Silverbacks hope to climb up the food chain with new album
Silverbacks release Archive Material on January 21. Picture: Róisín Murphy O'Sullivan
Two years on from the initial mentions of Covid-19 and coronavirus, do you wish you had been more productive, used the downtime more wisely? Silverbacks certainly did. “We wanted to get a second album out during the pandemic or have it recorded in the pandemic,” frontman and guitarist Daniel O’Kelly tells me over Zoom from his apartment near Gare du Nord in Paris, where he headed in winter 2020.
A five-piece whose remaining members - brother Killian, bassist Emma O’Hanlon, guitarist Peadar Kearney, and drummer Gary Wickham - are spread out over Kildare and Dublin, Silverbacks released their debut album Fad in summer 2020. Its Pavement-esque guitars and sardonic lyrics made them favourites of US music sites in particular. The follow-up, Archive Material, arrives on January 21 via UK label Full Time Hobby, home to cult favourites like Malcolm Middleton and the hotly tipped Squirrel Flower.
A second album arriving some 18 months or so after the debut is quite the work ethic - but wait, did O’Kelly say they wanted to get it out during the pandemic!? “This is gonna come across a little sadistic, so sorry about that, but we saw it as like an opportunity to capture the moment,” he explains, adding that it was a chance to “tell our story of what it was like, for us, to experience the pandemic and to see how others lived it. And to make it our own little artifact of history.”
Hence the album title, then. And Covid is a clear theme running through Archive Material. On the anthem-in-waiting of ‘A Job Worth Something’, O’Kelly evokes scenes of the pandemic, while reflecting on working in insurance while his sister treated patients on a Covid ward. They say that ‘Different Kind Of Holiday’ was inspired by the ways in which previously uncommunicative neighbours bonded with each other during periods of enforced confinement.
But obviously Silverbacks don’t want the pandemic purgatory to go on forever. They’ve seen tours cancelled, opportunities lost, and, well, had to release two albums in not ideal circumstances. How does O’Kelly feel looking back on Fad? Is he regretful about what could have been?
“The thing with Fad was that we were really surprised by how it was received and how many people actually bought the vinyl. So I would say that's a good metric to go by, if people actually buy your stuff, rather than stream it on Spotify.”
While Fad saw Silverbacks nominated for the Choice Prize, ultimately claimed by the unstoppable Denise Chaila, it always seemed like they’ve made better inroads outside of Ireland, for some reason. BBC 6 Music have playlisted the rollicking ‘Rolodex City’, while US sites like Sterogum, speaking of another single, said “‘Wear My Medals’ is also the sort of propulsive, infectious track Silverbacks excel at”.
Gilla Band bassist Daniel Fox, gaining a burgeoning reputation for his production work, has recorded both Silverbacks albums, and offered them advice on touring Britain. “They got noticed in the UK way before they got noticed in Ireland,” says O’Kelly.
“I think in our case, I don't know why Ireland was a little slower to get into us or start listening to Silverbacks. We always seem to get a lot of interest from the States and the UK, but it wasn't intentional. It's just how it went. Maybe a part of it is that none of us were from Dublin so we didn't really have much of a network to meet the right people and know-how to get it going.”
As for Archive Material, O’Kelly says he’s nervous about its release and is tempering expectations. “If it was well received and that led to tours to bigger audiences, that would be more than enough for myself. And I think the lads as well. I think if it puts us in a nice position to record album three and be a little more ambitious with what we do with that, that would be great.”
Let’s all hope said third album doesn’t get released during the pandemic, though.
Archive Material is out via Full Time Hobby on January 21.
Silverbacks.bandcamp.com
Daniel O’Kelly’s lyrics are the standout feature on Archive Material, and while he says “a lot of the stuff that I'm writing now is more inspired by Paris” (the visible poverty and unavoidable hardship on the streets rather than any French cliches), he offers up a top tip for budding writers.
“I just have a WhatsApp group with myself. And anytime I have a little idea, or I hear something that's interesting, I just message it to myself. And what's great is that you can take photos of things that you think might be a good idea for a song. And also vocal recordings, if you hear something that's interesting, or I think of a random melody - that was one great thing about pandemic, you could talk to yourself in the mask, no one knows it was you.”
He says he had tried other, more classic note-taking ideas before figuring out how to set up a WhatsApp group with himself. “in most cases, it comes a little easier. I tried the classic broken poet notepad in your little sleeve pocket, but apart from feeling like a bit of a dickhead, I also just kept on losing them, or not having a pen or something.”
