SILVERSTEIN // Concepts, Waterfronts & Everything I Touch

2015 is an exciting year for Silverstein. The veteran Canadians are celebrating the tenth anniversary of their second acclaimed record Discovering The Waterfront, and on 19 May eighth record I Am Alive In Everything I Touch sees release.

On the heels of their Australian tour, we chatted with the post-hardcore stalwarts’ vocalist Shane Told on the new, the old and how to write a concept record.

Hysteria: This year you’re celebrating the tenth anniversary of Discovering The Waterfront. How does it feel revisiting songs you haven’t played in years?

Shane: It’s been so rad man. When we were first planning the tour, we were really nervous just because it had been so long since we played some of them. Once we practiced them, it was just exciting and we remembered how fun it is to play them live.

Were there any songs you were hesitant about playing?

We’ve played all of the songs live before, so not really. Discovering The Waterfront is our second record, so when it came to filling out a headline set we effectively had to play 15-16 songs from a total of 21 in our entire discography at the time. So we’ve played them all, some more than others but none of them had us worried

You have a new record coming out the week after your Australian tour, can we expect to hear much of the new material whilst you’re here?

We’ll be playing at least one song from the new record, potentially two. The new record’s been finished for months and I’m itching to get it out.

You have a fairly long discography, what sets I Am Alive In Everything I Touch out from your other records?

When it comes to working on a new record, we don’t finish working on it until we’re really confident that it’ll be better than the previous one. I think for the most part, we have done that. This Is How The Wind Shifts was a big record for us, so following that up wasn’t easy. As a band’s discography grows, it gets harder to write new ideas but you just have to push yourselves and put in the time and effort. Every song on the new record is so different and so special, I can’t wait for people to hear it in full.

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“For us, we’re just proud of the fact that we’ve done this band for so long and that people still care about our music.”

[SHANE]

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The album is a concept album, tell us about it.

This will be our third concept record, and all three have been pretty different. The first one was like a movie, and the second one had a “What If?” theme, but this new album is more of a personal journey for me. It’s a record about getting older and growing up, about doing what I’ve been doing for how long I’ve been doing it. Each song has a different city associated with it, and each song has references to those cities.

As the band’s lyricist, what inspired you to write conceptually?

I think it was just me trying to push myself. It’s funny, when it comes to writing a concept album it is both easier and harder at the same time. When you’re writing 12 songs, you have to write 12 different themes to go with each song, and it can be really hard to find 12 things to write about at times. With a concept album you only have the one theme to worry about, but the hard part is tying it all together within the same concept and making it cohesive.

It must be a weird juxtaposition playing an album you wrote over ten years ago, when you have a new album that you’re busting at the seams to release.

I think it’s weirder in theory than in actuality. We’ve played new songs and old songs together, I just think that right now we’re playing a few more old songs than usual. For us, we’re just proud of the fact that we’ve done this band for so long and that people still care about our music. Our fanbase is still growing with each album, but we’ve also got the fans that’ve been with us since day one. It’s amazing that they all come together under one roof and support us.

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Catch Silverstein on their Australian Discovering the Waterfront tour with special guests Dream on, Dreamer & Young Lions – tix from Destroy All Lines