The Silvers

 

The Silvers is captivating audiences with originality, a distinct musical style and edgy pop production, on full display in the new radio single 'Stand Up'. We wanted to find out what drives this dedicated artist to push the limits of the genre.

You can generally tell when an artist is ready for the next stage of their career. It shows up in timing and tonal certainties, and there's a sense of conviction that just can't be faked. The Silvers's catchy new track 'Stand Up' has that audible conviction, but its sheer inventiveness and mainstream digestibility fulfill the other half of the equation that determines who gets radio time and who goes home unheard. It also doesn't hurt that The Silvers was the recipient of the Akademia Music Award for Best Pop Song on May 15, 2020. Independent reporter Andrew Brooks recently caught up with The Silvers to talk about the new single and the obvious passion for fundamentally original pop music that gave rise to it.

ANDREW: What drew you to the music business?
THE SILVERS: Every one of us will agree that seeing and hearing music that we liked as kids got us interested in trying to recreate those sounds. Carl Upthegrove started playing drums at family gatherings and in school bands. Steve Farac began on the accordion and graduated to guitar and keyboards. Dain Bedford-Pugh grew up in London, England and started playing when he was 15 on an old acoustic guitar. Mick Orton got the bug when he first heard the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, and his sister convinced him to buy a cheap 6 string electric guitar and amp from a discount store. He switched to bass after he found everyone he knew already played guitar.

ANDREW: How would you describe your sound on your latest single 'Stand Up'?
THE SILVERS: Up until this point, the Silvers have stuck to what is now called the retro rock sound but decided to try for something a little different this time. We were getting tired of hearing a lot of the new "POP" music and thought this song would be a good departure. It was written while Mick was on a trip to Palm Desert and recorded on his laptop. Then when he got home he collaborated with original Silvers member, Tom Kelley to write the lyrics.

ANDREW: What inspired the name of your new single?
THE SILVERS: We wanted to focus on something positive. Right now there is a lot of diviciveness in the world, so the idea was to create a sort of anthem for standing up peacefully for what is right and just.

ANDREW: What’s the biggest problem you’ve had to overcome so far?
THE SILVERS: Of course, like everyone, we have had to wrestle with the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges that brought with trying to get together and rehearse before going into the studio. But with a little ingenuity we were able to get the song down in a couple of rehearsals and then found a studio that was able to accommodate a recording session. Now the big problem is finding venues where we can perform.

ANDREW: What do you enjoy most about being a musician? What do you enjoy least?
THE SILVERS: We all like the reaction from an appreciative audience. We also like taking a rough demo and turning it into a really nice finished product. As of this writing we do not have any roadies so moving equipment is a drag!

 

ANDREW: If you could change anything about the music industry, what would it be?
THE SILVERS: We would like to see more opportunities for indie artists to break into the big time. For us it has been a frustrating road. Please realize that we have been releasing two albums a year since 2016. That's one 14 song LP and one 6 song EP every year until this year, 2020. That's a lot of original music, and we have 12 more songs in demo form that could be released whenever we can get back into the studio. What would be nice is if big groups or artists, the ones who have already succeeded, would help the new acts to break into the music industry.

ANDREW: How long have you been in the music business and how did you get started?
THE SILVERS: Mick started playing professionally back in 1966 in little bands until he got his break to join a recording band, The Contents Are: back in Davenport, Iowa in 1968. Then he went on to join Silver Laughter in 1974 and toured the Midwest and Canada until 1979, releasing two albums and finally being inducted into the Iowa R&R Hall of Fame in 2014. Dain's our youngest member, and he started playing in the 1990's. Steve started on accordion playing for relatives at family functions at a very young age before playing professionally, and Carl started in school as a youngster. All of our histories are on our website www.thesilversmusic.com on the About Us link.

ANDREW: If you could be any animal in the world, what animal would you be and why?
THE SILVERS: Mick would love to come back as his own dog. Bo (short fo Bowie) gets treated really well, and he has even been induded in most of the Silvers videos. Carl says he'd choose octopus as those extra 4 limbs would help play his drums! Dain says he'd choose to be a honey badger because they're tough, determined, and don't take guff from anything! Steve? Steve IS an animal and has several dogs and cats so he's probably just fine being a human!

ANDREW: When do your musical ideas come to you?
THE SILVERS: Since so far Mick has been the main song writer, the ideas come in all sorts of ways. One of our songs, NOTHING LASTS FOREVER on our RUSHMORE album came to him while walking the local golf course. He had to grab his phone and quickly record the melody lest he forget it. STAND UP was inspired during a trip to the pool in Palm Desert. He hummed into a little handheld recorder until he could get back to the room and play guitar to it to record on his computer. So they come just about anytime and anywhere. The trick is to be able to catch them when they do.

ANDREW: Which song did you have the most trouble writing and why?
THE SILVERS: Mick speaking, "I wouldn't say I have trouble writing as much as it's more like finding the right chords for the right spot in the song. That's the challenge. Melodies are really important to the Silvers as are our harmonies. So there is always a challenge to each and every song at one point or another. Sometimes I just doodle on my Stratocaster until I make a mistake and think, hey, that sounds good. Do it again!"

ANDREW: What city would you most like to perform at while on tour?
THE SILVERS: Right now we are focused on just playing locally. We think the San Francisco Bay Area gives us a wonderful opportunity to play a lot of venues so we are not envious of playing other big cities right now.

ANDREW: What's next for you as a musician that fans can look forward to?
THE SILVERS: We continue to have our animated video adventures made and posted on Youtube for SILVERS SURF CITY. Our animation team of Randyl Bishop in Atlanta and Juan Carlos Quattordio in Argentina are constantly developing stories around the Silvers' adventures so we always have a fun presentation to go along with our music. Our two newest songs, STAND UP and STAY WITH ME were also developed in "live" Zoom video format by our guitarist, Dain. And both songs are also featured in upcoming cartoon adventures as well. We are looking forward to finally getting to go into the studio and finishing recording the other songs on our newest album as well as going live for performing.

ANDREW: Interesting! It's been great speaking with you! Thank you for your candid answers and I can't wait to hear what’s next in your music career.

https://www.theakademia.com/artistkit/TheSilvers-StandUp.html

http://www.thesilversmusic.com

https://www.facebook.com/thesilversmusic

https://www.twitter.com/thesilversmusic

https://www.youtube.com/thesilversmusic/videos

https://youtu.be/QgyBDU1xW6w