Transcript of an interview I recorded with Brian Tichy of SILVERTHORNE - 20200226. Full article here. MAL-
On the line, a man who's been everywhere, man, is Brian Tichy, Brian, thanks for taking my call. BRIAN- No problem. Thanks for having me. MAL- It's good to have you on. One look at the Wikipedia page dedicated to you, and the first question that comes to mind for me is A- how have you had the time to get this together and B- How did it come together? BRIAN- I assume you're talking about SILVERTHORNE MAL- We are talking about SILVERTHORNE and we are all about SILVERTHORNE.HOw have you had the time. BRIAN- I had the time because I really wanted to see it happen and basically SILVERTHORNE singer, guitar player Pete Shoulder and I, you know, we met through some other stuff and I was blown away by his amazing voice and not only that, he's a great lyricist, songwriter, guitar player, all around musician, great guy and just reached out said 'What do you think about trying to write record some stuff?' because once I got to know him you know realise we're cut from the same cloth you know, musically and stylistically and all that stuff and that was pretty that was pretty much it. We got together put some time in, wrote and recorded a bunch of music and became SILVERTHORNE. MAL- Let's talk about Pete. His voice absolutely just suits this music so well. It's just amazing. BRIAN- Yeah, I can't disagree with you on that. MAL- Let's talk about Daniel, where did we, where did we find him? How did he become involved? BRIAN- Daniel's a buddy of mine. We both live in Los Angeles and we had jammed before and recorded a bit before and we crossed paths over the years. So when it came time to, you know, need a bass player, he was one of the first guys I thought about and luckily he was into what he heard and really liked what we're doing and was available. So this is last year. Yeah, nearly a year ago and got we all got together and played a bit and got the videos together the photos for the press and for the EP and hung out and you know he and Pete hit it off as well so yeah man he's a he's a great guy great player just one of my buddies I've known for a while. MAL- There must have been a time pretty early on when you're rehearsing and jamming the songs out where you must have looked at each other and just had that look in your eye and realised you were onto something really special. Was that the case? BRIAN- You know it like anybody that gets together and wants to start a new project, new band, you know, you're hoping you're, all you're going for is to be excited. You just want to see if you're you're getting excited about what you're coming up with and, and we were you know, and we had a great time writing and a lot of stuff was you know, the songwriting process wasn't really a band in a room it was more Pete and I hanging out with some acoustic guitars and just throwing ideas back and forth. And whenever Pete and I are together, we're pretty one track minded and we also know our time is valuable when we're together. So it's all music driven, it's all music related. And it's all about being creative. So pretty much everything we do is is always focused on, you know, it's focused on writing and the big picture of the band. So I have a studio house with all my stuff, recording gear, and drums and guitars, everything's there. So when Pete comes out, we would just get together there and, you know, put as much time as we could just writing and whenever inspiration strikes, we're able to not have to worry about calling up engineers or producers or booking studio time we just were already there, everything's turned on ready to go. So as soon as we feel we have an idea worthy of moving forward with we throw the drums down and you know, do everything ourselves, self produced and self engineered and self mixed and all that kind of stuff. So we just take advantage of it and, and to me it's like a vacation because I'm getting to do exactly what I want to do and I have no pressure from anybody on the outside. So to me that is a vacation when I get to just be creative and musical. MAL- Been able to hear five songs, was that all we put down? BRIAN- The five songs on the EP, were more or less what we felt was the best representation of where we were at when we recorded together and when we wrote together, but there are others man there's probably another record sitting there right now like not recorded but you know, ideas demoed up and ideas that we know we want to get to real soon. Yeah, there's a tonne of them. I mean, there was there was a tonne of ideas when you know when we first got together, but we picked out what we thought was the best representation of where we're at at the time and But since then, we've done more writing and recording and I can't wait to get a full LP You know, for sure. MAL- Absolutely. Neither can I. I was very impressed when I heard this and was, you might say a little disappointed there were only five. So yes, I'm hanging out for the next lot myself. BRIAN- Yeah, you know, I wish we wish we had the time because we were a little under the gun time wise to get the EP together. And it was simply because I had already agreed to do a tour in Japan which took me away from home for four months. So set all this up properly and do it right, we figured it would be best to start with an EP and there's there's so many people out there that aren't concerned with LPs anymore. We just kind of took advantage of the fact that you would have taken taken over it would have been a little bit more pressure to come up with finishing writing and recording of what we felt were the best songs and then on top of that, getting you know, getting the videos and the artwork and the photos and doing all that stuff. You know, we really only had a couple months and Pete lives in the UK and Daniel and I are here Los Angeles so it's not like we can just all wake up one day and, and meet, you know, whatever we're free, it's a little bit more involved. So yeah, we just went with the EP thing for now but it's also nice looking back because now that it is an EP out it most of the songs were from last year and we have a lot of new stuff. So it's pretty cool to see the response, the very favourable responses we;ve been getting and it's sort of it can be nice and reassuring and sort of help you move along to that next place in your songwriting. Okay, cool people, you know, people are enjoying this, it gives you that that little extra bit of confidence. And, you know, and we've been growing as songwriters together you know, now we're used to each other we know how to work together, so we think it should only get better. MAL- Yeah, absolutely. What's happening on the live front? Have you are you taking this on the road? Have you got time to take this on the road? BRIAN- Yeah, being a new band. It's a total uphill battle. You know, so, you know, the the main pothole in the road is it budgets, you know, you gotta have, you got to be able to afford to do it and, you know, then there's the other responsibilities of life of having to make, you know, make the money and pay the bills, you know. So, balance we're always trying to work with. And right now we're hoping with the the EP coming out or the EP being out and getting some good reviews and all that stuff. We're hoping that can kind of propel us into the next place where it might be a little easier to get some doors open and take advantage of being able to get opportunities to play out live, you know, we definitely want to you know, like we've said, we'll, we'll play any backyard barbecue or any arena. that we're invited to you know, we're ready. MAL- Well, you certainly got a good review for the EP from me. On the track 'Moving' what a groove that's got, was that just you and Peter writing that one as well? BRIAN- Yeah, that was that was one of these, you know, I love telling stories like this, if anybody's interested because as you know, it's just I love the Art of songwriting and the process because you're sitting there with nothing and you have thin air in front of you is nothing but air and then somehow you're throwing ideas back and forth and who knows where it's going to go. But with in the case of 'Moving' Pete had this little riff which is, you know, the main riff in 'Moving' and we're just kind of going back and forth with ideas and we had some we had a piece of paper with, you know, names we had given ideas, and I think I said to him, 'What was this HENDRIX BAND OF GYPSYS riff? What was that?' And he went 'Oh, that was this one. And he went,....., and then he played that I go in as soon as he played it, you know, he in his head thought it sounded like something that could be it stylistically, like a JIMI HENDRIX BAND OF GYPSYS vibe, which you know, if it's played in a certain way maybe it could be but I totally didn't hear it like that. You know, when we when we talked about it and written the idea down but when we went back to it and he played it was like, Wow, it's definitely cool riff man and it but I heard the groove that's on 'Moving', and I heard the big driving groove because I didn't hear like a BAND OF GYPSYS thing I said, I'm actually hearing that more like sort of like ELO 'Don't Bring Me Down'. You know, like, I just heard that like, (imitates drum beat) i really really straight and almost mechanical and he was like Yeah, I don't know you that's how you hear it. I go Yeah, man. Did I hear like that and then you start singing bluesy on top of it, you know, let's get a massive drum sound. Let's make it like gnarly and nasty and dirty. And let's make the guitars nasty. And you know, let's just make it all nasty and dirty. And so we started working on like that we put the song together, and we'll listen it back to these tracks, and they're pretty nasty sounding. Then he starts singing that nice little 'Moving' chorus over it, which is very melodic and clean, but it worked. And I said, What's that? He goes, Oh, no, I go just keep doing it. And it really is it that simple? That's kind of all we really need. And I said, Okay, well, let's let's leave that put some harmonies on it and when you go to the verses, you get digging a little more your lower voice bluesy you know nasty voice and I think I even said, you know, one of those kind of like Tom Petty things you know there's a nice bluesy thing sort of rolling with those ideas and and and it became what it is but yeah it was it was actually the first song we wrote together that that was the first song based off of Pete's riff and me hearing it in a certain groove a certain way but i like i said ELO's 'Don't Bring Me Down' which is a very infectious type groove. You know, MAL- I don't know if anyone else has said this to you, but I don't hear any of those. I hear like a John Bonham drum sound, that's what I hear. BRIAN- Yeah, well, the drums we definitely, you know, we put up the distant room mics and took advantage of those and crank those up in the mix. Yeah, we definitely wanted that, drum sound wise. Yes, we went for that big MAL- 'When the Levee Breaks' type sound BRIAN- Yeah, yeah. And you know, and I'll take that as a compliment any day of the week. You know, I'll take a phone call in the middle of night someone tell me that you know, just Bonham's my guy, he's the best and you know, my biggest inspiration, all that stuff. So you know, there's in the back of my head whenever we're recording drums. There's always a voice in my head going, you know, what would it be like if John Bonham played it? MAL- What would Bonzo do? BRIAN- Yeah, MAL- Yeah, that's what I hear. That's why it comes across the sort of in the when the Levee Breaks when you got the headphones on and the and the drums are pounding in your head down on the bottom of the staircase in that mansion wherever they recorded it but that's what I hear. And if it wasn't for Jason Bonham having a God-given birthright to play with the other three then I'd nominate you based on that song alone. BRIAN- Thank you very much. That is the mightiest drum position in all of rock and roll right there for sure. Look, my MAL- Absolutely fantastic EP I absolutely love it. I've been able to stream it through the the record company and I've had it on repeat. I listened to it like three times today. So very, very, very well done. Other people are going to have to get up pretty early to top that so far this year. So well done on that and best of luck with it. BRIAN- Well, thank you very much. It means a lot man it really does, because, until it's out there for everybody to hear it, and it's nice when it's not just a single anymore, there's actually, there's a little story to be told there. There's five songs that represent a point in time. And hopefully they play well together, and people enjoy them as a cluster of songs and and that's all you can hope for. And and yeah, man, I wish there were five more, which there will be soon they'll be 10 more soon, but we're off to a decent little start here. And the stuff in the future is going to just be an extension of what what you hear on the EP, that we do things a certain way, and we enjoy doing it that way. There's going to be no big changes in how we record or how we write and how we, how we hear we want the production in the final sound of the songs to be. we, definitely gonna kind of stick to where it's at right now, you know? MAL- Excellent well keep keep on doing what you're doing, it takes me to a place and time. Well done with it. And Brian, thanks so much for taking my call. BRIAN- Cool, thank you very much. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |