Silverstein
The Touring Tree
2007-12-20
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Though Silverstein’s aptly titled “Never Sleep Again Tour” with labelmates Hawthorne Heights is over and done, the mantra has seemed to stick. In the time since, the band has shot a video, ransacked Europe, hit their home turf (Canada) and adopted stomping grounds (the US) for a headlining tour and signed on to be one of the major attractions for both the Take Action! and Taste of Chaos Tours. This sort of sleepless lifestyle has definitely helped earn the band legions of loyal fans, proven by the ever-growing sales of their solid sophomore disc for Victory Records, Discovering the Waterfront, and, more tellingly, by the penchant said fans have shown for inscribing the band’s words and imagery into their own skin. Silverstein frontman Shane Told spent one of his free moments rapping to Synthesis about his band’s steady crawl towards success.
I was looking at your Web site today and saw the whole gallery of people with Silverstein tattoos. Is it weird to think that people are getting your words and your images permanently etched into their skin?
Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. The first time I saw a kid with a [Silverstein] tattoo it freaked me out, you know. But at the same time, it’s awesome to know somebody likes your band so much, and feels so emotionally attached that they want to put something on their body forever. That’s really cool.
You guys are doing both the Take Action! and the Taste of Chaos tours. Which one do you think suits you guys better?
Well I think the Taste of Chaos tour is right up our alley, in terms of the style of music that’s going on. It’s a tour geared exactly to what we do. But the Take Action! tour deals with an important issue that we sing about, so I think that they’re both really important tours and we’re really happy to be doing both of them.
Is that kind of a good feeling to be asked to go on two huge tours like this?
We used to struggle to get anything. We used to struggle to drive our shitty van around and play to 100 kids. So to be able to do this stuff is absolutely amazing.
So how did you guys get from driving around in a shitty van to where you are now?
I don’t know, it was very hard for us to even see. All we were doing was touring our asses off, driving around and, like I said, playing small shows. Then the shows just got bigger, and bigger bands wanted to take us on tour. It’s been the slowest progression. It wasn’t like one day we woke and we were huge. It was so over time, to the point where now we’re doing really well, and these tours are going to be huge.
Did you ever expect that you’d get to this point, playing such a hard-edged, heavier style of music?
No. Especially growing up and listening to hardcore bands or punk rocks bands where the biggest bands were stoked to be playing to 800 to 1000 kids—and those were the really big bands that I listened to. So it’s crazy to think that we’ve attained that now. It’s really weird. But at the same time, it’s awesome that so many people are so into it. I’m just really excited about everything.
You guys just shot a video for “Discovering the Waterfront.” What was that like?
It’s always a weird process making videos. It’s a process I don’t really like that much. This shoot was like an 18-hour day. You have to stand in the same place and do the same things you feel stupid doing over and over again. It’s just really tiring and you hear the same song over and over again all day. But they’re cool to watch.
I was looking at your Web site today and saw the whole gallery of people with Silverstein tattoos. Is it weird to think that people are getting your words and your images permanently etched into their skin?
Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. The first time I saw a kid with a [Silverstein] tattoo it freaked me out, you know. But at the same time, it’s awesome to know somebody likes your band so much, and feels so emotionally attached that they want to put something on their body forever. That’s really cool.
You guys are doing both the Take Action! and the Taste of Chaos tours. Which one do you think suits you guys better?
Well I think the Taste of Chaos tour is right up our alley, in terms of the style of music that’s going on. It’s a tour geared exactly to what we do. But the Take Action! tour deals with an important issue that we sing about, so I think that they’re both really important tours and we’re really happy to be doing both of them.
Is that kind of a good feeling to be asked to go on two huge tours like this?
We used to struggle to get anything. We used to struggle to drive our shitty van around and play to 100 kids. So to be able to do this stuff is absolutely amazing.
So how did you guys get from driving around in a shitty van to where you are now?
I don’t know, it was very hard for us to even see. All we were doing was touring our asses off, driving around and, like I said, playing small shows. Then the shows just got bigger, and bigger bands wanted to take us on tour. It’s been the slowest progression. It wasn’t like one day we woke and we were huge. It was so over time, to the point where now we’re doing really well, and these tours are going to be huge.
Did you ever expect that you’d get to this point, playing such a hard-edged, heavier style of music?
No. Especially growing up and listening to hardcore bands or punk rocks bands where the biggest bands were stoked to be playing to 800 to 1000 kids—and those were the really big bands that I listened to. So it’s crazy to think that we’ve attained that now. It’s really weird. But at the same time, it’s awesome that so many people are so into it. I’m just really excited about everything.
You guys just shot a video for “Discovering the Waterfront.” What was that like?
It’s always a weird process making videos. It’s a process I don’t really like that much. This shoot was like an 18-hour day. You have to stand in the same place and do the same things you feel stupid doing over and over again. It’s just really tiring and you hear the same song over and over again all day. But they’re cool to watch.
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