EPIC {{arts & entertainment}}

After touring across Europe with Billy Talent and Cancer Bats, Silverstein played a short stint in the UK; Leeds, Manchester and London, with Attack! Attack!, a few Welsh boys, and The Amity Affliction supporting. We sat down with vocalist Shane Told to ask a few questions. Though apparently the interview was supposed to be cancelled, due to the vocalist not feeling so well, (understandable after the distance they’d travelled over the past few weeks), he still sat with us for a quick five minute interview, in a stairwell in the back of the venue.

—————————

With the release of the new album this year, what does a Shipwreck in the Sand mean to you?

We’re proud of it, it’s our favourite record we’ve done and we had a lot of fun making it which is cool for a band like us that’s been around for so long to have that happen because usually when a band has been around for ten years they’re not exactly the fanbase bigger but for people to latch onto it is a great feeling.

There’s a lot of bands around now that are randomly appearing that are sort of autotune macbook bands popping up from nowhere with pretty big fanbases nowadays.

Yeah we came from a time when bands didn’t have websites so it’s a totally different process than bands that get started lately. It’s really weird in the uk, it’s a fucking fashion show over here, like it’s crazy, and I don’t mean to insult anybody but like it’s so image driven over here and it’s like ‘Oh who’s on the cover of Kerrang! magazine this week’ or whatever, like that shit is so important to people which means people don’t give a fuck what bands even sound like anymore, what they’re saying, the kind of controversial things they’re saying, they’re kinda like the crazy fashion they have or tattoos or some shit, totally like skin deep. It’s really strange and I guess that we can blame a number of things like the internet or maybe even the lack of record sales for supporting you know real artists and a lot of things now. It’s crazy times.

What’s the concept of the new album?

It’s not something I can sum up in a couple of sentences, it’s pretty deep and pretty complicated but basically it’s about the world right now and the economy really fucking everything up and I decided I wanted to talk about that I wanted to talk about all the problems that we’re going through and the reasons why we’re going through them but I didn’t want to talk about them in a typical political punk rock way like Bad Religion has done you know, ten times like ‘fuck you government’ I wanted to talk in a more artistic way so I decided to write a story about a family, a typical north American family going through all the problems that are pretty much because of the government and all of the things that have lead us to where we are right now.

Silverstein aren’t really a political band so is it kind of a leap from where you once were?

Yeah, I think as you get older, these sort of things become more meaningful to you so you sort of feel the need to address them.

You’ve been on tour with the new album for the past few weeks over Europe, so what’s your favourite tour stories?

Last night was a pretty good one, in Leeds, it was a crazy night. For some reason Leeds is always crazy. I don’t know, we’ve been on tour with Billy Talent and that was a lot of fun too, I don’t think we have any crazy stories. Pretty much the whole time has been one big party and a hell of a lot of fun.

You guys seem to support a lot of organisations work, such as your stuff with PETA2 and stuff like that, so what made you decide to bring Skate4Cancer on tour to the UK with you?

We’ve done a lot of stuff with Rob and Skate4Cancer over the years, and we have really great fun with Rob too and we think what he’s trying to do is special and it’s not just a normal charity, he’s poured his whole life into this, he’s devoted his whole life into it and we have nothing but complete support for him so we like bringing him out. It’s just one person and a couple of merch bins, it’s no big deal and having him around is pretty good.

Billy has been participating in Movember, well, it’s December now, is he keeping the moustache?

Uh, no he shaved it all off yesterday! He shaved his whole face off, I can’t remember the last time I saw him do that! Crazy.

Okay! We hope you have a good night, and hope you feel better, and thanks for sitting down with us.

Yeah! We haven’t stopped touring since a few months ago, but thank you!

—————————

So while the venue filled up steadily over the night, you could tell Silversteins fanbase were no longer young kids who felt the need to wait hours in the cold to see their favourite band. They’re a band that have passed the stage of being a fad, and you can pick out those fans whom they actually mean something to. Though he was ill, Shane Told bought charisma to the stage, jmping around as though there was nothing weighing him down, mocking ‘shotgun weilding Texans’, and you saw the men leave the stage with nothing but a sense of satisfaction.

See more photos from the show here and keep up to date with Silverstein’s happenings over at their myspace.