Silverstein Remember Their Fans

04/28/09 4:11pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Silverstein were merely a Greater Toronto Area post-hardcore band, slugging it out in local high school gymnasiums and YMCAs with similarly minded bands like Alexisonfire and Boys Night Out six years ago. Silverstein are now four albums into their near 10-year career and are arguably one of the world's best-known post-hardcore bands.

The Burlington, Ont. band just released A Shipwreck In The Sand and are in the middle of an extensive American tour in support of it. They played shows in Australia and South America earlier this year, and are slated to head back to Europe in May.

Vocalist Shane Told says the band enjoyed their time in South America in particular, despite not knowing what to expect since they'd never previously played there.

"We went to Colombia and Peru and some countries that are known to be kind of sketchy. People were like, 'Oh, you're going to Colombia. You're going to get kidnapped.' There were all these horror stories I was reading about on the internet, and I kind of psyched myself out. But we went there, and I've never felt more safe in my life. It was great.

"People there are so friendly and are so happy that you're there, and the shows were just insane. They were so massive. We don't even have any albums out there. It's all just internet word of mouth, you know? You can't buy our albums in the stores at most of those places. It was pretty gnarly.

"In Peru, we played to like, 4,000 people. There were all these police escorts with billy clubs beating kids off us as we were walking. It was totally insane, but a really great experience, and we're totally going to go back."

Silverstein also decided to change things when they recorded A Shipwreck In The Sand. It's a concept record split into four parts, and Told says he wanted to "write an album around a story" instead of just thinking about it as several songs on the same disc.

"With the first three records, we did them the exact same way, which was, you know, got in the room, wrote some songs, and we didn't really think about them as an album, you know? We just thought about what songs we should be writing and we worried about the order of them and everything later.

"But with this record, we decided to write a concept record and write an album as a whole from start to finish. We knew going into recording what the track order was going to be and everything, so it was a lot more planned out this time around."

A Shipwreck In The Sand was recorded close to home at Mississauga's Metalworks Studios, unlike Silverstein's first three albums, which were recorded in California. Cameron Webb, who produced the band's 2005 breakthrough, Discovering The Waterfront, was back on board for the new release. (Arrivals & Departures, which came out in 2007, was produced by Mark Trombino [Jimmy Eat World].) Webb, who lives in California, was willing to temporarily relocate to Canada to work with the band.

Silverstein also brought guests into the studio, something they hadn't done since 2003's When Broken Is Easily Fixed debut, which included contributions from now former Grade vocalist Kyle Bishop. A Shipwreck In The Sand is comparatively guest-heavy, as Cancer Bats vocalist Liam Cormier shows up on first single "Vices," former Comeback Kid singer Scott Wade appears on the punky "Born Dead," and rising pop starlet LIGHTS shows up on acoustic closer "The End."

Silverstein are friends with all three singers, but Told says Cormier in particular was brought in because his voice was more suited to one of the parts in "Vices." He says Wade's voice also fit the song and that LIGHTS was an ideal choice.

"When we got her in there, it was awesome, and I actually rewrote some parts of the song for her when we found out we could get her because we were so excited about it."

Aside from playing Canadian Music Week and a few shows in Ontario, Silverstein have mostly been focusing their energy on touring internationally. They've come a long way from slogging it out in small southern Ontario clubs and, despite their focus on going global, Told says they've always tried to remember that fans are the reason for their success.

"When we started this band, we knew absolutely nothing. We literally knew nothing, and I think even up to the point where we all quit our jobs and quit school and did this band full-time, I mean, even then we knew nothing. Now I wonder if I still know nothing.

"You're constantly learning so much about the music industry and how things work and everything, and no decision is simple with what we do. One thing we've always done, which I think has been important, is we've always treated people with respect. We've never been a band that burned any bridges. We've always tried to be professional, and I think that's one thing we learned early on that was important.

"I see a lot of young bands these days that are just too good for everyone and are just kind of fucking people over left and right, and everyone talks in this world. I think that's the most important lesson we've learned, and it's something we've stuck to and I think it's definitely one of the reasons we've been successful."