AD:  Hi Matt.  Welcome to Tru Rock Revival Magazine. I've enjoyed listening to your new music.

 

MC:  Thank you!

 

AD:  And, congratulations on your single, "Glitter & Gold." Who wrote that song?

 

MC: Thank you! The short answer is that we [Silo] all write the songs. In the example of “Glitter & Gold”, the music for that song was written by one of our guitar players (Brian) and had been around for something like ten years at that point. After forming the band, we hit the studio in the Summer of 2020. While the guys were doing their thing, recording the guitars and building out an actual studio-quality track for the song, which was originally called “Shit N Git”, I went outside to listen to the [old] instrumental a few times. Right before I stepped out to write some lyrics, however, Brian started ad-libbing “Girl, I want you… I need you…” in a very country/Sam Elliot voice. I actually don’t remember if he was singing the same song or just goofing around at that point, but it stuck with me. So I snatched up a notebook and pen and headed out for a cigarette. Our other guitar player (Adrian) had gone through a rough divorce from his stripper ex-wife, and that had set up this amazing story of love, loss, and divorce dust (the residual glitter left behind from exotic dancers). I remember it was hot, the dog days of summer, and it started to drizzle warm rain from a chalky blue sky and fat gray clouds. About twenty minutes later, I had 95% of the lyrics written and headed back inside to record them. There are still rain spots and smeared ink on the original lyric sheet -- it looks like tears.

 

AD:  Funny how that works out. For the single War Paint, I like the tremolo vibration or effect that sounds like a heartbeat all the way through, whose idea was that to do that?

 

MC: All credit to the band. Our bass player/producer/fourth band member Eric is an engineering wizard. That effect was 100% him. Adrian, Brian, and Eric all have a great ear for production, and one of us might suggest an 808, or a whoosh, or delay, but I’m fairly certain that Eric is all over “War Paint”. The music was written by Adrian, and I wanted to explore this notion that country songs are always whining about “Girl, I’m sorry”, “My truck left me”, “I’m so lonely without my dog”, and to write a song where I get to say “Whoa, girl, it’s not like I’m a saint…”

 

AD:  Ha, I hear ya, cool. Next, who wrote your info/ bio, Matt? It is very well written, like someone who would write a novel. Have you ever thought of doing that for kicks on the side? Do you frequently write, outside of Music?

 

MC: Thank you so much. Everyone in the band is actually a great writer, and very witty, but the majority of those long-form stories and blogs are mine. I’ve been a writer my whole life. I’ve written probably a dozen screenplays, a few business plans for startups, and I’m currently working on a new erotic novel -- 50 Shades meets Gatsby -- which I’m excited to keep writing while on tour.

 

AD: So the woman is wealthy, she finds her ex-lover and pays him to sleep with her again?  I'll stop now. Tell me about being a car salesman, how long ago was that? Inspiring story, esp during this past year, how did you reach out, get the music done, meet up and record during this wild time?

 

MC: LOL! An old car dog once told me that “selling cars is the hardest easy job there is”. It’s one of the few careers where you can literally walk in off the street without education or experience and earn a physician’s salary, if you’re good enough. Some months, you might make less than minimum wage working 60-80 hour weeks, and others, you’ll get a $20,000 commission for selling three cars. It’s hard on your body, relationships, and full of nefarious characters. That being said, I made some good friends and have boundless motivation to never go back. When the pandemic shut the doors in March 2020, the dealership staff were mostly all laid off. That July, I was browsing Craigslist in the Musicians tab and looking for a music project or a band (only half-seriously, I might add), and I found Brian’s post looking for a singer and reached out. The rest is history. Right around that same time, I received a certified envelope with termination papers from the dealership and a severance check for all of ten dollars. I never cashed it, and now I have it framed on my wall to remind me what they thought I was worth. Now, I wake up leisurely on Saturday mornings, and instead of sitting in the same stupid sales meeting at 8:30am, listening to the same motivational bullshit, I walk downstairs, past a few of my favorite guitars on display in the stairway of my house, and I make a hot cup of coffee, reflecting on why it took so long for me to believe in myself first and foremost. Fuck em.

 

AD:  Yeah man, go for it. I like it! How did you link up to production and set up your band, after having done open mics not long ago, what changed everything for you? 

 

MC: Well, my history in music is pretty much that I started playing music and singing as a very young child. Church, home, school, it seemed like music was everywhere around me. I was the lead in two school plays, then started a band with some friends and played talent shows and birthday parties, which got me my first girlfriend, actually. Chicks dig (good) guitar players. Cut to my early-to-mid twenties when I was bartending, I started playing acoustic guitar at this point and found my way more toward singers/songwriters like Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, and Ben Gibbard. I didn’t want a band, I didn’t want the fame, I just wanted to write great, catchy songs for other artists that would find their way to radio and hopefully afford me a lifestyle where I could just write for a living. There’s a local brewery called Halfpenny near me that hosts open mic nights on Thursdays. The kicker was that anyone who performed, whether playing, singing, or telling a joke, earned a free beer for their talents. I didn’t have any money for a long time, so I would go play and order their highest alcohol percentage beer, trying to get in front of different bartenders to see if I could score an extra free beer or two. It usually worked on the female employees after my set. The Halfpenny crowd quickly went from a handful of older folks, to dozens and dozens of my family, friends, and fans showing out. I couldn’t go without getting bombarded or people coming up to me after I played. At some point, I just wanted to sit there and have a beer in peace like they were. When we finally formed Silo last summer, we quarantined, sanitized, and hit the studio in our bandit masks. I imagine the other guys have similar stories with starting music, too. What’s really nice is that they’re all about five years older than me, so they’ve gone through the motions with other bands and projects, while this is my first professional undertaking in the music business. And as far as I know, Silo is the only music project that we are all currently working on, except for Eric, our producer, who produces a wide variety of music at his studio. In terms of who we’d like to play or tour with, there’s a wish list we’ve talked about. But cooler heads have suggested we stay in our lane and stick to the Metal circuit, because we’re probably too heavy for the rhinestones and tassels of Nashville. Slipknot or Avenged Sevenfold would be amazing, obviously.

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AD:  Interesting background. How did you meet the producer for your latest songs you’ve been recording?

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MC: Someone tipped us that there was this guy who might be interested in producing our “Hardcore Country” project. When everything checked out, we drove to the country. Eric’s studio is built in a barn, on a farm with goats and horses, and we knew we found a home out there. After the first few songs, and hiring Eric to play bass in the music videos, we finally realized that he just needed to be in the band.

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AD:  What is the last show you did, or live show online?  Any live things going on?

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MC: Silo hasn’t played a live show yet, other than our rehearsals and recording a few acoustic versions of our songs. Personally, I got kinda drunk last year for my birthday (two weeks into the shutdown), and I live-streamed a few hours of playing songs and singing for my friends and family. I remember the beginning of the show, but not the end. We’ve been monitoring everything with COVID-19 and re-openings across the country, to figure out what the best time to hit the road would be. Readers can go to www.silo.band/tour to select their closest city and give our team an idea of where we should tour.

 

AD: How is it going with shows ahead for the band?

 

MC: We’re in full-on promotional mode and ready to go. As more festivals and re-openings are being announced every day, we’re in the pre-production stages of piecing together a tour for possibly Fall 2021. T-shirts, anyone?

 

AD:  When do you drop an EP, or are you doing that soon?

 

MC:  We released the full-length “Glitter & Gold” album on February 14th, 2021, streaming and playing everywhere, and we’re already working on the second.

 

AD:  Well, I'm digging what I've heard. Keep it Hard Country, man. Thanks so much!  Can't wait to hear you guys live. 

 

MC: Thank you!

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INFO:

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https://silo.band/

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Readers can go to www.silo.band/tour

to select their closest city and give the band an idea of where you wanna see

them in your home town