands and we’re not soft enough to tour with pop-punk bands so we never really fit into any tour. This tour, we’re by far the softest band so sometimes, it’s weird! With Simple Plan, we were way heavier and i think it’s better to be heavier than softer but this tour has been going great. But it’s very rare that we’ll tour with a band that is right on our level. It’s like that saying : “You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but not all the people all of the time”. That’s what we seem to run into with our shows.

CONFRONT : As long as it works out right?

SHANE : Yeah!

CONFRONT : Now, I’m going to ask you my last question, which is to draw something that represents you!

SHANE : I’m horrible at drawing!

CONFRONT : Everybody always tells me that!

SHANE : See, I guess music is art. So i guess in some ways, there is some artistic quality in me in terms of music. But in terms of visual art, I have no talent. Can you guess what I’m drawing? [at that point, he hadn't labeled everything yet]

CONFRONT : …Chinese food?

SHANE : Sushi!! It’s terrible…This is a chopstick.

CONFRONT : Yeah that one I guessed, which was why I thought maybe Chinese food! But now you made me crave sushi! So you’re a big fan of sushi?

SHANE : I am! These sushi rolls look like garbage cans though! *laugh* I’m terrible!

CONFRONT : But your chopsticks looks like chopsticks! [he kept adding stuff] Are you satisfied yet?

SHANE : No, it’s terrible!

CONFRONT : No it isn’t! So is there anything you’d like to add?

SHANE : No! Thanks for the interview/art session! *laugh*

CONFRONT : Thank you for your time and have a great show tonight!

Interested in hearing some of their songs or seeing what they’re up to? Check out these sites:

Official site: http://silversteinmusic.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/silversteinmusic

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/silverstein

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/artist/Silverstein