SILENT ALLIANCE

OMB met up with Silent Alliance after their opening set on the Last.fm stage at Truck Fest 13. Up against considerable mooing from a nearby cow shed, we talked business cards, The Nolan Sisters & being the messiest band at the festival…

OMB: Hello Silent Alliance. Now I know you guys are based in London, hopefully not too blitzed from travelling. Have you been camping at Truck this year?

SIL: It’s been quite an experience so far. Everyone’s very clean here, and we’re not. Everyone’s got their own recycling bags whereas we seem to be surrounded by beer cans and takeaway containers.

OMB: That seems the best way to do it. Now, despite being based in London, you have been getting a good reception in Oxford so far.

SIL: Indeed. We played in Oxford for the first time towards the end of 2008 at the students union, and we were just blown away with how well they did the sound so we’ve been back five or six times since and every single time there’s been an amazing response. We actually met Rhys in Oxford, so we have the city to thank for getting us our bassist and musical engineer as he’s also responsible for how it sounds on record. He’s our pop-scientist.

OMB: So what are your thoughts on Truck so far?

SIL: So far it’s been awesome. The first band on were great.

OMB: (laughter) oh yes, Silent who?

SIL: We’d never heard of Truck before and when we saw something on Twitter saying that Mew was playing, who we really adore, we just really wanted to get in on the act. The atmosphere is also fantastic, we went round last night with business cards promoting our little set and the reception was just so warm, people really wanted to talk about it.

OMB: It really does share a similar vibe to a Glastonbury but obviously more condensed.

SIL: Yeah you’re the first person who’s said that to us but it really does ring true. We’ve all been to Reading a few times and it can get a bit raucous, this is just a little bit more chilled out, it’s a little bit more – dare I say it – appreciative, people seem to be more focussed and they’re really here to see the bands and hear the music rather than just get hammered.

OMB: Yeah, one of the problems with Reading is that with the organisers going for the more indie bands, there are still a lot of the regular punters looking back at the days of metal, and if you’re not metal and immediately raw then you can sometimes face a tough crowd. Whereas here there is the mix between punk, folk and bands like Mew.

SIL: What really struck me, walking around talking to people last night, was that most of the people we actually spoke to did turn up to watch us play. Not like London!

OMB: Being London based can be the best and worst thing for a band.

SIL: Luckily, we do have quite a busy gigging schedule, but the London crowd can be a bit more difficult, you need to put in a big effort to win them over. We do have quite a big following in London now through working hard at that aspect. It’s been a slow-burner, but when we released our first record about a year ago now I think that was the turning point, and the reception we got on the launch night was fantastic. Ever since then, we sell records at every gig we do, we’re getting bigger and bigger crowds and when you feel the momentum growing you respond to it by putting on better and better performances.

OMB: And what is next for Silent Alliance?

SIL: We’re recording an EP at the moment with brand new material. Working title is Girls. It’s probably going to be a mini-album about dancing. Simple as that. Think The Nolan Sisters. Hopefully we will combine the best of electronic dance with some kick-arse melodies and guitar riffs. The electronic scene at the moment is in a really good place, but with bands trying to combine electronic music with guitars, we feel that melodically you can fall a little bit short. Whereas we come from a New Order inspired kind of background, its very 80s guitar driven with a key-tar thrown in for good measure.

by Jack Olchawski, taken from oxfordmusicblog.co.uk