October 18, 2024
Dublin's Silverbacks have etched out their own lane in the realm of guitar-based music. Their approach to music is one of unpredictable yet familiar. You'll find all of your favourite bands inside of their music and they'll still sound like none of them; it is influence taken the right way. With their third studio album Easy Being A Winner hovering on the horizon, Silverbacks generously shared their time with Peter (@pipjr3927) for a few questions.
Easy Being A Winner is out now via Central Tones / CARGO.
Q: Your third studio album Easy Being a Winner is set to release on October 18th. How's the Silverbacks crew holding up?
Kilian: We’re holding up! We are now a sextet as cool guy Paul has joined the band. We’ve been a little bit quiet on the gigging front lately but we are eager to hit the road in October. We’re all very happy with how the latest record has turned out. We recently received a comment from a troll online which said “they seem really impressed with themselves." We are.
Q: You've collaborated with Daniel Fox on a number of projects - Easy Being a Winner included. What does Daniel bring to Silverbacks?
Gary: Great ears, patience and a studio full of cool gear. We are three albums deep with him now, so it’s all nice and easy! He also laid down some backing vocals on ‘Billion Star Night Light’, one of the new ones on Easy Being a Winner, so he is well and truly part of the SBs gang. Thank you Dan!
Q: How has your relationship as a creative unit evolved since you started out as a collective?
Emma: I think we have had a consistent approach but circumstances around us have changed. We have always started with an individually recorded demo. For our first album Fad, our creative process was to rearrange the demo into a full band performance for gigs and once this was tight, we would go into the studio. For album 2, we couldn’t road test due to Covid restrictions, so the creative process leaned a lot more on the side of studio experimentation. I think the creative process that went in behind Easy Being a Winner was a calculated balance between us being a tight live unit, and one that remained open to studio madness.
Q: '95 appendages a couple Silverbacks tracks--for example, 'Fad '95' on Fad and 'Flex '95' on the upcoming album. What is it about the year that allows it to appear on a Silverbacks tracklist? Am I completely wrong in assuming it means 1995?
Daniel: Is this Nardwuar? Yes, great detective work! It does mean 1995. For ‘Fad 95’, it was due to the fact that a lot of the lyrics on the track were pulled from a Simpsons episode featuring the Smashing Pumpkins. They had 1979, so we’ve claimed 1995. Flex being tied to the same year is a shoutout to the early days.
Q: You've got a fairly loose, slippery, amorphous-like style within the context of 'rock.' Is this a conscious effort? Are you aware of the rather complex antics at the time of recording?
Peadar: It is a conscious effort. We jump around the place on purpose. I think it is good to keep the listener guessing and any other way wouldn’t excite us. We want a versatile silver-back-catalogue.
Kilian: Our weird approach to track listing is probably one of my favourite parts about the band. Bands we love such as Yo La Tengo and The Beatles have done it in the past. I think it would be fun to push the boat out a lot further and leave the rock context! I’d love for us to put out something as versatile as John Zorn’s Spillane one day.
Q: Does Gianfranco Zola still wink at Peadar during gigs? Have the crew got any other funny little trinkets that make themselves known?
Peadar: Yes, Gianfranco still guides me through every set. He is my guardian angel. We also sometimes set up a collection of plastic horses on our amps for good luck. We call them the tone ponies.
Q: How many pedals and pieces of kit have you guys accumulated over the years? Do you have a favourite piece? Why is it your favourite?
Paul: Playing bass for the first time in a band has meant I get to buy bass stuff, which is fantastic! I was using a fairly cool Jazz bass the first year, and purchased a Precision recently, which is taking some getting used to, but I think it worked out great on the album.
Daniel: We recently leaned into the fuzz more and have picked up some pedals. We are now proprietors of a big muff.
Peadar: My main guitar has always been an early noughties Fender Jazzmaster from Japan. I really like how it sounds and its very nice to play. I also recently bought a Fender Mustang (one of the recent 'American Performer' ones) and its a really nice guitar. Beyond that, I love Electro Harmonix pedals, I've a Graphic Fuzz that I've had for around 15 years and it's a really nice sounding pedal.
Q: And finally, what's the plan for the band moving forward?
Gary: Hopefully play loads more shows. Getting to meet new people and see new places is one of our favourite things to do.
Paul: And of course… album 4!
Comments