Silent Planet recently signed with Solid State Records, adding to their already stellar lineup of bands including: Fit for a King, Demon Hunter, Emery and August Burns Red.
The band toured for all of November on their first headliner, in support of their debut album, “The Night God Slept.”
The band, from different parts of the globe, consists of: drummer Alex Camarena, bassist Thomas Freckleton, vocalist Garrett Russell, and guitarists Mitchell Stark and Igor Efimov.
Their newly released album has been getting positive reviews from fans and critics. Lead singer Russell also gives an in-depth look on what fans should take away with hearing the album.
“It seems to be making the impact we hoped it would,” said Russell. “I think that people that don’t consider themselves metalcore fans, even if it gets classified in the metalcore genre, people that are not into stock metalcore, are finding themselves enjoying it. That’s what we like to hear.
I’d love for people to be offended and to have their ideologies challenged. I’d like for people to think subversively and to hear stories of people who did the right thing in very, very wrong situations.”
It is now the time of the season to give and to be thankful. The Silent Planet vocalist talks about what he is thankful for and what he hopes the band will give to its fans in the future.
“I’m so thankful, knowing you can be a part of someone’s life that you don’t know and vice versa,” said Russell. “It means a lot. Music is such a gift and I think it’s a language that goes across cultural, religious and psychological boundaries.
“We want to give a lot of material. Not just musical material, but whether it’s new ways to do band merch, music videos, creating visual art or finding news ways to do relationships on the road. I think we would like to be creative in every aspect, not just the traditional band aspect.
Bassist Freckleton also talked about what he was thankful for.
“I’m really thankful to be alive and getting to do what we do,” said Freckleton. “Anytime we’re on and off tour, just living life and trying to become a better person. [I’m] thankful for God’s grace [and] his love on us. No matter how much we screw that up or whatever or misplace it somewhere. [It’s] something to be really passionate and thankful for.
Unfortunately, the band couldn’t be home for Thanksgiving being in the midst of their tour, but that didn’t stop them from being with the ones that they’re thankful for.
“We drove from Dallas, Texas to Los Angeles,” said Freckleton. “It ended up being a 23, 24-hour drive. We got to eat good old Denny’s, outside of Dallas with our good buddies, Prepared Like a Bride. They’re an Australian band. It was their first Thanksgiving over here in America and we just had a really blessed time eating with those dudes. We’ve been really fortunate to be able to hang out with those guys. It was overall a good Thanksgiving.
For those unaware of their band name origin, it came from a well-known novel writer.
“Silent Planet’s first drummer was a big fan of the C.S. Lewis’ The Space trilogy,” said current drummer Camarena. “The first book is called ‘Out of the Silent Planet.’”
Silent Planet actually has one more member of the band, who does not tour, but is still an intricate part of the team. He was a big help with the band’s first album.
“The album was written over, from what I believe, a period of about two years or like a year and a half primarily musically written by our other member Spencer [Keene], who just isn’t touring, but [is] still part of the group,” said Stark. “It was before Igor and I came along. It took quite a while, but I believe sometime around April or May of this year the album score was finally reaching completion. It was mostly Spencer just writing stuff and then he sent it to Garrett to vocalize.
Since Silent Planet is still relatively new to many, Stark talked about what one can expect from one of their live performances.
“More than anything live, we just try to convey the same visceral quality that I think the music has on its own,” said Stark. “Live is just trying to uphold the integrity of the record. Also, we kind of branch off and do things a little different live. Some parts are different. We just mix it up a little bit just for the sake of the art itself.
A lot of bands in our genre will kind of play the same thing every night and it sounds great, but at the same time there’s no room for expression after the thought of the recording. I think that we’re definitely getting and doing that, you know. That’s what I love about playing live, is you never play the same thing twice and that’s something that’s kind of hard to find in the whole quote unquote, metalcore genre.”
Fellow guitarist Efimov also explained a lot more in-depth what happened during the band’s headliner as far as their performances.
“It’s a place where people can come and connect together,” said Efimov. “There’s no barrier between us playing and somebody experiencing the show. It feels like more of a family to me. I try not to be a performer or anything like that. For me it’s about worshipping God or letting out my emotions or whatever that is.
It’s legitimately who we are and these are the stories we’re telling. We want to hear everybody else’s story at the end of the night and we want everybody to be heard. That’s what’s so cool about that.
The band’s expectations at each show of their first headlining tour surpassed what they thought they were going to encounter. The fans made it all possible.
“We didn’t know what to expect because it’s kind of the first legitimate headliner on our record,” said Efimov. “It surpassed our expectations. It’s been cool to see people, you know, after the record is out, come out to shows and really participating, knowing the lyrics and really kind of been hanging out. “
The new year is only a few weeks away, and SIlent Planet has high hopes for 2015.
“I’m suspecting it to be a pretty busy year,” said Efimov. “There’s always speculations about tours that we hear about and whatnot, but I feel like this is going to be a pretty big year for us to get out there and just keep grinding. The next month is going to be good for us to just relax and kind of really get more energy.”
Silent Planet already has one tour booked for the new year. They are going to be on a short run with For Today and Phinehas. Be on the lookout for a lot more touring from the band.
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All photos by Corey Kleinsasser
Have you picked up “The Night God Slept” or seen Silent Planet live? Comment below with your thoughts.
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