It’s been 10 years since Canada’s Silverstein released their highly acclaimed album Discovering The Waterfont. To celebrate the anniversary they are headed down to Australia in May to perform the album in full. We had the chance to chat to vocalist Shane Told about the upcoming tour and the new album I Am Alive In Everything I Touch.

SCENEzine-
How has 2015 been for Silverstein so far?

Shane Told-
Best year of my life man. So far it’s just been awesome we kicked it off with the release of a brand new song from our upcoming record. We did a new video which was really well accepted by everybody. Then we went off on tour for the discovering the waterfront 10th anniversary tour so it’s been incredible.

SCENEzine-
The new album comes out in May can you tell us a bit about how it will sound and themes explored?

Shane Told-
Well we have released two songs already so I encourage people to check those out. One is called “Midwestern state of emergency” and the other is called “Milestone”. I think they are a pretty good indication of some of the more aggressive parts of the record. Over the years all Silverstein records have had a lot of diversity within the music. This new record is no exception. We have an acoustic song on there. We have kind of an ambient song then a couple of really fast ones, heavy songs and rock songs. So it’s a diverse record musically and in terms of subject matter I’d say that this record is for me the most personal lyrically. Being the principal lyricist it’s very personal for me and I’d say it’s a sad record. There’s a lot of darkness and sadness and references to death and the meaning of life in the record.

SCENEzine-
Can you tell us about the cover art for the new album?

Shane Told-
Yeah it’s done by the same artist that’s done all of our albums. His name is Martin Wittfooth. It’s kind of a cool story when we did our first album When Broken Is Easily Fixed we didn’t know what we were going to do for our cover art. At that time and I guess still today the style was very digital art very photo shopped kind of stuff. We wanted to do something more organic. So Josh had a friend who was an art student Martin Wittfooth they worked at the snowboard shop together. He was just a student back then but was really good at doing oil paintings. So we got him to paint the robot on When Broken Is Easily Fixed that was his first paid commission piece. Since that he has done all of our full length album covers and now he is a very successful artist living in New York city.

SCENEzine-
Does the art for the new album represent the songs?

Shane Told-
Yeah me and Martin have a repour now. Generally I send him some notes about the concept of the album. Then I send him some lyrics. He will come back to me saying when I read your lyrics this is what I picture in my head. Usually he is right on point, he just nails it. This time the juxtaposition of this grass field and the old monolithic building really captures the vibe of what we are trying to say in the record.

SCENEzine-
The video for Midwestern State of Emergency is incredible. Can you tell us about the shoot and how cold was that water?

Shane Told-
It was our first time working with the director Max Moore and he is fantastic. He is an awesome director, so professional but at the same time really chill and there’s a really good vibe on the set. We had a really fun time making the video. Until it came time to do the bathtub scene. The bathtub scene sucked. I ran the bath for myself so I was able to control the temperature of the water. But being in the bathtub with all of my clothes on sucked. Also having to put my head under water and getting it in my lungs sucked. I actually had just bought brand new black jeans and I hadn’t washed them yet. So when I went in the bathtub all of the dye was coming out into the water. Which was going into my mouth and lungs and that’s probably not very good for me.

SCENEzine-
Was it just shot in a house near where you live?

Shane Told-
Yeah it was in this Ukrainian guys house in Toronto he rented it to the film production company. It was an old house where this guy lived and kind of a weird environment but the video came out great.

SCENEzine-
Do you have more videos planned?

Shane Told-
Yes at least two more.

SCENEzine-
Where was the new album recorded? Was the band excited and inspired to record again?

Shane Told-
We recorded in a few different studios. The drums were done at a very famous studio called Metal works. The bulk of the record was done at a studio called the post office which is right near where I live so I could walk to the studio everyday. It was like a 5 minute walk, that was fantastic. We were really excited about the songs and the ideas and loved the fact we could record in Toronto instead of heading to California or somewhere else. Getting to record in our home of Toronto is inspiring in itself. Each of the songs is about another city. You’ll notice the first and last track are about Toronto but the other songs are all about different places. We actually got people from other cities to record the sounds of the city and send it to us. Then we incorporated that into the album. For example there is a song about Brooklyn New York and at one point you can hear the Brooklyn L train. There’s a song about Las Vegas and you can hear the Bellagio fountain at one point. Some interesting stuff like that made the record more inspiring.

SCENEzine-
Being that this is another concept album is this an album you had the idea for a long time ago?

Shane Told-
With the concept of the album it just kind of came to me. Over the 6 months prior to the writing process I kind of had the idea. With a concept it’s important you don’t force it. You shouldn’t try and write subject matter your not ready to jump into. You also shouldn’t force a concept on an album that doesn’t need one. This is our third concept record and now it feels second nature to us which is cool because it can be very difficult to write.

SCENEzine-
A lot of your lyrical themes are very relatable. Do you get many fans telling you that your songs help them through dark times?

Shane Told-
Yeah absolutely. Everyday someone will come up to me and say our music saved their life or got them through a hard time. I think it’s really amazing the power that music and words can have to people. A lot of times people feel alone and that’s what drives them to dark times. There was even times in my life when I was younger when I felt like music was all I had. Music understood me and it could relate to things that I was going through. The lyrics I was hearing it got me through things. For people to be able to say that about my songs it makes it inturn inspiring for me. There’s times on tour especially going to Australia when you’ve been travelling for like thirty hours exhausted and your wondering if it’s all worth it. But if I can save one life then all of the struggle and hard times that go along with doing what we do is worth it.

SCENEzine-
Your vocals are absolutely amazing. It’s so seamless how you go from clean to screams. Does that take a lot of vocal training & how do you look after your voice?

Shane Told-
I don’t really have any training at all other than 2-3 lessons I took later on after the band was established. And I didn’t learn much of anything from them. It is hard on the road to keep in great vocal shape, but mostly because of all the traveling, lack of sleep, etc. Also, doing what I do to my voice 250 days of the year can’t be good. But I’ve found the secret is to drink a ton of water, and stay away from smoking. Smoking kills me.

SCENEzine-
You are headed back to Australia soon to play Discovering The Waterfront in full. Does that album hold a special place for Silverstein?

Shane Told-
Yeah it really does. It’s our most popular album and our best selling record. For us it’s kind of like our first real record because our first album was recorded over bits and pieces in three years. So Discovering The Waterfront was the first time that we got in a room writing and recording over three months. We all moved to California and recorded.

It’s definitely a special record from a special time. When we play the songs on stage it brings us back to those times. There’s a influx of memories over the last ten years. It’s really cool to hear that fans have similar nostalgia about the record and share that with them.

SCENEzine-
“Smile In Your Sleep” is a personal favourite of ours. When you wrote that did you think you had something special?

Shane Told-
Yeah thank you. That song was one of the first songs to come out of the Discovering The Waterfront writing sessions. What actually happened was Neil had the tapping riff and I was like that’s really cool. Paul then came up with the drum beat to go over it then they repeated that a few times. I then said guys for the chorus we just need two chords E to C. We played it then right away it just got me going. The song was literally written in five minutes. That song came really quickly, it’s a simple song. We started playing it live before the record had come out at Warped tour and people were going crazy for it and they’d never heard it before. I knew right then that song was special. To this day it’s one of our biggest and it came from a few chords.

SCENEzine-
Do you have any fond memories from previous tours in Australia?

Shane Told-
Yeah man, we love Australia so much. I am sure every band from overseas says that but Australia is the best. You have this beautiful undisturbed natural place and you have such a cool chilled vibe. With music you guys just love it so much and don’t get tons of stuff coming through. So the audiences are very excited to see live music especially. The first time we were there we couldn’t believe our band had brought us that far from home and that people knew who we were and cared. Every time we go back we have so much fun.

SCENEzine-
Do you a favourite Australian beer?

Shane Told–
I haven’t had a lot that I really was too into to be honest, but I enjoy Fat Yak and the Cooper’s with the green label is decent too.

SCENEzine-
We were lucky enough to catch Silverstein playing Riot Fest Chicago last year. Did you guys enjoy playing that?

Shane Told-
We had a blast. Riot Fest is real special now. It was our first opportunity to do it and there was so many legendary bands playing. Even on our stage we were on two bands before Mineral. Our single biggest influence was Mineral when we started Silverstein. We went all the way to Chicago just for that one show it was awesome. I wish the weather was a little better because of the mud but it’s a great festival.

SCENEzine-
Since you guys are from Toronto I am guessing your big Toronto Maple Leafs ice hockey fans?

Shane Told-
Actually I’m the only one in the band that likes the Maple Leafs. Our guitar player Paul his family is from Montreal so he is a huge Montreal Canadians fan and he has somehow gotten my whole band to turn against me. It doesn’t hurt that Montreal are actually good and the Maple Leafs have sucked for the last fifty years.

SCENEzine-
There is some awesome acoustic versions of your songs recorded like “red light pledge” and “call it karma” do you guys ever get a chance to play acoustically live?

Shane Told-
The acoustic songs you’ve mentioned were done entirely by me. Most of the time when I recorded them the other band members weren’t even there. They were pretty much an after thought that the label asked us to do for b sides. Most of them were recorded in literally like half an hour. I am always surprised how stoked everyone is on them because they were so thrown together. We have done a few things acoustic live for example I’ve been playing “call it karma” and sometimes we will adapt it a little bit. For the most part we are not an acoustic band. There have been some original acoustic songs that have came out great though.

SCENEzine-
Do you ever play your version of Kanye West’s “Runaway” live?

Shane Told –
No we have never played it live. It was fun though. Fun in the studio to record. I can’t believe I said some of those words it’s pretty hilarious. Maybe one day we will play it live.

SCENEzine-
Silverstein have recently been announced as part of the 2015 Warped Tour. Is that exciting or a gruelling thing at the same time?

Shane Told-
Right now it’s exciting. I’m sure if you talk to me at the end of July I’ll be like get me the fuck out of here. That’s the way it is. Warped tour is very gruelling everyday the heat just crushes you. Some days it rains and also the walking between everything can be really far. It’s one of those weird things that when it’s over your so glad but about a month later you miss it and wish you could do it all over again. It’s so much fun hanging out with the other bands and the huge crowds are great but doing it for six or seven weeks it can really kick your ass.

SCENEzine-
When you guys hit Australia will we get to hear any new songs live?

Shane Told-
We will play a bunch of other stuff besides Discovering The Waterfont. We probably wont play a ton of new stuff because the album is coming out right after the tour. This tour is a celebration of Discovering The Waterfront mostly. Hopefully we can come back to Australia sooner than later and do another tour where we can play newer stuff.

SCENEzine–
Besides playing shows anything your keen to do when you get back to Australia?

Shane Told-
Well me and the Koala have become very close since I’ve held him everytime I’ve been here. This time I’m thinking about taking the next step… maybe a kiss.

SCENEzine-
Lastly do you have a message for your Australian fans who are excited to see you in May?

Shane Told-
Yeah I really want to say we are looking forward to seeing you as well. This tour is going to be insane and so much fun. Thank you for your support and make sure you check out the new record on May 19th. We currently have two new songs out so check them out before you come to the show.