Silent Lions was one of the first bands we reviewed over at Under Bright Lights. Since then, we’ve formed a great relationship with Dean Tartaglia and Matt Klein. We’ve seen them perform multiple times, they gave us an early glimpse at their newest EP, The Compartments, along with their newest video for “Runnin’ Me Down“, and have introduced us to a few other talented musicians to review. When I talked to the guys after they opened up for Reignwolf a few weeks ago, we got to talking about their journey so far and what they’ve got planned for the next year. Aside from basically touring non-stop, they’ve started working on their first full length LP.
I was lucky enough to be able to talk to Tartaglia and Klein more formally about the band’s beginnings and their experience writing their first full length album together.
How did Silent Lions come into being?
Dean Tartaglia: Toledo is a pretty small and close knit scene, we played several shows together while we were coming up in other bands. We actually were in a local band called GOLD together before SiLi even played a show (Matt was just joining while I was on my way out, I played sax in GOLD). The concept for the band really took form while we were recording The Parliaments with the help of Zach Shipps, pushing us into a more experimental and less typical “rock band” set up. The both of us were writing more “atypical” pop songs leading up to playing together, figures it was only a matter of time before SiLi happened.
Matt Klein: Dean and I just happened to find the right moment in our schedules to start work on some song ideas together, which became our first EP The Parliaments. It seemed like a another project amongst all the others at the time, but quickly became our main focus once the recordings came together so well with Zach in the studio.
The sound you guys have is quite unique and clearly full of different influences. Did you talk about the sound you wanted to create before making music together or was it more of an organic experience?
Matt: The sound of what Silent Lions would be was still up in the air when we began recording. We knew we wanted the opposing qualities of being both ‘spacious’ and ‘dense’ though. We hadn’t played live yet, so we didn’t anticipate how much the vocal effects, sampler and octave bass playing would become part of our sound. Friends initally described the band as being ‘Dean’s dark-side’ when they first heard it. He had certainly never had the opportunity to write and record music like this, and had been thinking about it for a while. Heavy atmospherics and effects have often been a big part of bands I was in and my own recordings, so the focus of a two-piece was the draw for me.
Dean: Totally organic, and was definitely helped by Zach Shipp’s direction // suggestion. We discussed influences, pushed the soul aspect pretty heavily but a lot of the technological decisions were hit or miss, trial and error. However I think our sound has grown the most and continues to grow most on the road, which I think was a big part of why we spent 80 dates on the road promoting the new record. Gearing up to hit the studio for our first LP, we’ve got a pretty unique and substantial batch of songs ready to go.
The fact that you are a two piece definitely sets you apart from other up and coming bands, do you find it easier with just the two of you working together?
Dean: I think it is beneficial in multiple ways to just work with two people. More especially on the new record we’re working on, we are equal writing partners, and I think it gets trickier to work in that creative mind set with multiple people. With a lot of two pieces, instrumentation is dictated by lack of resources. I’ve always thought we are a full 180 on that concept; it has always just worked best with the two of us and we are pushing the limits of our multi-faceted instrumentation.
Matt: It’s an even bigger kind of challenge than I anticipated. Being just one in a group with four members quarters the responsibility evenly in a way that never seemed to overlap. Often there’s one person or duo with the driving vision and everything is structured to serve what they want to accomplish. Silent Lions is the both of us attacking writing and performing music in the most driven way either of us has attempted before.
We’ve gotten the challenge of ‘two dudes touring in a van’ pretty well down now. Keeping track of all our stuff, finding the energy for the long and alternatingly very busy and very boring days. The month-long tour for the release of The Compartments in the middle of January was certainly the toughest on us, but the shows were mostly really great and friends we made on the road helped us tough it out.
The most immediate and interesting challenge is one of songwriting. We both write songs or riffs individually and jam them out in the practice room until they take shape. Sometimes I can anticipate what Dean will do with something and can leave it deliberately vague for him to add the details. But often, one pushes the other in a new direction.
I know you guys are planning on your first full length LP, how is the writing process for this different than working on an EP? And is there anything that maybe you’ve been saving for full length album that you couldn’t do on an EP?
Dean: Now that we’ve had a couple months off the road to sit down and do some consistent writing, this effort finally feels like an equal parts 50/50 writing process. Both of our EP’s have a pretty good flow and direction to them, but now we have had more of a chance to push our music in every direction imaginable… Songs that tap into different elements of our sound, but in my opinion sound more like SiLi songs than the first two records had the time to. Not that The Parliaments wasn’t definitive, but with all the touring and growth since over the past 1.5 years, this effort by far feels even more definitive and focused as to where we are now. And with all the time we’ve put into the writing process, we’ve yet to even know what Zach is going to bring to the table as a producer, which always leaves our songs sounding stronger than we can imagine… OH and yes, as I’ve been telling everyone, a lot more sax than we’ve done before!
Matt: I’ve always preferred to put on record for a complete listen, rather than jumping artist to artist/song to song. I still buy CDs and records for that reason. We want to stretch our songwriting and vary the kinds of tracks to create an overall mood. My favorite records are all pop songs butted up against experiments and dressed up with a cohesive cinematic exterior. We’ve found the time between tours to write a mix of songs and now have enough experience with our instrumentation to be able to make it all work as a two-piece. Overall, we’ve talked a lot about what we want to accomplish: a variety of tracks, better intergration of the sampler, stronger mix of our both our vocal strengths, and having a refined version of what’s been called our ‘heavy soul’ sound.
Dean: That’s a great question that I’ve been thinking about a lot throughout this LP writing process. I don’t know if this is “atypical” but I always try to bring in my current influences that I feel most inspired by. I think when I first started writing songs as a teenager I was a little too “on the nose” with my personal influences (focusing too much on genre) but I’m more interested in harnessing a certain musical feel or emotion that is new and inspiring to me. As far as specifics lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Black Milk (MC from Detroit) and the Computer Ugly label, especially his new Glitches in the Break album which exemplifies new-experimental-soul. A lot of the Orchid Tapes artists have been a huge influences as well (R.L. Kelly, Alex G, Ricky Eat Acid, Infinity Crush) with their use of space/timing within their arrangements. Definitely worth checking out both!
Matt: The soundtracks of horror, sci-fi and suspense films I’ve watched my whole life have definitely informed the way I write songs. I often write with a pace of tension and release in mind. I’m always using the word ‘suspense’ when talking about the way one part of a song leads to the next. Even within the pop/rock song format, that’s the goal. My focus has always been less on technical complexities, which is what Dean is naturally much better at. But the details are what can make a deliberately repetitive piece find it’s ‘suspenseful dynamic’ without just getting loud all of a sudden. Not that we’re opposed to LOUD.
We’re both also very much into experimental and lo-fi music. Where sound fidelity or song structure isn’t the point, but again the ‘mood’ or overall feel of the song if you zoomed out is readily apparent, even if moment to moment there aren’t hooks or volume changes jumping out at you. I love the trance-like repetition of the drumming and drones of early 70’s Kraut rock, and it’s exciting to track how much bands like Neu! and Kraftwerk have influenced electronic music and ultimately hip-hop through the 80’s. The Flaming Lips are the best modern band who can combine innumerable influences into a great pop song, so they are definitely a big inspiration.
The sound created on your EPs is very intricate and seems very planned out. Having seen you several times live, I can attest to the fact that it sounds just as layered and complex as it does on the albums. Is that challenging to recreate?
Matt: It was definitely a challenge at first, but we’ve been playing enough now where it’s become second nature. It’s not our goal to write songs that sound like more than two people playing. Complexity for the sake of it. We just write the songs we want and go from there figuring out how to make them work. Live performance is always on our minds, but hasn’t limited what we want to do. Our recordings will always be more textured and detail-oriented than our live show, where things just get more slammin’ and boomy.
Dean: If it once was, it now seems very natural. And with these new songs there is less of a challenge of “how do we recreate this” because the songs are being written in more of a live sense. Being a trained classical musician, I’ve always felt like SiLi keeps that certain type of muscle memory well rehearsed. Sometimes people ask if I feel limited live. Sometimes I wish I could be fronting a RATM type band or something and not have any instruments to play lol… but then I release what we do is so unique in the fact that our live set is essentially limitless. I feel like we’ve only just scratched the surface.
Speaking of touring, you guys are on the road a lot. Are there any cities you particularly look forward to going to when you’re out? And are there any cities that you are looking to hit maybe on the next tour?
Dean: Oh man… I’m ready to head south and west, which I think will be a big part of our tour cycle in the next 12 months. Certain spots you just can’t beat, but a lot of our favorites like Charleston WV, Athens OH, Pittsburgh we won’t be hitting up again for a while. Really excited to do MI this summer, haven’t been up north since winter… Louisville should be really cool as well, playing with a great band called The Debauchees. Really looking forward to the fall when we have some music festivals booked, but more on that later…
Matt: We’re really excited about our ‘It Came From Detroit’ Summer Tour with The Hard Lessons and Ponyshow. It will be our first time at Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids and I also always love playing Quencher’s and seeing friends in Chicago.
The two of you work very well together especially during a live show. How much of this is just chemistry and how much is practicing together? It just seems to come very naturally to the two of you.
Matt: We do have periods of intense rehearsals, knocking ideas out in the room, then running them until things feel good or they don’t. Then there are long stretches of only playing live and do the same thing night to night, and if anything that’s when you really have the chance to connect musically and be the in same headspace. We’re both into to finding ways to keep our performances fresh to us and the crowds that have seen us more than once. Often that just means being really excited in the moment about playing music together and pacing our sets in a dynamic way with ups and downs, but no lulls. Except in the middle when I get to drink some water.
Dean: It’s practice up to a certain point; there’s only so much one can do playing for no one, you know? And we practice quite a lot, but I think it’s the inspiration to tour that builds on what we are doing on and off the stage. Simply put, it’s why we do what we do how we do !!
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Jessica also writes for the excellent Under Bright Lights.