Silver
Dirt
Switzerland is well known
for many bands and of course for Celtic Frost. Silver Dirt, comes from
this country and they have their own vision of rock music. Read the very
interesting conversation that we had with their singer before a few days
for their debut album and some other things.
1. Hi Silver Steff! How are the things
in Switzerland?
Very well, we just had a show with Gilby Clarke,
ex Guns 'n' Roses guitar player last Sunday, and it was a blast, the guy
is so cool, he even watched some songs of our show and liked it!! Our album
'Sonic Boom' is now available in the whole Switzerland, we have gigs coming
our way, radio interviews, good album reviews, not only in Switzerland,
so it's alright!
2. Since this is our first interview, give
us a few details of your career so far.
Well, Silver Dirt started in November 2004,
I have to say that when I joined the band, they were a Led Zeppelin cover
band, then very quickly, we saw that we had the same influences, we liked
the same bands, so I pushed them to start composing, just to see what would
happen, and 4 month later we had 10 songs ready, did a demo, and played
our first gig!! Then after a few gigs, and some good worldwide reviews
of the demo, we said, it's motivating so let's record an album! As you
can see we don’t like to waste our time in Silver Dirt!!
3. Before a few weeks you released your debut
album. Can you inform us how the recording sessions of this album were?
We went in Seynod, France with an old rocker
named Jean Cataldo who was friend with people like Johnny Thunders of The
New York Dolls, and a great fan of Garage Rock, so we thought he was the
right guy, and we were right! So we recorded 'Sonic Boom' in 7 days of
long drinking nights, lots of work and fun, and mixed it in 4 days, when
you play real rock' n' roll, it doesn't make sense to spend too much time
in a recording studio.
4. Many bands need a lot of time in order to
have their debut album and you recorded it only two years after the creation
of this band. Do you believe that it was the “right” decision to record
now the album or maybe you should wait a little bit longer in order to
be more well known in the underground rock scene?
I don't believe in playing endlessly in the
underground with only a demo, with the internet thing is going faster and
if you get lucky, you win the jackpot. I know many bands here that are
playing the same concert places over and over, and they don't have more
fans, they never play out of Geneva, or once in a year since like 5 years
or so. Look what we've done in 2 years! 1 demo, 1 album, a song on a Glam
Rock compilation asked by a US label named Peris Record, opening for Brides
of Destruction and Gilby Clarke, and we just got selected through the best
Swiss Rock/Hard/Heavy bands to play the final of the Swiss Metal Battle
that can lead us to play at the Wacken Open Air and get a record deal...if
we win I believe we did the right thing, we want to do it the American
way, all or nothing.
5. So my wishes to win and go to Wacken this
year but you have chosen a simple cover, a photo from the band Why did
you do that?
Because nobody does it anymore, and we wanted
the people to know what to expect with this record just with the cover,
and I think the cover says it all. And to please our egos too, of
course ha ha ha!!!
6. Do you like the description “Glam Rock”
for your music?
Mmmh, I don't think we are a glam rock band
100%. We have glam elements for sure, but bluesy punk rock
and garage elements too, and that mixing makes the Sleaze Rock, so that's
the style of music we play.
7. How are the reactions so far from the press
and the fans for your debut album?
Very good to be honest, we are very happy
about it, the worldwide reviews are all good, check them on the net, the
fans like the album, they like the live feeling of it. We gave 200% of
ourselves during the recording and I believe it shows on the final result,
but what's your opinion of 'Sonic Boom' ?
8. Next question please (laughing). Do you
believe that with this album you could find a label in order to help you
more with your career?
We're talking with managers at the moment,
we didn't send albums to record companies yet, we waited reviews for that,
to put them with our press book, but we're confident, and anyway, we'll
record the next album at the end of 2006. We're here for the long ride,
this album is to establish our name in the rock scene, and I think that
serious things will start in 2007, but it can happen before, you never
know!
9. You come from Switzerland. What is your
opinion about the rock / metal scene in your country?
The thing is that there are 3 languages here
and each part of the country has their favourite styles. The French part,
from where we come, are more Modern Metal and Hardcore, the German part
more into traditional metal, 80's bands, glam and sleaze rock and the Italian
part... I don’t know hahaha!! But it's not easy here to have gigs, you
spend lot of time on the phone, even with a national release! Hopefully
there's nice people like Hägard from the Rock City club in Zurich
that gave us a chance with the opening of Brides Of Destruction last December
and offered us the Gilby Clarke Gig this month, but things are going better...after
a lot of work!
10. New album for Celtic Frost, new live album
from Gotthard a lot of bands in the modern metal movement. So, do you believe
that Switzerland is the new “power” in the heavy music scene?
There's bands like Shakra and Pure Inc
too. Well, I don't know if you can place them in the 'metal' movement,
Celtic Frost and Samaël are really metal, but in a large view
it's not often that a Swiss band comes out of Switzerland, some say every
ten years, first Krokus, then Gotthard, then Shakra, Pure Inc and...Us
who are in the same 2 years of time together!! We have good bands in Switzerland,
but managers don't have any bargain power or strong contacts in the music
business.
11. So how is the feeling when you are a young
band to open for well known bands? Did you get some useful tips from the
bands that you played as the support act?
Yeah, we are very lucky, because it was a
musician to musician contact and those 'rockstars' were in fact very nice
to us, it seems that's the people around them that are assholes. But we
had cool conversations, and you always learn about bands like these.
12. Thank you very much for your time and close
the interview with a wish to your band.
First of all I want to thank you for the interest
you've shown toward Silver Dirt and for this cool interview. Then I'd like
to tell people that don’t know us, to go to our website www.silverdirt.com
and take a look, listen to our music, and send an e-mail if you like what
you’ve seen and heard, the e-mail address is mine, so it'll be a pleasure
to answer you. See you soon somewhere, sometime.
Antonis Maglaras
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