PropertyOfZack had the chance to chat with Shane Told of Silverstein not too long ago and it turned into a great interview. Emily and Shane discussed the band’s recent touring, including the Take Action Tour, response to Rescue, Hopeless Records, and future touring, among other things. Read up and enjoy!
The year has gotten off to anything but a slow start for the band so far with a European tour with There For Tomorrow, the release of Rescue, and most recently the Take Action Tour. Can you just discuss the Take Action Tour?
Yeah it was good. It was really great bands. They were our friends and also we’re big of fans musically, which is kind of a treat for us. It was all for a great cause and it was full of great venues. It was also routed very well. We just had a lot of fun and sometimes you do a tour and there’s a band you don’t hang out with as much as the others or sometimes it takes a few weeks to get to know the guys in the other bands but this one it was like right away. We were all just friends and were hanging out. It was really fun.
Were fans receptive to the newer songs in the live setting for the first time?
Oh yeah I think the new songs are going over better live than we’ve ever had new songs go over live. We’ve done 5 records now so every time we’ve put out a new record its always playing stuff for the first time. With this record actually some of the songs we were playing live before the record came out and even with that we were getting a good reaction, so we knew we were in good shape.
Was it also a pleasure just to co-headline every night with Bayside and play with some of the younger bands like The Swellers that are fighting to make a name for themselves right now?
Yeah it was absolutely. It’s always nice to do a tour where you have a mix of the guys that have been around for a while and the young kids that are just really excited to be there. The band on this tour was Texas In July. Some of those guys, I think, are still supposed to be in high school. For them to come out and be traveling the country and playing in front of thousands of people, it was great just to see them so excited every night. It was awesome.
I suppose signing with Hopeless Records and starting the year off with tours like these can really sort of seem like a fresh start for Silverstein. Is that how you guys are treating it?
Absolutely, I think that you couldn’t have put it any better. We did 4 records on Victory and we were a band for 10 years. We did the decade anniversary DVD and after we finished that we were free agents before we signed to Hopeless. We really felt like chapter 1 of the first 10 years of the band closed and it was like moving on to chapter 2. We felt this resurgence and we felt this new energy and passion that we didn’t really feel, it was kind of like a new beginning. So that was an absolutely amazing feeling and we’re still feeling it right now.
The announcement of signing with Hopeless was made in the latter part of 2010. I assume there were plenty of labels in the mix, but what made you settle with Hopeless?
There were many labels and it was a very tough decision. When we initially started talking to labels I didn’t think Hopeless was going to be the one even though I was friends with a lot of people that work there and I was a big fan of a lot of their bands over the years. The more we talked to them the more we realized they were a lot like us in the way they think and in the way that they understand that what we do is our job, and it is a business up to a point, but we do it for fun and we do it because we love it. They understand that the second it becomes business to us and just business you might as well work at a fucking bank or Home Depot or something because we do this for fun and that’s why we do it and they have the same approach. For example we put out a 7” record for record store day and there’s no money being made on that at all. Hopeless paid for us to record those cover songs and that was just something we did because it was fun and it was something cool we wanted to do. It’s cool to be working with someone that’s like, “Yeah, fuck it. We know we’re going to lose money or break even on this, but who cares. We’re just going to do it because it’s fun and this is why we started labels and bands.” So it’s cool to have been doing this for so long and to have the same passion.
The label also seems to ever be growing in a positive way with signings like Yellowcard and The Wonder Years, among others. What’s it like to be on a label that’s thriving now?
It’s good, you know. That’s definitely a part of why we chose to work with them. They’ve always been a label that signs young unknown bands and builds them up and makes them their own. Like All Time Low is a great example of that. They have a great catalog of bands and it feels good.
Rescue is the band’s fifth album and obviously the first away from Victory. After A Shipwreck In The Sand was released I know things were probably a little up in the air just because there was no contract with a label any longer. How did that change the writing process from the normal?
Once A Shipwreck In The Sand came out, we had a year before we were allowed to talk to or shop for any labels. After we toured that record for a year and the time was up, we decided we would get in the studio and start working on new songs without a label. So we started writing songs and recording demos and we sent some demos to all of the labels that I was mentioning earlier and that’s how it all got started. It was cool because usually when you’re in contract with a label they give you a window of time to write and record but with this we had almost a whole year of writing which was great. It was really nice to have that extra time.
Do you think you guys sort of benefited from everything not being settled and calm during the writing process?
I think so, yeah. I do really well with a little bit of pressure. Surprisingly with all this time we were able to go back and change things again and again. We demoed everything very high quality like we were making a record, so it was almost like we recorded this record twice. Imagine doing anything twice, you’re obviously going to do a better job the second time. So I think that’s what happened with Rescue. Since we had everything worked out, like all of the little guitar parts and notes, it was really great that we could focus on getting the best performances we could, getting the best sound we could, and it was really fun to make the record.
Two years later, is the band happy with the reception to A Shipwreck?
Yeah I think so. I think it’s one of our fans’ favorite records and it was our favorite too when it came out. We made sure that in our minds Rescue was better and was beating A Shipwreck In The Sand and that was a challenge for us because we did really like Shipwreck a lot. I always feel like we have to believe and make sure our new record is always the best record.
How has the initial reception to Rescue been so far from fans?
Absolutely incredible. The craziest thing about the reception, people will come up to me and tell me “I love the new record it’s so heavy.” Like, really? Is it really heavier? (laughs) I have to think to myself, is that true? And then other people tell me this Rescue is really catchy and Shipwreck was heavier. So people’s perceptions are all over the place. And that’s the great thing; people interpret everything differently. I think it’s all good.
Is it more important than ever for this record to really resonate with fans considering this is a new start?
I think so. I think every step of the way we’ve felt each record is the most important step of our career every time. This is no exception. Maybe more so because of the change, but I don’t know how kids really give a shit about what label you’re on anyways. I’m sure there are big fans that buy all the records and don’t even know we are on a different label. I just don’t think it’s that big of a deal for most people and we just want to make the best of our career that we can every time out. I remember going out to buy CDs as a kid and being disappointed with it, and I don’t want that to happen with us.
So far a couple music videos have been released so far for Rescue. Is there a reason you guys are going heavy with the music videos, or have they just been fun to do?
I think a big thing is that music videos are so much easier to make these days. When I say easier to make I mean easier to make good because our first few videos we made weren’t very good and they were just super annoying and huge pains in the ass. It was really good this time. We did the “Sacrifice” video which Josh from our band filmed. He’s got some video equipment so he did it. We just had a really good time filming that and it was just something fun for us. And then with the “The Artist” video it wasn’t live, but it was live. It was at a real show. All these videos we’ve done have been different and have been things we wanted to do, and I think our fans appreciate them.
Should we expect anymore?
We’ve got one in the works right now, I can’t tell you what song it’s for yet. We may be doing another one, something kind of different. Just something different and fun, something to keep it interesting.
The band has played a few festivals so far this month and are playing another one today. How have they been?
They’ve been great. We were in Europe and festivals in Europe are just really really good. They just have it figured out. They have it down to a science over there. The fests were awesome and some were insane. We’ve done a few North American ones too. To be honest they aren’t as good as the European ones, but they are still fun. We’ve been touring all year in clubs and in the cold, so it’s nice to be outside playing in the sun.
Following this, you guys will be heading to Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore, and Bangkok. How stoked are you to play over there?
So, so stoked. We’ve been trying to go for years and it hasn’t worked out and I would say that when I get an email from a fan, probably 30% of the time it’s someone from one of those countries, so I know they’ve been waiting and I know it’s going to be off the chain.
Dates have also been announced in Alaska. Is the band just trying to hit everywhere you typically can’t all at once?
No, that wasn’t the plan. We’ve been to Alaska before and it was great. It just worked out that that was a good time for us to go and same with Southeast Asia. It’s nice stuff to do in the summertime.
Nothing is really happening in between those dates in Asia and Alaska. Will see anymore announced, or will you guys be taking some time off?
No we’ve got some stuff coming up. We’re doing a few shows on the east coast and some stuff in Canada in the fall, and next year we’ve got a big tour coming up that I definitely can’t talk about yet. We’re pretty much going to be go go go for about a year straight. Next summer it will be time to start on our follow-up to Rescue.
When can we expect some fall tours to be announced?
I would say very soon, within a few weeks.
Are there any other tracks from the Rescue sessions that have yet to be released that might in the future?
We actually did a few extra songs, but I never did the vocals on them. We did probably 18 or 19 songs. A couple songs were really great so we might use them for a b side or on the next record or something. We are happy with the other stuff and I think it could have definitely made the record.
Thanks so much for your time, is there anything else you’d like to add or that we should be on the lookout for?
I guess be on the lookout for more stuff this fall and if you haven’t picked up Rescue please do so.
*This interview was conducted by Emily Coch
