Silverstein vocalist Shane Told is about to bring his solo project River Oaks to Australia for the first time. He will be touring alongside Hawthorne Heights, Mark Rose of Spitalfield and Australian’s own Sienna Skies. We were lucky enough to catch up with Shane to talk about Silverstein’s newest album Dead Reflection, the River Oaks Australian tour and his podcast Lead Singer Syndrome.

SCENEzine
Firstly how was Warped Tour this year?

Shane Told
Man it was hot (laughs) it was very hot and tiring that’s what I remember most but the shows were awesome. The crowds were awesome it was amazing.

SCENEzine
What was the GWAR on stage incident like to witness?

Shane Told
That was a lot of fun. It’s kind of funny with our band not being a band that would ever tour with GWAR we never expected that. The bass player for GWAR Beefcake the mighty he’s a big fan of our band. He said hey I want to come up and play some songs with you, can I kill Bill and take over on bass duties? So we said hell yeah! He went up and killed Bill and played two songs. He already knew how to play the songs so it was pretty cool, a lot of fun.

SCENEzine
Congrats on your newest album Dead Reflection it’s such an awesome album. We didn’t know how you were going to top I Am Alive In Everything I Touch but you guys definitely did. You must be stoked with the response from fans?

Shane Told
Thank you it’s been a really good response. People have been really excited about a lot of different songs. Sometimes you put out a record and you have one single or one lead track where you are like this song is killer and people are into that one song. With this record it’s twelve tracks and I’m hearing twelve different favourite songs. I think when you hear that it’s a good sign that it really is a strong record from start to finish. You mention I Am Alive In Everything I Touch I think that record and the record before This Is How The Wind Shifts we thought those were our two best records. So our goal was to try and top them. When the songs were in the early stages I wasn’t overly confident that we were going to be able to do that. Sometimes when you start writing a song you will say it’s a cool riff but I don’t know. You compare it to songs that are already finished it can be a bit daunting. So we pushed ourselves even harder and finally when we got the end result we were like oh shit this record is really great. It’s something special. I’m glad you think we topped it and we do too but it takes hard work.

SCENEzine
One of our favourite tracks from the album is “Afterglow” can you tell us a bit about that song?

Shane Told
That was kind of an interesting one because we had all these different riffs and parts of songs we were working on and that one to me was a little bit of the red headed step child of the songs. It was a lot more poppy and had that kind of driving pop punk thing. I don’t want to say I was scared of it but I wasn’t really sure about the song and what I was going to do over it. Once we started working on it in the studio and Paul Marc was kind of like this is what I’m thinking in my head humming. Once we did that then we realised hey maybe we should start this with the chorus with that being an intro. Once we had that figured out structurally the song then just worked. It’s one of my favourites too. It’s a lot different for our band we haven’t had a song that upbeat and poppy and almost happy maybe ever. It’s definitely top three from the album for me and a song people are really latching onto. I was randomly on our spotify account today and I see that it’s in the top five of our songs of all time right now. So that song is getting passed around a lot. I know it’s not summer in Australia right now but here it is and I think it’s a great summer track.

SCENEzine
Another song we keep coming back to is “Wake up” its quite a haunting track that you can really immerse yourself in. Is there a deeper meaning behind that song?

Shane Told
Well the whole record does follow a loose concept and it’s basically just about a real dark time that I was going through pretty much from when we were recording the record about a year before that. Basically I was in a real dark place to where I was beginning to not care what happened to me. When you start living like that basically just not giving a shit about yourself it can be scary. I think that song is sort of where I pull myself out. It’s like wake up, wake up, wake up there’s somebody calling. It’s kind of like that’s my wake up call. That was the wake up call that I needed with this record and writing the record actually helped me through it. It made me understand what was happening to me. We just felt like that was the track that really summed up the darkness of the record and the sadness of the record. We thought it was a great way to end it. In some ways you could look at it as a sad closing track but in some ways it’s actually really hopeful because it’s the track that says wake up you have to pull yourself out of this. No matter what you go through at the end of the day I think I’m a better person for it and I’m happier now than I’ve ever been. So that’s what we are trying to instil into the people that are going to hear this record and hopefully relate to it.

SCENEzine
Is it hard as a musician writing these songs then having to perform them live, does it trigger memories of dark places?

Shane Told
It does at first I think. Whenever you write something initially when you write those words on the page that’s when they mean the most. You read them back and as time goes on you sing them with emotion in the studio because they are something that means a lot to you. But over time the words take on less and less meaning and they become words. They become words you have to sing and notes you have to sing in key and things start to become a little more mechanical. For real a song like “My Heroine” when I wrote it that meant so much to me now that I’ve sang it like two thousand times I don’t evoke the same feeling as when I wrote it on the page for the first time. So when songs are newer you kind of do get a real emotional gravitation towards them where your like oh man I can picture where I was when I wrote this and what this is about. Then over time your in a live environment and people are drinking beer and pushing each other over. In that environment it’s not an emotional ride anymore like it is when I’m sitting on my couch depressed as all hell writing really heart wrenching lyrics to myself. So after a while they lose meaning that doesn’t mean they don’t mean anything at all anymore it’s just at that moment you don’t really think about it. It’s a much different vibe when your running around on stage from when your writing in your candle lit apartment or singing in a dark studio room.

SCENEzine
Considering these songs are deeply personal you weren’t tempted to save any of them to be used on future River Oaks tracks?

Shane Told
I take it as it comes. I’m not a saver. I’ve never been that way. If I write a song and it’s good and it works I use it I put it out. I’m not going to keep something around for years and years waiting for the perfect moment to unleash it. I just don’t think that’s an honest way to make music. So we went in and were going to record twelve songs and I knew it was going to be highly personal because of the journey that I had taken and that’s what I wrote for. When I do a record for River Oaks it will be highly personal at that moment. It’s hard for me to say now what that will be because I don’t know I haven’t written it. But I think that it’s always better to be current with what you are doing. I don’t want to bring back some poem I wrote ten years ago and put it out in a song because I doesn’t have any fucking meaning to me. The same way with when I do a podcast I record it and put it out right away I try to make things current.
I think that’s important. I don’t want to hear someone talking about something that happened years ago I want to hear what’s happening now. I think that is much more exciting and real.

SCENEzine
Can you tell us a little bit about the song “let you down” from River Oaks EP?

Shane Told
“Let you down” and the other songs on that record really are a snapshot of a time in my life when I was basically going from being a boy to becoming a man. Starting to realise I wasn’t a kid anymore. Starting to realise that the things I did and the actions that I took had real life adult consequences. When you figure that out in your life that things I do matter and you can’t just chalk it up to being a kid anymore, that’s a hard thing to swallow for some people. The realisation that I’m not a kid anymore and that there are consequences in this life. So that’s a big part of what those three songs on the River Oaks EP are about and it’s highly personal.

Shane Told
It’s so weird dude you’re right. I’ve done two solo tours they were both very short and I brought another person with me, my buddy Spencer. He helped me out with merch and setting up and we were there together in the van driving but this one I’m doing completely alone. So the idea of going it alone travelling twenty four hours to Australia is going to be weird to be there alone and doing it alone. Obviously what will help me through my loneliness is Hawthorne Heights are some of my best friends and Mark Rose is one of my best friends. I know the guys from Sienna Skies really well too so I’ll be surrounded by people that are friends and with Hawthorne Heights borderline family.
So yeah it was already strange just two of us being on tour but being alone is going to be really weird.

SCENEzine
Do you have a plan? Can people just yell out Silverstein songs for you to play?

Shane Told
I don’t know if somebody yells out a song and I can play it and I can dedicate the next three minutes to them what the hell sure. I’m all for off the cuff stuff I did a show in San Diego and I played five minutes of a Metallica acoustic medley. I didn’t plan on doing that. I know a bunch of Metallica riffs so I played a bunch. I think you never know what’s going to happen at my solo shows. That’s something I’m hoping people start to talk about because I think that’s exciting. When I’m playing with Silverstein and there’s four other guys on stage we have to have a game plan of what we are going to do and I can’t just go off and start playing something because the other guys might not know how to play it or aren’t ready. But when it’s just me all bets are off. I can say and do and play whatever the fuck I want and I will. For me it’s liberating and fun for the audience too. Never knowing what you can expect. I love changing the setlist with Silverstein when we were on Warped tour we tried to change the set everyday and that’s me that wanted to do that. So when it’s me playing solo that’s definitely something that I enjoy, switching it up and keeping it interesting. Especially now when all the setlists are up on the internet people will say oh this is what they are going to open with tomorrow then it’s like you know what maybe you’re wrong.

SCENEzine
You’ve come really far with your Lead Singer Syndrome podcast. Is your bucket list of people you’d love to interview getting smaller these days?

Shane Told
No I’d say if anything the opposite. I’ve seen the potential now. I’ve seen things grow and grow. My favourite band of all time is NOFX so when I started I’d say it would be great to have Fat Mike from NOFX but the guy doesn’t really do many interviews it’s probably never going to happen. Well it happened. I was like ok well if I can get somebody like that another one of my favourite bands is Refused and I got Dennis Lyxzén on my podcast. If that can happen then who else can I get. I think the sky is the limit and as this thing grows more and more people hear about it and enjoy it. I have a pretty good reputation with it so far too, people tell other bands I did this podcast and really enjoyed that interview. We are up to episode ninety so I’m getting onto almost two years of doing this. I’m constantly refining, trying to get better and more and more people are hearing about the show. It’s exciting for me and another one of my projects that I continue to work on.

SCENEzine
With the world sadly losing Chester Bennington recently through doing Lead Singer Syndrome has that taught you anything about singers personas on stage versus how completely different they may be off stage?

Shane Told
It’s a good question I think that one thing people often say when they listen to my show is a good example is Deryck from Sum 41. He came on and I said hey man how are you and he said I’m ok and was very meek and quite. Thirty minutes in he’s opened up and he would tell me anything. So I think people do end up opening up to me a lot. But I think that depression and suicidal thoughts are still things that people are embarrassed about and they shouldn’t be but they are. They don’t want to talk about it. Anybody needs to talk to somebody about it and get help for that stuff. These lead singers they open up to me I become friends with a lot of them and a lot of them do tell me their problems. Sometimes on the record, sometimes not. I’m there for people I’m a friend and I think they know that and that’s all I can really do and encourage them to take care. The Chester thing was just so shocking. Chris Cornell thing was shocking. The sad part is that there’s going to be more. It’s going to happen again.

SCENEzine
It must even get surreal sometimes having people approach you saying how your music or lyrics saved their life?

Shane Told
Well yeah everyday I hear that and I’m sure there’s some truth to it but I try to say to people look give yourself some credit too. You pulled yourself out of that situation, maybe I was there to hold your hand at some points but it was you and it’s going to be you moving forward so keep it up. I went through a pretty dark time also over the last year and I didn’t tell everyone I knew. I didn’t shout it from a mountain hey I’m not doing well I need help maybe I need to talk to somebody. I didn’t do that and I’m not a very mysterious private person I pretty much put myself out there. So if I was a private person it would be even harder for me. So I get it and I think with this whole topic which is becoming seemingly more and more talked about and I think that’s good. There’s a lot of organisations out there like hope for the day and Jake from August Burns Red has the Heart Support foundation. I think all these things are great and that musicians are helping others but they need to help themselves too. Hopefully that’s happening more and more.

SCENEzine
Lastly can you give us some insight into if Silverstein will head back to Australia and play some Dead Reflection tracks someday?

Shane Told
That’s the plan man. We are working on it right now. I’m going to come there and play some songs and I’ll be giving people a taste of Dead Reflection I’m sure. As well as some other Silverstein jams and of course a few River Oaks tracks. It’s going to be a great evening with a lot of great people and musicians.

(Interview by Christian Ross)