SILENT PLANET // Garrett Russell On What Shaped 'Iridescent'

At the end of 2019, Silent Planet bowed out of their European tour with Northlane, citing vocalist Garrett Russell’s need to focus on his mental health.

MORE: BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE: Building A Metal Legacy // DREAM THEATER: The Perfect Playlist For a Dream Theater Beginner REVIEWS: ICE NINE KILLS: The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood // CRADLE OF FILTH: Existence Is Futile // KNOCKED LOOSE: A Rear In The Fabric Of Life // EVERY TIME I DIE: Radicals // DON BROCO: Amazing Things // BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE: Bullet For My Valentine // MASTODON: Hushed and Grim

It was a decision that ultimately led to the birth of Iridescent, a vulnerable and emotional LP heavily influenced by Russell’s stay in a mental hospital. On top of this, it gave the band’s long lauded brand of meaningful metalcore a more personal edge. We caught up with Russell to chat about this, how the record came together and more.

Hysteria: Silent Planet’s never shied away from personal, yet thought-provoking, lyricism and this new record is no exception. So when it came to putting pen to paper, how’d you decide what to touch on?

Garrett: That’s a good question. My initial plan for this album was a bunch of different concepts. Usually, it’s kind of outside of my own experience and about other perspectives. But, I had a bit of a mental breakdown in 2019. And I just kept coming back to it, realising that I needed to talk about that whole experience and everything that went into what was going on in my head at that time. As much as I try to avoid it, I basically had to write about this 24 hour period of my life where I just watched a lot of my mental well being and sanity fall apart and lost myself. And what I learned from that was the love of my friends, bandmates, family, and probably above all, my puppy. It showed me what love could look like when you’re going through a bit of a hell.

Animals get you through everything, hey?

Yeah, they do. And the interesting thing about my relationship with my dog. A lot of it was also the loss because I found out she was terminally ill pretty early into having her. So it quickly went from this new life, to grieving, but also celebrating her and just being so thankful for the time we had. She had these really interesting eyes that looked like a lot of colours at once. They had this iridescence. So I guess that’s one of the reasons Iridescent made sense for an album title.

That’s beautiful. You know, you’ve made no secret of your stay in a mental hospital in the pressers and everything. It’s such an important topic for people to be talking about, and it’s not covered as much as it should be. So was it scary to put yourself out there like that?

Yeah, I think it was. Well, the scary part was, after that all happened, we hopped off a tour in Europe and lost $80,000 and kind of kissed goodbye to what we thought was our hope of being able to continue as a band financially. I felt like I had to tell people why we’d hopped off the shows. And that was hard for me because we’d played thousands of shows around the world and have never cancelled. So that was something that I had a lot of guilt and shame about.

Telling people what was going on was also a bit of a scary thing. But I think because I had already done that, when I went into the mental hospital, and I told people where I was going and why I’d be disappearing, that made it easier to do this in a musical format. If anything, it was liberating to talk about it through music. You can express a lot of emotions with sound and notes, and maybe just writing out the words doesn’t quite feel the same sometimes.

And I just kept coming back to it, realising that I needed to talk about that whole experience and everything that went into what was going on in my head at that time.
[ Garrett Russell ]

You’ve spoken about wanting fans to understand this record as a whole. So is there an overarching concept or theme that you’re really hoping they’ll be able to grasp?

Yeah, I mean, literally and specifically, I’d say what going crazy and going through treatment, and everything felt like for me, I guess that’s it in a very basic surface level nutshell. But I think in a general sense, with any of our songs we’ve done in the past, I hope people can feel seen and identified. And that they can find a way to voice certain emotions that they’re experiencing, especially people working through depression, anxiety or trying different forms of chemical treatment for mental disorders.

Onto the recording process of Iridescent. Tell us about how it differed from past LPs?

We did the previous couple in New Jersey, and this time we did it in Los Angeles, where we already had lived. And during that, COVID was going on. Obviously, it was in full effect in June of 2020. And then the city had imposed a lot of curfews, and stuff with the Black Lives Matter protests and the way that police were handling it and just a lot of other things that were happening. You know, very important discussions were being had, and I’m so glad that so many people got out to the streets and expressed a need for accountability and reform. I remember a lot of days; we’d have to leave the studio after like, only two or three hours because we’d find out about some curfew. I remember attending a demonstration, which really expanded my mind into stuff that would be spoken about on this album. I think that our surroundings had a pretty huge influence on the material.

Do you have any favourite tracks from the record?

For me, probably the final track Iridescent. It hit really close to home. I was in the studio, and I had my puppy with me, and a lot of the lyrics were about saying goodbye to her. I knew that by the time the album came out that she would have passed already. She was on her last legs, so that was a very emotional experience, writing and recording it next to her and knowing this time would come. I guess part of the reason I like it is that it makes me feel so close to her still.

What do the next few months look like for Silent Planet?

Yeah, we are working and writing new music. We’re doing a CD release show in LA. That’ll be really fun and has just a bunch of bands that we’ve been buddies with for, you know, the last ten years. We’ll also be joined by a new artist that’s inspired us a lot. We’re excited about that. We plan to do some touring in early 2022 in North America, and hopefully, we get to come back to Australia and get over to Europe and, who knows, maybe even see new places in Africa and Asia. That’s definitely a big hope and a big dream of ours. To be able to get out there again. It’s been two years now, thanks to COVID, that we’ve been able to be international, so I hope we get to get back out there.