NARRATIVE OF SOUL AGAINST SOUL

• Two chapters worth of book assignments and worksheets for math
• Poetry presentation; I have to read and analyze a poem in front of the class
• Some computer tech written assignment

All that math really piled up.

propertyofzack:

Silverstein are out on tour with August Burns Red, but PropertyOfZack recently had the chance to catch up with Paul from the band for a great interview. Paul and I discussed Short Songs, the shift in nature from writing for a full-length to a project like Short Songs, Hopeless Records, touring, releasing material again sooner than later, and much more. Read up and enjoy!

For the record, can state your name and role in Silverstein?
My name’s Paul and I play drums in the band Silverstein.

So, back in October you guys announced this whole short songs concept, but when did you guys start thinking about doing it?
It was kind of like production over last summer in 2011. It kind of extended from our record store day 7”, which came out in April. It was like “Friday” was our single the artist from rescue. And then side view, we decided to through repo covers, which we had to create under 4 minutes, so we picked short songs. So we picked, “Call to Gandhi”, “Kid Dynamite”, and “American Nightmare”. Together those three songs were under three minutes. So we kind of got it from the mindset of that the whole thing, plus we were starting to play those songs live cause we could just through it in the set. Its not super long, you know for the kids that are at the shows who don’t know the cover, it’s over in less than a minute. It keeps it moving but it’s also fun for us and some of the people. We just recorded a lot of music last year, we did Rescue and the Transitions EP, the Record Store Day 7” and we did a couple covers. We were just in the studio a lot and enjoyed being creative again and the freedom to do it. We were initially like, “Let’s do an EP. Let’s do a little short song EP.” And as we wrote it, it came out to be a lot bigger project than we anticipated.

Yeah, this is a really big project with 22 songs. So you guys originally wanted to do an EP but when you realized that you wanted to turn it into this big thing, did it take a little while to just get that into motion, just because it obviously had to be a bigger undertaking?
Yeah. I think what we wanted to do was give it a good value to people. We were inspired. We didn’t just write songs to pick up writing, like we just wrote them all. And then, I think we thought about “Well lets limit it or just pick a couple” and then we said “No, let’s make it a valuable product so that people will pick it up and have something to listen to.” It’s still like, 20 minutes and there’s a lot of peaks and value. It’s up and down. I really feel like it’s interesting. Originally, I think it was supposed to be a five song EP, but it would have been over in probably like three minutes. It would have been cool, but I feel like we took it a lot further. The originals came together really quickly and we were really inspired. We were writing and we took a moment to sit down and talk. We said, “Well, let’s just go nuts and let’s do 22 tracks. Why not?” I’m super happy that we did.

Like you said you’ve record so much this year and you’ve done covers before, but was it like a freeing experience? I mean it was literally on a whim, it’s not like you planned out recording your album in October from a year ago. Was it just kind of freeing to just know what you want to do and do it?
Yeah. I think there’s two parts to it. It’s just like saying, “Yeah, we’re going to do it.” We were supposed to be on tour and that sort of fell through. So that opened up some free time and it was too short notice to book anything else. I think that was part of it too because when the tour was booked, we were going to have a lot less time to write and record. And when that fell through, we ended gaining a few extra weeks, which was super beneficial in the end. I feel now – and I think it’s something a lot of musicians come to realize – when you kind of set a concept, whether it‘s thematic or lyrical, but you set that point. You say, “That’s the concept that we’re working to.” So whenever you do things, you relate to that point. I feel it’s a lot easier to just go and do it. Like when we did our concept of Shipwreck in the Sand, it was easy but it was also just really fun and creative. Because you were constantly like, “What’s the focus? What’s the goal?” and you relate back to that and it just lets you be free. And just do what you need to do. And I think you have a better result when music has a concept like that.

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Call to Gandhi? Hahahahaha