https://open.spotify.com/album/5B6lwLLwsBZj7tZwSONgj7?si=wFE4noU-RIeAJIT_i_2pBA
Silverbacks are a five-piece Dublin-based band composed of brothers Daniel and Kilian O’Kelly (the principal songwriters), along with Peader Kearney, Emma Hanlon and Gary Wickham. Last month, the band released their first album, Fad. Angular and jagged guitar riffs bounce back and forth over the funny, offbeat lyrics of frontman Daniel O’Kelly. On several songs, bassist Emma Hanlon takes over the role of lead vocalist. Her melodic, clean singing contrasts the rest of the band’s punky yells to great effect on the choruses of songs such ‘Klub Silberrücken’ and ‘Muted Gold’. Producer Daniel Fox of Girl Band coaxes a variety of textures out of the band’s guitars, resulting in an album which is fresh, varied and a lot of fun.
Through the socially distant medium of email, singer/songwriter and guitarist Kilian O’Kelly, alongside bassist and vocalist Emma Hanlon spoke, about their musical influences, their label Central Tones, and their aspirations for the future of Silverbacks.
Congratulations on the release of your first full length album, Fad. It’s received very positive reviews across the board. How do you feel about it now that it’s out?
Kilian: Thanks a mil! It feels great to have the record out. We are all delighted with how things have gone. The release was a long time coming so there is a sense of achievement and relief.
The music released under the Silverbacks name has been quite varied in style. Is there a particular direction you see the band going in the future?
Emma: There is a wide range of music tastes in the band so I think the music we make is often a product of that. I’d like to think that as the albums progress, so will our sound. We’ll definitely experiment further with instrumentation, styles and try out new things but there isn’t one particular direction we are focused on right now. My hope is that in years to come when people look back over the Silverbacks catalogue there’ll be loads to take in, but no matter what the style or album number, it will always clearly have a Silverbacks signature sound.
The music on Fad revolves strongly around the guitar. Are there any particular guitarists that the members of the band look up to? The bluesy style of the instrumental ’Madra Uisce’ reminded me of Leadbelly.
Kilian: “In the pines! In the pines!”… I grew up learning the blues on guitar so there is probably a bang of Leadbelly about ‘Madra Uisce’. When the riff jumps up an octave, I like to think it goes into Durutti Column territory too. We’re all big Television fans and that probably can be heard throughout the album, especially in the outro of ‘Last Orders’ where the guitar notes are played before the volume is turned up on the body of the guitar. This takes away the attack of the note and is a real Tom Verlaine move. ‘Travel Lodge Punk’, which is the first track on side B, is built from a distorted drone and relies on scordatura… that’s a pretty Sonic Youth move.
The band formed for the most part in college. How did you all meet?
Emma: Daniel and Peadar met in Maynooth University doing the same course. Kilian and I met there a couple years later. Peadar and Gary are both from Newbridge and went to the same school. Oh, and Daniel and Kilian are brothers, so they met years ago!
Do you have any advice to aspiring musicians who are in college themselves?
Emma: Enjoy yourself! The 9 to half 5 life is what’s next!
Kilian: Haha, I would say if you find yourself with a lot of free time right now, try to use it to work on your music. I sometimes wish I was a little bit more proactive about the band earlier on. I would also like to point out that none of us in the band are full time musicians so maybe we aren’t the best band to be dishing out the advice!
A little under half of the tracks on Fad have previously been released as singles. How did you decide which tracks would work on the album?
Kilian: We thought the previously released singles worked nicely as a collection and we also wanted to commit them to vinyl. Those singles kind of work as the skeleton for the album.
The artwork by Cam Taylor matches perfectly with the band’s sound. Have any of your songs been written in response to Taylor’s illustrations, or does the visual side always come after the song’s been finished?
Emma: Ooooh that’s a good idea! So far to date it has always been music first but who knows, maybe we’ll flip that for album 2.
You are not signed to any record label, and you promote your Bandcamp on social media. How have you found self promotion and self-funding your enterprises? Would you ever consider signing to a label?
Kilian: Yes we’ll definitely consider signing to a label but only if it makes sense. When we decided to put this out on our own label, we knew that we would need some help and we were lucky that Cargo Records offered to sort out the distribution. They have been brilliant in helping us reach new people and getting the vinyl out around the world.
Emma: We’ve had label offers in the past and we’ll remain open minded to any future offers but there is a lot that we still want to achieve with Central Tones. We’d love to put music aside from Silverbacks out on the label and that is definitely a project for the future.
What is your opinion on Spotify in comparison to other streaming services? I know that some artists complain about how little money they make off it, while others have found a larger audience by being featured on their playlists.
Kilian: I think Bandcamp are doing a great job for the moment. The Bandcamp days have helped us in a time where we haven’t been able to make any money off playing gigs. Every streaming site has its advantages and drawbacks and we just have to find the best way to utilise the services. As long as plays and playlisting on Spotify is a metric for success in the music industry, it will remain important.
