The Silents speak up

Mon 7th Apr, 2008 in Features

The Silents have been the hottest-tipped, most buzzed-about band outta Perth since…well, since the last hotly-tipped, buzzworthy band from the capital of Western Australia.

And, much like the last one to have produced a longplayer (which, if memory serves correct, was Snowman), this four-piece have benefited from a long gestation period getting to the point of releasing their debut album, Things To Learn.

Guitarist Jamie admits to excitation in anticipation, but he’s trying to maintain his composure. “I’m definitely ready for it to come out,” he says, alluding to the length of time that the band have been developing and honing their sound.

It was around two years ago that they first emerged in the public eye with the wonderful single Nightcrawl, and first began touring the highways and byways of Australia with the likes of (now labelmates) Youth Group and The Vines. Since those early days, the band’s sound has hardened remarkably – Things To Learn opens with an almighty wallop of sound, with the title track kicking in with delirious rhythms and giddy guitars full of noize.

“We started out as very – œpop’,” he agrees, “very 60s pop, and as we’ve developed we’ve been phasing that out and finding different influences and working some harder edge into the sound. The stuff we’re writing for the next record is even harder – so that’s exciting.”

Given that Things To Learn was two years in the brewing, it’s no surprise to hear that The Silents have already been thinking beyond their immediate future – touring and supporting their debut album – but instead looking ahead to what the want to do next.

“We’ve written most of the album,” Jamie muses. “We’re probably about 9 songs in. We work really hard and we’re playing three times a week – just always jamming and keeping it fresh, and that’s the best part of it [being in a band] for me.”

Recorded with noted Perth knob-twiddler Dave Parkin close to home, the band laid down Things To Learn in individual parts, contrary to their developing songwriting technique. It is not, Jamie confirms, the way that they intend to operate in the future.

“What we’ve been talking about is just really trying to capture us as we are – totally raw and doing it all live, and with pretty much no overdubs. We’re excited about that, but Things To Learn sounds great, and it was a really good experience for us in terms of how we want to record in the future. It sounds really big and powerful.”

Indeed it does – it also betrays convention, and instead of finishing with the melodramatic psychedelic flourishes of See The Future, the band placed their guitar epic some four songs from the end of Things To Learn. It means that, like all good trips, there’s a come down after the ridiculous high of swirling guitars, culminating in the blissfully stripped-back closer Bruised Sky.

“It wasn’t really a conscious thing,” he says of the effect that the band have created of Things To Learn being somewhat of a journey, but more that “Bruised Sky” was the perfect way to bring their debut album to a close. “We couldn’t really see it happening any other way,” Jamie continues. “We see ourselves as a psychedelic band and there’s lots of jammy interludes that punctuate our [live] set, so having a long extended jam earlier in the album didn’t really feel like a problem for us.”

When The Silents first appeared, they drew plenty of comparisons to The Vines, particularly the more psych-drenched pop side of that band. The other obvious touchstone was the Byrds. Now though, some three or so years into their career and after continuous touring, there’s more than a touch of the stoner-rock vibe of a Kyuss or Black Mountain to their sound.

“It’s hard for me to pinpoint the sound, really at all. There’s so many different influences coming in – really we’re just trying to do our own thing. With Things To Learn we were really just taking our first steps, and now we’re ready. The harder sound had started to creep into our live set quite a long time ago, but the public can always be a couple of years behind what you’re doing as you’re writing the songs – it takes that long to record them and get them out into the public consciousness.”

It’s something, Jamie attests, that The Silents are keen to tighten up in order to keep things fresh for both the band and the audience.

“It’s a lot darker,” he says of the band’s newest material, “and given that we want to record it really raw it should have a really garage-y edge to it. I’m sure that we’ll have to see how that one works out, and every batch of songs that we’ve written in the 6 years that we’ve been together have always come out fairly far removed from the last batch. We really don’t have any conscious objectives when we write the songs.”

The band have been in the fortunate position that there’s been no pressure placed upon them to tour and tour and tour some more – instead they’ve had the (relative) luxury of sitting back and writing new material. Now, however, things are destined to change, with the band wanting to track and release another album within a year of their debut,

That’s a massive undertaking for any band – with the exception of Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner, who thanks to his side project has now released three albums in three years, there are few bands who have been able to come up with enough quality material to justify it.

“I’m sure we’ll just keep churning them out,” he says with confidence, assured by the quality songs that make up their debut.

The Silents’ debut album Things To Learn is out now, with the band touring Australia everywhere as a result. Check the gig guide for details.