a (brief) nutshell backstory of a rock n roll band -
Once upon a time.
Peter Argyropoulos (guitar, vocals) was playing shows with Brina Kabler (keyboards, engineering).
They got bored, so called Adam Kury (bass) who called Dave Krusen (drums...yep, Pearl Jam) who called Kevin Haaland (guitar).
Band evolves into Sons of Silver.
Release a bunch of singles and EP's.
Late 2022, DK tells the band he wants to leave
Marc Slutsky joins as full-time drummer.
Debut LP slated for mid-end summer 2024.
End.
​
Not the end.
-sons of silver-dynamic-blend of alternative rock-punk rock-classic rock-grunge-solid muscular riffing-spliced by-exhilarating chord progressions-STIRRING synth hooks-solid band chemistry-taught-switched on melodies-observations on a deeply polarised society well and truly fucked-by politicians-corrupt profiteers-fear-media-narcissists-none of these are mutually exclusive-
Let's leave the talking to Peter and Adam....
Peter Argyropoulos
Life is good. We're just plugging away promoting our first single from our new album, ya know and enjoying conversations like this.
Adam Kury
And you're chasing a three year old around the house.
.
Peter Yeah, and actually, you know, 10 minutes before we got on this call, I was brushing my son's teeth before he went to bed you know? So, I lead a very rock and roll life.
Giles
I love The Clash poster in the background, Pete. I interviewed Paul Simonon last year with Galen Ayers when they were about to bring out their joint album.
Peter
You know what, I just saw clip of it and saved it on my YouTube channel. I was like, 'Oh, this sounds cool. And I love that vibe in general. I always say if I could have been in any band, it would have been The Clash. Before my time and everything but man, I love that band. Such an amazing band.
Giles
They were my first live gig around '82, the Know Your Rights tour. There's a really interesting backstory to Galen and Paul's album - bear with me! He went to Majorca during lockdown and stayed for a year in a small, remote fishing village to paint and then he ended up, you know, writing a few songs and doing a bit of busking in some of the local cafes in a very tight knit community, and then when he came back, he was looking for something to do with these with these songs that he'd written and then a friend of his introduced him to Galen, who they vaguely knew from way back, and they ended up writing more songs together and putting out this record. It's a great record. Very different.
Peter
Definitely. I'm gonna take a listen. That's amazing.
Giles
But anyway, sorry, we digress! This is about you! How's the new single going down?
photo courtesy of Sons of Silver
Peter
The first single "Tell Me This" has been received really well. I mean, you don't want to set expectations in a sense, 'cuz you never know what's going to come at you. We had pretty lofty hopes and they're being exceeded daily.
And so, you know, we're obviously doing a lot of interviews like this and having fun with them, you know. Promotions wise, we're just taking it day by day, because new things come at us that are unexpected in a good way. That's all part of the building process, and frankly, that's part of the whole fun of all this stuff and seeing where it takes you, having your targets and then once you start hitting them, it gets even more exciting.
Giles
Targets are an interesting one aren't they? When you think that you obviously have targets for the band itself and then you guys as individuals might have your own, I guess, life goals and how you keep them aligned, or, at least, not so out of whack that those goals are at odds.
Peter
I think there are different levels of, you know, objectives, you have the near term, mid term and short term, you know, which you have for any situation.
So, for us, we have our long term objectives, where we want to get to a point where we're playing theatres as a headliner acts, making a good living, where this is the full time gig for each of us.
It's not right now. And then, you
know, you roll that back, 'cos that's not going to happen overnight. I mean, sure, there's maybe a
rare instance where it might seem like it does.
But for the most part, it just doesn't happen overnight, especially for rock and roll.
It takes time to cultivate your fan base to not only within the general public, but also within the industry.
Then it takes time to get yourself together - really define yourself, know who you are, know what your strengths and weaknesses are, what you like to do, what you don't like to do. We've done a lot of that. And now we've set a good table with ourselves, with an album that we're really happy with, and one that we can not only push with a lot of confidence, but push knowing that we have stuff that's in the pipeline, as well as a nice, small catalogue of songs that we've already recorded and released that are doing well. Within those targets, I think more than anything, we're working day by day, week by week, month by month. We have some goals as far as streams, we know the artists, or at least the scope of artists, that we want to tour with - we'd love to go out as an opening act. And then we know what sort of timelines we are working towards for each of these goals.
So far, it's been great and we're happy with how things are going.
Giles
I guess your back catalogue can be a kind of storybook of your evolution as a band, as individuals, as musicians and songwriters. What do you feel when you look back at your catalogue?
Giles
Interesting how the culture of singles has grown. I mean singles have always been a part of the prelude to an album, but back in the day it was all about one, maybe two, physical singles that you'd buy down your local record shop before the album came out. Now, it's 5 or 6 perhaps digital tracks, half an album - totally different. Back then, it was really the the art work that attracted me, because you might get some music from the radio but more often than not, I'd be buying it blind without hearing it. It was bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees, Killing Joke and the artwork used to draw me in.
Adam
We still love all the old stuff. I mean, I think that with time and with each thing you do, you will evolve a little bit, not drastically because you find who you are and what works for you. Unfortunately, we weren't able to tour the EP's, but hopefully if people come in and they like this single, they like the album, that they go, 'hey, I want to know more about this band', and they'll dig into that back catalogue and maybe find some gems in there that keep them interested. I think at this point, it might add to the depth of what we do. It might add just a little more. You can go down the rabbit hole with an artist that you really like, and I think that people will find good things there.
Peter
Yeah, and if I may add to that, I think I'm really proud of our previous releases and songs. And, as Adam mentioned, some of the stuff was released at the beginning of the pandemic, you know, and our first EP 'Doomsday Noises' came out in summer of 2020. Our second, 'Ordinary Sex Appeal' came out in summer of 2022. We couldn't tour and that's the main way in which you promote yourselves, especially as a rock'n'roll band. But there was still a growing awareness, people were digging it, you know, and so, we have that to really share with people now, you know, especially once we get out on the road. It's a good feeling too because, you know, we can go out and play a 60-90 minute set because we have a nice catalogue of songs. It's interesting how the world works today. Say, for instance, you're talking about a streaming service, you know, where most people get their music. And it will save songs, either people save them to their playlists, they save them straight to their device. And once it's on there, the odds of them letting it go are slim to none. And usually, people will then continue to listen to their playlists over and over again, and they'll keep it for years and years for their lives. When I look at the numbers on that, we're getting a lot of saves of our new song, as well as starting to pick up some momentum on our old songs. And we're growing in areas that we're not marketing to, or promoting to at all. For instance, I was looking at our stats for Europe earlier today. And we have, let's say, around 1000 listeners in Poland, which is paltry compared to big artists, but we haven't done anything in Poland at all. This has happened only in the last month, month and a half, it's really interesting to see. It's really about just sowing the seeds and giving things time to grow, but also being persistent, about taking care of it, you know, and you can't just disappear either, you know, because people will forget about you - if you want to continue growing, that is.
Peter
That's some good blind buying, by the way!
Giles
I did buy some shit along the way as well - I'm just giving you the good stuff! No, but for me, the excitement was in listening to the album from front to back and see where your favourites fitted in. And I personally still get that excitement of listening to a full album. I dunno if I'm in the minority but it's fascinating to think about what was going through the artists' minds when they were putting the running order together, the story behind each song.
Peter
Oh, you're not alone in that. Adam and I've talked about this. There's been a lot of word going around that, you know, more and more even younger people are exploring albums again, they're exploring them digitally, also with vinyl, and really interested in getting beyond just scratching the surface of an artist. Because, when it's a solid album, I don't even mean a great album, but let's say a really good album, you go a little deeper with someone it's like, do you want to have a series of one night stands - well, some people want to have one night stands or just a bunch of dates one after the other - but, after a while, the conversation all feels the same and in many ways a lot of hit songs, I don't care who the artist is, they all have a certain similarity to them. There's a common thread that makes them more accessible. But, to me, the adventure is in exploring the alternate songs that often have more twists and turns. In many ways those are the songs that most inspired the artists because they really want to get those out there and, you know, maybe those aren't the hits to the general public but they are to the artists. Maybe you'll find a lyric or passing melody or it might be a beat that just really strikes you and that's the fun stuff. And I've mentioned a number of times now, but even our three year old son, we got a vinyl player at Christmas, finally, because my wife and I have a stack of LPs that we inherited from our parents, and we went out and bought some new ones as well. And he now knows how to turn on the turntable, turn on the stereo, put the vinyl on the turntable, put the arm out and do it all by himself. He just turned three in January, and he loves it. And I would say that, five days a week, that's what he wakes up in the morning saying he wants to do. 'Papa. Let's go. Let's go play the record player'. 'Alright, here we go'. And I've gone to him 'You want to just listen to some songs by themselves?' He goes, 'No, I like listening to the whole side through'.
Peter
I'll add this. I have a friend who, unfortunately, I haven't seen in several years now. He's an older man, a musician. His name is Jeff Barry. He co-wrote or co-produced songs like Do-Wah Diddy and Be My Baby. He recorded and produced The Monkees, he discovered and produced Neil Diamond....long history. And I remember several years ago, he and I were talking and he was saying how when he first got into the business, they would go in on a Monday start working on a song, have it written by Friday, recorded the next Monday and have it ready to go a week later. He'd be driving up the I-95 on the East Coast - that's a long stretch of road from north to south going through everywhere from Boston all the way down to, I believe, Miami. And he would go up and down with a box of singles in his car, and a bunch of 10s and 20s and be handing them out to the DJs - one of each - and if they would start spinning it and if they liked it, or if the audience liked it, they would keep spinning it. And he goes 'if I had a hit, I would take take a week off. If I didn't, I'd go back in the studio and do it again'. And he goes 'it was all singles - it was amazing!'. Write the song, record it, get it out within a couple of weeks. And he said 'then, the industry grew, it got very laborious, very layered and next thing I know, I'm being asked what I think about this next release. I say, I don't even know anything about the release. And they say, 'Well, you should do, you recorded it a year and a half ago'. I just got tired of it.'
So in many ways, we're with the singles, we're circling back. But hopefully it seems to be that now we're finding a bit of a happy medium, because even back then they didn't have the number of releases. Let me say this, they probably have more releases in one day now technically speaking than they had in a full year 50 years ago.
Giles
That's a really good point..
Adam
It was a big thing to live with that format back in the day and you're listening to vinyl, because of the effort that you had to go into to pull out another one and take the needle off and flip the album out and put the album away in its jacket.
So I think that you found bands and albums that you liked, so that you could put that needle on and then not take it off 'til you've played through the whole side. And you had to pick and choose the record you liked.
To that point, though, there weren't as many records being released every year. And now I think society is overwhelmed by how much there is. So I think that people are listening singles, singles. And then if they get two singles from you, okay, now they're looking for a third single. And then I think they might go, 'Wow, there's a bunch of songs from these guys, I want to check out this full record' because people don't have the time in their lives to check out full records from everybody right out of the gate. So they're having to be choosy about it. And I think getting people to get into the singles is going to lead them to those albums. I think it's still there. It's just not from the get go.
Giles
I tend to use Tidal for my streaming and every Friday it has a section of new releases, both albums and tracks. It's exciting and overwhelming at the same time.
Peter
It is. It is daunting, you know, and that's why, from the artists' end, we have to constantly stay out there - and what I mean by constantly is day in and day out. You don't want to overwhelm people with a bunch of junk but just quality stuff, a good interview, you know, a behind the scenes look at making a music video or in the studio, the likes of that. You need to do it because people may simply miss. It's not even because they themselves are overwhelmed, it's just that they're getting so many things they may miss you that day. The odds are they will. And I've noticed even for myself that I'll suddenly find a "new artist" and I'll then realise that they've been around six, seven years, they're in their third or fourth release and I'm like, 'wow, how did I miss this?' and it's just because it's easy to miss.
Giles
I really hear you with that. When it happens, I feel like kicking myself - 'this is right up your street. How could you miss this?!'
Peter
Yeah. So it's a bit of survival as well.
Adam
All the time, yeah. I'm sure you've had the experience I've had, Peter, when people talk to me. It's like, 'so what's going on in the music scene in LA? Have you heard of this band? Or this one?' I'm like, 'absolutely not'. The scene's so big and spread out in LA. And it's not really a vibrant, thriving scene from a fan perspective. There's a lot of people work in music in the city, but no, I don't know who any of those people are {laughs}
Peter
It's so true.
Giles
You mentioned a while ago about the logistics of being a rock band in today's world where I guess there's a lot more electronica out there. I went to see Starcrawler a couple of years ago. I was dithering over whether to go cos I was going away the next day, but Henry and Arrow were on my podcast and they were like 'Come on, man, you got to come up for it'. So I went up to see them and I'm so glad that I did. It was just such a pure, primal rock and roll night. The reason I mention this is that I was talking to a guy there who was saying he'd seen them loads of times, really loves them, but he wasn't convinced that people were in love with rock n roll as much these days and worried that they wouldn't get to the heights they deserve. I had to disagree, there is always a place for rock music - it's endearing, it never goes away even if it's not as visible from one year to the next, and also I think things tend to come full circle. And it's the same for you guys - your timing and your trajectory feels right.
Peter
Yeah, I mean, you know, right now, there's definitely a vibe out there that rock and roll is making a comeback - I don't mean the really slick, modern, heavy rock and roll - but stuff that is a little looser in a retro sense, not necessarily a copycat sense. There's just a sense of people loosening up a little bit getting tired of stuff being so mechanical, so produced, so slick, we definitely fall into that 'looser' category. And, you can sense the buzz and excitement, which is fun for us. Because, you know, there's an element of thinking you're crazy when you're swimming against the tide. And ,let's face it, for the last number of years now, the tide has been in favour of electronica - and I don't even necessarily mean EDM or things like that - and it's cool, but it may have worn it's welcome out for a lot of folk
Giles
Let's get onto the new record for a moment....what does it mean to you?
Peter
Well, this record was a task in the sense that we began work on it in the summer of 2022 - so a year and a half ago. At that time, we were planning to release a new EP, by the end of the year - perhaps, you know, in the fall. We were working with our founding drummer, Dave Krusen, who had taken a bit of a hiatus in the months before, but was back. And we thought we were back in gear and we would be, you know, getting into the studio within weeks to track the new EP, and Dave decided he just didn't want to be in a band anymore and he left. So, we were not necessarily caught off guard by that, but we were still a bit in shock. And, we'd really made these commitments to deliver something and the time was right, with our pipeline so to speak, to get something out. So you know, we went through a few days of going, 'What the fuck? How are we going to overcome this?' because his shoes were big to fill, not just musically, but also emotionally. We played a lot of shows together, across the country, played Europe a couple times. And, our bonds were strong. We were a family and when you endure as we had endured and grow as we had grown, and when it's a founding member, as we all are, there's a certain chemistry - and that's a key word - it's really, really difficult to not only let go of that, but to expect that you're going to find anyone who could slip into those shoes and not significantly alter the general chemistry. So, we looked outside of ourselves and our immediate circle, and we couldn't really find anyone. I had the idea to reach out to John Fields, the producer and mixer, who mixed our second EP "Ordinary Sex Appeal". I felt that John was of a similar ilk as we were and just came from a similar crowd. I asked him if he had any referrals, and he referred us to two absolutely amazing drummers, Isaac Carpenter, and Marc Slutsky and Marc is now our permanent drummer. It was really, in many ways, a high point through all this. Dave left at the right time for him and allowed someone else to carry the torch. Marc has done well, not only for us, but also for what Dave contributed as well.
Adam
Picking it up from there, why it was such a big thing with somebody leaving the band is that we built this chemistry where we write together as a unit, where we found a flow where you can all throw out ideas, it's not like one person runs the show, or other people are just, you know, subservient players that go along. Everyone had their input and their time, and to find that balance where each of us knows when to interject an idea or when to speak, or when to just sit back and listen, we had a flow. And it took us a few years to build that flow. So that was probably the biggest fear more than anything else. I mean, you can find good musicians, but do they really fit with you, you know? And so, when Marc came in, it was great, because it was almost the other way around with Marc where we had to get him to loosen up, because he had done so much session work and he was used to the session world where, generally speaking, you keep your opinions to yourself, you don't speak unless you've really been asked, and even then you kind of hold some cards close. But we really had to, you know, convince him. And to his credit, he caught on pretty quick. I was like, no, no, no, we want to hear everything. If it's an idea we don't like, we're not going to use it, but we're not going to be mad! You know, we want to hear everything. Because that's how you find the good things. That's how you get to those good things. And in that process, we kept writing more songs. So then we had some other songs so we had more than enough for an EP, and we started thinking that we had more than enough for an album now. So Peter really caught on to that and was like 'you know, it's been long enough so instead of doing an EP, let's do a full album'. To where we're at now, when you're doing a five song EP, you can release a single, but then you've got to drop the EP. Now we have a full record. And because that that cycle is slower, you don't want to drop a full release, and then walk away and come back two years later to give somebody something. So we're doing it the other way around. But we're gonna probably go three or four singles deep on this before we actually drop the full album, we're doing videos with each one, we're doing additional content, so we can keep the fans engaged, you know, and it feels like the right thing for us. And, you know, we've been a good band for a long time and people have liked what we're doing. But it's like, you can get a certain amount of traction. You can build some fans. But then at some point you hope for - which I feel like is happening now, when it starting to build all of this on its own. So Peter's talking about the countries and markets that we've never been to really, that we've never developed, that we've never pushed anything that are streaming really, really well for us. So it feels very organic. It feels like people are finding us more so than we're chasing people down to say, 'Hey, listen to us', which is a very interesting place to be. And I don't know where it goes. I mean, you never know in this business, we could all stop tomorrow on a dime. I don't know. But it feels like we're doing the right things. And it feels like this release, although it's not drastically different than the things before, I think maybe we've solidified into even a more refined version of what we are.
Peter
And we're talking in a very substantial way, we're not talking in a peripheral way here at all. He was the guy doing all the heavy lifting. So, it was quite an honour to work with him as well as a blessing. And, I know we developed a nice friendship over the phone and we look forward to doing more work with him and maybe even getting in the studio and doing more with him from the very beginning.
Peter
What I'll add to that there is a lot of confidence, you know, time gives you confidence. And, you know, Tim Palmer - I'm sure you're familiar with him as a producer and mixer - he really helped us sonically just turn it up several notches, not just the way he twisted the knobs with EQs and compressors and such like but also he added some guitar work and some background vocals in some spots. He made some suggestions that really elevated our game. For those who don't know, Tim has worked with everyone from David Bowie to Robert Plant to Pearl Jam, to The Cure, Tears for Fears, U2
Adam
Ozzy
Giles
It's fascinating listening to you talk about the relationship between the founding band members, Marc as the new guy and also with his session background and what sort of "role" that entails. And then he comes into this environment which is completely the opposite. And then you have his own personality .... it makes you realise what a complex arrangement of personalities and experiences a band has to contend with
Peter
It is and it's interesting on that note, two things well first, stepping back a bit to help fill out the picture a little bit for what it's worth.
​
So 'audition' time and Isaac comes in and he's got a really cool swagger to him. And he's walks in. He's like, 'so what's going on?' He's checking things out...'Yeah, cool studio', (we have our own studio). So he's like 'All right, well, let's get to it!'. So anyway, we all go in the studio and Brina, my wife, our engineer and keyboardist, she's engineering and the four of us are in the tracking room, you know, working together. We start playing and showing him some of our ideas and everything. And we have a great flow of ideas and we start recording them just in introductory form, so to speak. And it's fantastic. Kevin, our guitarist, and Adam and I are looking at each other and we're all going like, 'shit, we may have found someone, this may really work. Wow, God, can't believe it, blah, blah, blah'. So we work for probably, what, 2,3,4 hours and, you know, and said, 'Okay, let's call it for the day, but let's get something in the calendar'. So we know we have Marc coming in the next day. And I remember Adam and Kevin were like, 'you know, maybe just call him up, I mean we're good, like can it get any better than this guy Isaac? He's amazing'. And he truly was amazing. So, after being, you know, in the deepest of doldrums, we're actually now at the highest of highs. So anyway, I'm like, 'no, no, no, I had an amazing conversation with Marc. And not only have I been told that he's a great drummer, but there's something personally about him, as well, that I think we really need to tap into'. And we loved Isaac as a person. We all thought we could fully hang with this guy, be on a tour bus, blah, blah, blah. So Marc comes in, and Marc's a little more reserved. But we get the same thing in that 'Oh, this guy can really play' and as we nudge him along a little bit, and he opens up, you know, we can see that we've hit two home runs, you know, we're looking at each other pinching ourselves like, 'Wow, 48 hours ago, we were ready to quit'. We just didn't want to go through the hassle of what we thought would be impossible, yet here we are, we've exceeded ourselves. So Marc ended up you know, being the main guy for it for a few different reasons. Part of it was timing. Part of it was you know, he had the time to invest himself in a little bit more: Isaac was also with the band AWOLNATION, so he had some time commitments there. But we ended up tracking several songs of the same songs with both of them, simply because we couldn't figure out how to divvy it up. And once that was complete, we actually got called to do a couple of gigs and Marc did the gigs with us. And after we started rehearsing for those gigs, Marc came back and said, 'Look, man, I know we tracked all those other songs, but now I can feel what you guys are talking about really being a band. It's been so long since I've had that feeling so I want to go rerecord everything. And you don't have to pay me, I'll cover all the costs. I just really believe in the songs and I really want to do it. And plus we're rehearsing some other songs here, you guys are showing me ideas, so we should throw those in there too'. So, that's how things grew as far as the number of songs and then at the last second, I throw in another song, Adam and Kevin remind me 'Hey, you know, we have this one too , why don't we explore this idea. And so his excitement, his energy, you know, rejuvenated us and pushed us even further. It dragged the timeline out a little bit, but it was well worth it. And it was it was a lot of fun, too.
Giles
That's a great story - I love how you go from the depths at one moment and then out of nowhere come two amazing choices. Also, it's interesting about Tim's additional production role and that
additional personality - sorry, but I'm fascinated with how people interact
and work together successfully in all those different situations! I was
talking to Richie Kennedy, who's a producer, mixer and engineer at Assault and Battery studios (Flood and Alan Moulder's studio) I think he's still here - maybe he's gone freelance now. But anyway, we were talking about his role as a producer, where sometimes, you know, he might have to be a mediator, you know, because perhaps not all the band members are quite as invested as the others.
Or how to get the best out of the quieter ones who don't maybe show their ideas as much,
and then, as much as your goal is to realise the vision of the artist, sometimes you have to make suggestions based on your own experience.
Adam
Of course, and that's why it's so important to get that right when you are going to work with somebody like that - we don't have an active producer, because we're self produced - but even with Tim, when he came in the extra things he added, he treated it very much like
'Hey, I heard some things, I put some things on there, let me know if you don't like them, I'll get rid of them'.
But, the point is the reason it was such a great experience and a good match is because the things he put on there invariably were great. And they did add, so he was able to come in and grasp what we were doing. Not just hear it, but also to fill in things coming from the same perspective we had. So it was really nice that he really got what we were doing. And it's the same thing when we're in the band working in the studio together, we get what's going on. Sometimes we might throw out an idea that doesn't work, but we all have a strange sense of where we're trying to get with something more or less. And we're all looking for that same little excitement, that same little piece or the same little added chord change that suddenly makes everyone lights up. And now this song has a new thing. So, when you hire someone who's going to be in the room with you as a producer, yeah, they do have to be part psychologist as well.
Because how you approach a situation or a suggestion or a comment or criticism is just as vital as what that thing is.
Having the right idea, but how do you deliver it? And different people need different things, you know, and you have to you have to be able to go along with it. But see, the one thing is Peter and I have known each other so long, that we can kind of say anything, you know, because we don't say it in an antagonistic way. We're not insulting with things, but we'll throw out everything. And we also know that we don't take those ideas we've thrown out personally. If no-one likes it, we have other ideas. I mean, even when Kevin came into the band, it took him a little while to really realise, 'oh, you really want to hear exactly what I think'. So once you do that, and everyone's open, and once you feel that your ideas are welcome, and you're heard, then I think you're more willing to listen to other people's ideas with an open mind as well. So, I think that that situation, that dynamic was probably the most specifically designed thing of this band, the music that comes out of it is not so much, it's the process that's the real design.
Peter
I agree. And within that it has to not only be someone who's willing to venture out and open up, it also has to be a person you can hang with. We're all very close - very close. We open up to each other, not just musically also personally, and obviously we each have rough days or rough times and equally great times to celebrate too. I mean, if you have someone who may be just a really cool person, but they're just not your vibe, you know, and you don't all get along with everyone in a deep sense, it's just not going to work. It's a luck thing that you all fit together and you can last. I've read a lot about U2 lately, because my son has somehow gotten into being a massive U2 fan (I wonder how that happened?!!). But, it's interesting because I really think about it sometimes that it's been the same four guys for nearly 50 years since they were you know, in their early to mid teens. And to keep it together and be as productive as they still are, it's remarkable. So there's been this real chemistry - and not just devotion to their music, but to each other - that exists and a real sense of - I wouldn't say loyalty - just genuine love.
Giles
Have you found yourselves taking more risks as individuals and also as the band?
Peter
I've thought about that a lot lately. One of the hardest things about the way in which the industry works these days is that you have to spend so much time doing promotions, which is fine. It's cool. It's not something I, or any of us, dislike, we enjoy it, but it does take up a lot of time that, frankly, I'd like to take a chunk of that time and use it for writing and recording. And so within that, I've thought a lot about what we want to do next and thinking about how we can push our limits, you know, test ourselves and experiment and find where those experiments could still live within what we're doing and not feel like we just went off on a massive tangent.
That's speaking for me. I don't know about you, Adam. I don't really care what you think, okay {laughs}
Adam
{Laughs} I don't think we're afraid to push things because we already have our parameters that we know work. So to me, there's no risk in risk for us, because we can always go right back to where we were. So I think that we're not afraid of doing those things, but I think it's just more of 'are you inspired in that moment for something?' and if something might come along, and you suddenly go, 'Hey, let's try this'. You might get into it a little ways and go 'well, this was a stupid idea. Let's drop this and let's be real'. And that's not a problem for us. I think that it's there when we're inspired for it. I don't know that we need to consciously plan risks for us, but I think that we're not afraid to try anything.
Peter
We're still obviously growing. Everyone's growing as an act. It doesn't matter how long you've been together. We've been together a while, but not as Sons Of Silver. It hasn't been much time. But you know, there are little risks we take, for instance, the Tell Me This music video has that long intro to it? I think it's a good 45 seconds before the track starts playing, so there were a couple of versions of the video, there's that version, which was a medium length intro, and then a short intro, which basically gets into the song right away. So, you know, wisdom in today's world would tell you to do the short version, get into it right away. And we debated it. Well, actually, we didn't really debate it, we brought the topic up amongst ourselves and we were all steadfast that we should go with the long version. Even when we we talked to our promotional folks, everyone was like 'No, do the long version. It's really cool'. So it was a risk, because people just go like 'swipe, swipe, swipe'. So it has this long beginning, which is very alluring. It's cool. It's definitely very unique, but it takes a bit of patience. We run the risk of losing folk. And so there are those little risks, so to speak, that you take and you find how far you can go within that. So next time we'll do two minutes {laughs}.
Adam
David, the director, had a vision and we really trusted him to come up with something cool. And he did, you know, he had an idea. We didn't control this. This was his doing, we let him have free rein with it. So that's a risk to me, you know, you find the people that come through and you do things with them and he might do a dozen videos for us - who knows - down the road, and maybe a couple of them are gonna come out like shit, you just don't know.
Giles
I love the vibe that it gives you - that '60s kinda mod feel with the rock music. It's really colourful. I hear what you're saying about the long intro. It's kind of teasing how far you can go to get people back into having more attention by spending a little bit more time with you.
Peter
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, think about it, you know, it's like someone who says, 'I read the news every day'. And then you find out, when you talk to them, that all they did was read a headline, and maybe the first couple sentences of an article. So for us, when we're putting out different media for promotions, be it music, video, lyrics, video interview, whatever it is, in today's world, we know there's a lot of push to put out these super short form, you know, video clips and such like, especially with with TikTok having had a big year. Fortunately, that seems to be waning a lot right now. But nonetheless, you get caught up in that urgency - 'we've got to do this 15 second clip'. And we talked about this and made a list of strengths and weaknesses. And that format just doesn't suit us very well, but it doesn't mean that we can't adapt in some way to that. But what we've really done is take, you know, stuff that we feel is a little more timeless, a little bit more long form, and do clips of it and lead people to that. And that seems it suits us in a number of ways - not only because the way we want to present ourselves as artists and how we feel but also from a practical standpoint, it's just not fun creating all the other stuff that, to me, is for the most part bullshit. Yeah. So, interestingly enough, Spotify, as you probably know, within the last week or two here, started introducing music videos on their platform, and they're servicing I think, 11 countries, including the UK, including the US, Germany, UK, Italy - sorry for those countries I left out- but nonetheless, they were only taking videos released since mid December of 2023. And focusing 100% on big artists, not just well known artists, but actually Universal submitted ours and they took it right away. So, our video is one of the few, basically unknown or new artists out there and I was told that this is because the video really stood out and I took lot of pride in that and give a lot of credit to David for it. Thank you, David.
Adam
It has a very definite look and feel to it, which is what you want. You don't want something to be milk toast, middle of the road, they kind of took a stab at it, but didn't put much into it. It's got a very definitive thing to it.
Peter
Brina tends to lead on a lot of our artwork stuff bringing in other artists to finish things off, but she'll help coax them along, you know, give them some parameters to work with or just some initial ideas. And for this video, she had pulled a Dave Brubeck Quartet Live in London 1966 album cover and, as far as I remember, that was actually one of the key references, if not the key reference, for David Wolfgang, who produced the video. And they hadn't traded any thoughts whatsoever.
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It was just a bit of serendipity.
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All original live photos courtesy of Carlos Novais