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| ::Interviews:: |
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| review & interview content, as well as web site graphics & design, copywrite 2003-2004 Euphonia Online. use of materials granted only with reasonable purposes. |
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| interviewed by robby sumner |
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| Interview with Matt, Mike, and Chad February 27th, 2005 |
Matt Parsons - Vocals Brad King - Guitar Chad Koepf - Guitar Jack Hill - Bass Mike Davis - Drums |
| E: Silent Film is a band that's been causing a respectable commotion from out of Baltimore, Maryland. How long have you guys been making music together? Matt: Brad and I have been playing in Silent Film for about three years. Mike: I have been in Silent Film for about six or seven months. Chad: Mike and I joined around the same time. Jack joined just before we started the new CD. Mike: Which was about 2 months ago. E: Has the band's style changed a lot over the time it's been in existence? Chad: I would say "grown" more than "changed"... every album sounds like Silent Film, just as the new members were able to contribute, the sound has evolved. Matt: We kind of started as almost emo, new metal type stuff on the first record... then, on the second, it got very punk and poppy. And on "Our New Heaven," the new CD, I would say we have influences from metal to hardcore, then on the other side, of rock and emo. I think we also have really pushed our harmonies to another level. Mike: Yeah, they're pretty amazing. Matt: We have always made stuff that sticks in my head, but lately it all sticks in my head. Chad: Matt is trying to be humble about his voice not being nasily anymore. Mike: *Laughs* Matt: Yeah, I grew up the most, definitely. E: How do you try to maintain an emotional intensity in each song? Matt: I write about stuff that I'm emotional about, and I can grab it from experience. If it's shit on TV, or the political aspect, it's stuff that makes me mad, and it comes across in my singing. Chad: We write about stuff that we are emotional about. A lot of bands like to talk about girls all the time, but you can only have so much emotion about a girl. I feel like the writing goes through a large range of emotions. Matt: We write about all things that piss us off. I think it's funny that a lot of our music has a certain feel, like it should be about girls, or my daddy hating me... but it takes a very different spin, and I think it throws people off, and makes them listen. Mike: And the best song to describe that for is "Last Letter." Matt: Not many bands write about stuff that really matters, and I'm not saying our shit is all-knowing... but I think at least we try to get a point across. Chad: I've had a lot of people tell me that "Satellite" is very emo because of the sound, but they haven't even looked at the lyrics and realized it's not even about a girl at all. E: Does it take a long time for a song to evolve from an idea to its finished product? Chad: That's Matt's department. Matt: Most of the time, I'll come up with a chorus or a melody, and write a riff around it. Then I'll usually record a demo and give it to everyone, and if they like it, we'll generally tear it up and work off the parts everyone likes. But some songs just flow a lot faster then others. E: Do you have a good idea who you're writing music for? Chad: The fan that likes to rock, but is tired of hearing about girls... tired of hearing about an angry father. Matt: I think I used to write songs just to get signed, or for a very general audience. But lately, I'm really just writing about what charges me the most and pisses me off. And I hope it reaches people that actually want to hear something other than the usual crap. Mike: I write my music for everyone that loves it and can go crazy with it. Fans that are "die-hard" about the songs. E: How much of your material is at its best played live? Matt: Most of it. Mike: Most of it. Chad: All of it. *Laughs* Matt: Some songs just don't work out live... Chad: ...but the ones that do work out live, I think work out amazingly live. Matt: We like a really rocking-hard set, and some songs just don't convey that energy. Chad: We have some slower songs that, while we might get requests for them live... like "Take It Or Leave It"... they don't really work live. We want the crowd's faces to set on fire at a show... some songs can't do that. But the ones that do, do a pretty good job of it. E: How many recordings have been made available to fans over the years? Matt: Three. Chad: "Our New Heaven" is our third release. Mike: Yup. Matt: "Take It Or Leave It" was around 2002. Chad: And then "City Is My Sea" in 2003. E: How successful have you been with hooking fans up with the albums? Chad: Not very. Matt: At least with "Take It Or Leave It"... we sold out of those. Chad: After "City Is My Sea," the band went through a lineup change, and after the CD release show, we didn't really play out for months. But we are changing that with this CD. Mike: We haven't started selling "Our New Heaven" yet, but we are planning on selling many when the cd does come out. Chad: We are going to do a short run of about 250 of them to sell to our fans--ndividually signed and numbered... a limited edition release. We want our fans to have something special to thank them for sticking by us through everything. So after that 250, we are going to do a full pressing of 1000, but those first 250 will have something different. We are really excited about that. Matt: "City Is My Sea" sucked because we had this catchy CD, but the band fell apart after the first pressing, and we got stuck with 900 CDs left out of 1000. And we couldn't start selling them until Chad and Mike came into the band. It won't be like that again. E: Has the band travelled far? Mike: Not yet. We have a few shows out of Maryland. Matt: On the internet we've reached kids in every state... we don't have the funds to do a tour at this time, unfortunately. But we're hoping to buy a van relatively soon and use that to play shows out of state as much as possible. Mike: When the time comes. Matt: We're getting there. Chad: We are working on that. I have been booking some shows around VA, WV, VA, DE, but it's tough to do without a lot of cash. We are hoping to do a small tour soon. E: Do you know exactly where you want to be in a year from now? Mike: I would love to be on a nation-wide tour... as an opener or a headliner. But I would be pretty sure we'd be the opener if anything. Chad: I feel like we can do anything we want if we really work hard enough. We've all been in different bands, stuff like that, but nothing has been as good as it is now. I think the sky is the limit as long as we don't let anything get in our way. It's all luck at this point. E: Well good luck and thanks. Mike: Thank you for the interview. Chad: In five years, if we end up doing Burger King commercials like Darrius Rucker from Hootie and Blowfish... we have failed. Mike: *Laughs* |