How Sons of Silver Built "Runaway Emotions" | The Sharp Notes Interview

The Band Talks Studio Dynamics, Songwriting, and Creative Independence

---

Sons of Silver’s latest release, Runaway Emotions, reflects a band committed to creative collaboration and thematic depth. Fronted by lead vocalist and songwriter Pete Argyropoulos, the group includes seasoned musicians each bringing years of experience across different corners of the rock world. The album builds on their past work with a focus on strong ensemble playing and lyrical content that draws from both personal and social undercurrents.

In this interview, bassist Adam Kury (the current bass player with Candlebox) and drummer Marc Slutsky (Adam Ant's touring drummer) share their perspectives on the album’s development and the evolving identity of the band. They discuss their writing process, how the group navigates creative decisions, and what keeps the dynamic productive as they continue to record and release new material. The conversation offers a glimpse into how veteran musicians approach collaboration with both structure and flexibility.

While Pete provides the core lyrical vision, the strength of Sons of Silver lies in their ability to operate as a unit—balancing individual voices with a shared musical goal. Runaway Emotions captures that ongoing exchange, translating it into a sound shaped by experience, mutual respect, and an interest in staying true to each band member's artistic vision.

Evan Toth: This is exciting to talk to you guys today because it's your first full-length release. You've had some EPs before this, but this is-- it's always exciting when someone's got their first album coming out.

ak: Yes. We're stoked about it, too.

ezt: It's called Runaway Emotions. It's a nice package. I listened to it the other day. It sounds really good. Here you guys are, you got your rockstar cred back there with the brick wall and everything. You look great.

Adam Kury: It's actually where we rehearse.

ezt: Oh, really?

ak: Yes.

ezt: Why don't we start by just telling the audience a little bit about your backstory and tell us about those two EPs. Just talk about the process of putting together this first album that you've just recently released in 2025. One of the first albums of 2025, in fact, in January, right?

ak: Yes. Had to get right on it. You want to go first, Marc?

Marc Slutsky: Oh, no, go ahead. Take it away.

ak: First full-length record, we're stoked about it. It came about really through the pandemic, because we had done our first couple of EPs and then we couldn't go tour. The first one was out before the pandemic, where the doomsday noises and everyone asked, "How'd you get this record out so fast on all these subjects?" It was like, "No, we wrote and recorded this before. It just ended up--"

We could see some things coming, not the pandemic itself, but just a lot of things that went on. It was very timely. Then we were working on the second one, and then we couldn't go anywhere, so we shelved it, released it, but we didn't tour in it. Then we just started writing, and that's what ended up becoming this album. Went through a bunch of stuff. We acquired Marc along the way. Came in and played great on this record and has been our guy ever since. A lot of new chapters with it. New record will change in the lineup and we're feeling really good about the band now.

ezt: Cool. Marc, how long have you guys been together as this unit?

ms: Like he was saying, I didn't play on the first one or two albums. It was a different drummer named Dave Krusen (ex-Pearl Jam), who we all love. I guess the pandemic was simmering down. I just got a random phone call from Peter, our singer, and he just got my number from this producer named John Fields. I'm probably going to 2022 area of time. I'm the newest guy in the band. The timing was just perfect because I wasn't busy at the time because I wasn't playing any other bands or touring at the time. He said, "Hey, do you want to come to Santa Monica to our studio and just play with us because our drummer just left," which was this guy, Dave Krusen, I was saying. I was like, "Sure, let's do it."

Then it just, one session led to two sessions to three and we were pretty much making this album that you're just holding up, which is the first one that I'm on. Definitely, the first one with this lineup that includes me. There's some great music that I dove into when I was learning the set for live that I didn't record, that was made before I joined the band. Maybe one or two records, Adam, is that right?

ak: Yes, we did two full EPs and we were announced a little before that, too. [laughs]

ms: There was a lot going on before I came to the fold, but this album is the first

appearance that I make with these guys, and the first time Adam and I even met. We may have known of each other, but we didn't really play together much. That's how I ended up in. I'm the real new guy in the big picture.

ezt: You guys all have such interesting musical backgrounds in history. Adam, of course, you were in Candlebox and you've got a long time working with them. Marc, you played with Peter Murphy from Bauhaus and Adam Ant and a lot of other interesting things. Maybe you could just talk a little bit about your experiences outside of the band and maybe how they influence what you're doing together, or maybe they don't influence it at all.

ms: I believe that every musical experience you have in your entire life always influences you for the rest of your life, especially if it's a good one. You're playing with good musicians and you're absorbing it. I could say as a drummer, every band I've ever been in and every session I even have done or producer I've worked with, you learn something and you take it with you, or not, or it doesn't do anything for you.

At this point, for me, the people you mentioned I played with and some of the bands I played with really shaped the way I play and the way I see music. Playing with Peter Murphy had a huge impact on me. I learned every one of his songs to play with him, which was many, many years of playing. That creeps its way into your taste and your DNA.

That will go on forever. Playing with Adam has influenced my outlook. Some of the things that he's-- I'll take on forever, it just becomes a part of you, those experiences. That's how I build. The answer is yes, it does. At this point, with me in the band, I have no doubt that if I make a suggestion about a song or an arrangement, some of it, whether it's conscious or unconscious, I think it can be taken from an inspiration of something that maybe I got from somewhere or from somebody or a song I learned or something. It could be super subtle, or not. It depends on what the idea is and what you're putting out there. I think that was your question, right?

ezt: How about you, Adam? How do you take those experiences from some of the other projects you've been involved in? Of course, as I mentioned, Candlebox. How does it relate to what you're doing with this group?

ak: As Marc said, it all fits in. Everything you do, you bring it all in. Certainly, I've been very fortunate as well to have some great experiences and work with some great musicians and do stuff. I think the bigger thing is, rather than specifically for things, is that we've all done this for all.

We've all been in bands, we've toured, we've done session work, so we all have this. To me, it's more a thing of, when we're working on something and we go to reach into that bag of tricks that we each have to find something new, to get unstuck from a situation to say, "Hey, have we gotten the most out of this song or the part?" We all have a lot of influences. The other nice thing is, usually, when we're working on a song, unless the song has got a problem, we're sticking around.

We really have a lot to say to each other as far as, we don't get into each other's parts because we all know that each person is a great musician. That's why we're all working together. If we didn't feed off each other and we weren't all able as individuals to contribute, the thing would fall apart. We wouldn't be able to move forward. We move really fast and we let each person put their own influence in there.

Then the judgment is, as a group, do we like this or do we not like this? We're not precious with things. We don't think take things personal. It's just, is this song or this part doing what we want? If it's not, then let's try 12 new things until we inspire something that we go, "Okay, now we like this. Now this is good. Now we're excited about it." Those influencers are there. Everything. Certainly, Candlebox, playing 20 years, working with them, and with Kevin, I've learned a ton of stuff in that. Everything is a learning experience if you go into it with the right head space.

ezt: It's interesting you just mentioned, too, that you guys both have-- I would imagine with the other members in the band, you've all got a little bit of experience there, so you can depersonalize some of the process of recording and performing and you understand the act, you understand the job of being in this band, rather than it's a bunch of kids that end up driving each other crazy. Would you say that there's a maturity there that comes with the package of you guys working together?

ak: Of course. When I think back when I was younger in my teens and 20s, I was still a decent player, but I didn't have this history and this experience to pull on. If I had an idea, I had that idea, and if it was rejected by my band mates, I was a little hurt. This is the idea. If someone said, "Hey, that's cool. Can you do something else?" Maybe I didn't have 12 other things that I could pull out of the top of my head and say, "How about this? How about that?"

When you only have one or two influence ideas that you can see and hear in your head, you tend to cling to those ideas. When you can pull out another half dozen at a moment's notice, you don't take them personal. It's like you're a shoe salesman. "Do these fit? These don't fit. Here, I got another one in the back."

ezt: Let's get another pair.

ak: You go until somebody goes, "This is the one I like." "Then we're done here." That's more how we approach our creative aspect of things, I think.

ezt: Marc's like, "I couldn't disagree more. I take it very personally when you--" [laughter] I'm just kidding. What do you think, Marc?

ms: No. He's spot on.

We do have a lot of experience in the band playing. I guess, when you're young, you're filled with insecurity. I think that that insecurity leads to, "Oh, my feelings are hurt because my idea didn't work, or no one liked it, or no one liked my song, or my drum part," or whatever it may be. I feel with this band, we're way past that. Me, personally, I've been past that for a while. For instance, if Peter comes in with a song, I know 50 drum parts that will work, which is-- I'm speaking of the drums because that's my role.

If the first one is like, "Oh, that's not happening, let's try it this way or try it that way," it's totally fine with me. There's not at all, not even a 1% of my feelings being hurt because it's about the whole collective sound of the band. I trust everybody enough to be like, "Oh, if it wasn't working--" Maybe what I played sparked Adam to say, "Do what you're doing, but add this one thing there or go to the ride," whatever the case is.

You alter the seed of the idea, and then it gets altered, and then it becomes a collaboration. You pass the ball back and forth, and then you arrive at a place that you never would have imagined. That's happened quite a few times. I don't think we have an issue with-- I think that's how we work together. There's no ego at all, really, in this band.

ezt: It's pretty cool. You've got a rhythm section with the bass player from Candlebox and the drummer with Adam Ant. What could go wrong?

ms: [laughs] I've never thought of that. I forget that, I've got to be honest. When we're in the trenches doing it, whether we're on the bus or at soundcheck or writing music, I don't even think about that, but when you say it, I'm like, "Oh, yes, that's true." It's an interesting fact that I don't even think about. It's like we're living in the moment and we forget the back stories, probably pretty cool.

ezt: Speaking of experiences, it's funny, I am finding myself rock and roll-- There weren't a lot of rock and roll bands there for a while. In the last few months, I've been talking to more and more people who are just, there almost seems to be, from my own perspective, a little bit of a resurgence and people wanting to put a band together and tune up a guitar and write some tunes. I think you guys are certainly one of those people. Maybe you could just talk a little bit about your thoughts about--

Again, maybe this harkens back to what I already asked a little bit, but the difference between getting a band together and really writing some tunes versus a lot of the pop music, which I love pop, too, but I do miss some good rock and roll music on the radio. For anybody that's listening to the radio, I'm already dating myself, but you know what I'm trying to say.

ms: Of course, yes.

ezt: Tell me about releasing a first album as a rock band in the year 2025. What's it like for you guys?

ak: I think we're just trying to do what we do. It's not like we're not aware of what goes on around us and other bands, but you also can't follow that too much. I think putting together a true band is one of the hardest things to do because you have to have four or five members that can work together and get together, be on the same page, all be of the same basic level of musicianship. You're dealing with all that and personalities, and life goes on around us, too. There are some things that come into play. I think when you get to the pop world, you tend to narrow things down. Usually, it's a single person. It's that one person, it's that one vision, and they have ancillary people around them.

It's two different approaches. With the pop thing, you build with all these other people around to showcase a person, where with us, with a band, we're building it all from within, specifically in our thing. We don't have an outside producer. Brina is our engineer. We produce it and write as a band. We do everything all the way up to the very end. We will bring in a finishing mixer to finish up the actual release. We can repeat what we do over and over, where I think when you get into the pop world, if you're relying on outside producers and you've had this big hit and with this writing team and this producer, you have to go back to them, or it changes.

I feel like when you rely too much on outside people, you don't own your creativity as much as I think we do in this situation, which I like. It's not a right or wrong thing. It's just a different way, different approach. When it comes down to pop music and things that are going to be, as they say, radio songs, radio hits, or whatever, to do pop in a really deep, meaningful way is difficult. Usually, pop is quick and easy and disposable. BIC lighters of the music world.

The bands that can work in a pop world and last and have longevity, that's a real trick to do. It's easy to write a pop song. It's hard to write something that's good, that's deep, and last, which is why people still talk about The Beatles all these years later. They were able to do that.

ezt: What do you think about rock and roll in 2025, Marc?

ms: Oh, I agree with that. I've noticed in the last-- It just crept up on me a little bit. I know some of the guys, like this band, Dirty Honey, I don't know if you're aware of that band.

ezt: No.

ms: They're one of those newer rock bands that are out there and getting-- They're in that crop of newer bands. I know the singer, he's a friend of mine, and they've been having success. Then there's Greta Van Fleet and Rival Sons. There's a whole host of them. I think it's great. I'm like, "This is great," because I remember, in the 2007, 2008, 2010 area, I'd watch the Grammys, for instance, and there'd be no rock band. It would be all pop artists, or dancers with backing tracks and no live bands. I would just spark conversations with musician friends of mine, like, "What's happening?" Throughout my life, there was always rock bands happening.

You had MTV, too, back in the day. There were always new rock bands coming out and new trends, whether it was grunge or whether it was heavy metal or whether it was rock and roll or punk rock. There was always things happening under the umbrella of what you might call rock band-oriented music. It was great. Then there was Radiohead and you had all different genres and subgenres. Then when we got into the 2005 mark, I believe, somewhere in there, it all stopped. Then you'd watch the Grammys, like I was saying, just for instance, when there used to be lots of rock bands and lots of live music that I grew up with. I would be like, "There's not one."

Maybe they'll talk about the Foo Fighters for many years as the only rock band. They were like, "Hey, let's talk about a rock band. Oh, the Foo Fighters, let's talk about them because that equals rock." I don't know why that happened.

However, I think it's cool. I agree with the last-- I don't know where to put the marker on it, but maybe in the last five years or so, I have noticed a lot of these bands that I'm starting to see. People go on the shows again. Maybe they will come back, and that would be great. I never reacted to it as it relates to us. I think Adam could weigh in on this. I think he'll agree with me. I think we would be doing this band, whether there was a trend of rock bands happening now or not.

I don't think that we feel like we're doing this to be part of a current scene or as an opportunity because rock bands are popular. I think the band started even before I joined as a band that wanted to do this regardless. It just so happens that the timing happens to be good in terms of opportunity or what the audiences out there want to see, which I think is great. I think it's cool. It's cool. I was waiting for it to happen, like, "When will bands come back? When will that whole thing come around again and become a popular thing that it always was in my childhood and growing up?"

ezt: Will people want to figure out how to play these instruments, even though they can do it with AI? Will anybody want to woodshed and figure out how to play the bass and drums? It's a good question. To people of our age, we think, "Of course, it's romantic, it's fun," but maybe to the younger people, it is a curious question. Will they will they see the value in really learning to play that instrument with their fingers?

ms: It takes a lot of work and discipline to do it. Yes, you're right. It's also other forms of technology. People could make-- which lends itself to why I think pop and hip-hop has really become the focal point is because of technology. You could make a really great-sounding pop album on a laptop in your living room and just find a girl that could sing and write decent songs. That's all you need. You can work technology with home studios and the ability to just sit there with your laptop and make music and have it be professional-sounding, where people would buy it.

That didn't exist, previously in the '90s, the '80s, the '70s.

If you wanted to make music, you had to go to a studio and get musicians, and people had to learn the songs and play them live and record them, which did lend itself to kids being inspired to want to know how to play. If you didn't know how to play an instrument, you couldn't be involved at all. Where now, a kid could not have to know how to play an instrument, but have a laptop with the right software, and he could make music still.

I've always wondered if that's going to be the future of that kid that would normally want to really be great at guitar. He might just be like, "Oh, I'll just program it or use MIDI to make my music." I think it's happened. Most music you turn the radio on, I think, is made in a laptop somewhere in someone's bedroom.

ezt: Yes. There's probably steps somewhere.

ms: Yes. Technology affects all of this as well, as far as the kids wanting to learn to play a real instrument or not.

ak: There's also different things that come out with that. I think the one thing with the technology, and again, none of it's necessarily in and of itself good or bad, but you just get big differences when you're playing an instrument, and when you're working in a group situation, you have to get together with other people.

If you're sitting in your room with your laptop, you can do it all by yourself. It's a very isolating experience. It can be also very cathartic to get your things out in your way. There's no right or wrong way. It's a very different experience sitting by yourself, working on something, versus getting together with other musicians and friends. It's a totally different thing.

ms: Oh, yes. It goes back to what I said earlier in this interview. I'll come up with an idea, and then the other two guys will say, "That's great, but let's try it that way."

Then over the course of an hour, because we're in real time with each other in the room in person, the way music was supposed to be made, music was always a social experience. If you go back to centuries, I believe, it was always meant to be communal. It is a little odd that we've gone against that with technology.

I do think nothing will replace that. Peter coming in with a song or singer, and we all chime in, and then we all discuss maybe, "Hey, try it this way, or change this." You're doing it in real time. It's like you're molding a piece of clay together. You can't possibly do that as one person behind a laptop, you could make a cookie-cutter-sounding Katy Perry pop song that 13-year-olds will like probably, and that you'll see on the Nickelodeon channel, but I think the real creativity of the best music ever made was made with people getting their hands dirty together in a room and influencing each other and inspiring one another. I think that that, to me, is the greatest thing for me about playing.

ezt: Getting that push and pull with different people, different voices, different opinions.

ms: Yes. It's great. My favorite thing is when, because I'm not a songwriter, per se, it's something I want to work on. I always thought of myself as a drummer first. My favorite thing going back to when I first started playing, when I played in the school choir. I accompanied the choir on drums, but that was my first gig in seventh grade. I just love when someone presents me with a song, and I'm going to write drum parts to it as complex or as simple as they may be to lift it up to a high level.

That, to me, I can't do by myself. I love my favorite thing is playing with other people. Practicing my instrument by myself is a little boring at times. I think a lot of musicians would say that. The best thing is playing with other people. I'll be doing that forever, whatever the trend may be. I'll always play with people and play songs that other people write. That's what it's about for me personally. It always has been.

ezt: Cool. You've also decided to put this one on vinyl, as I showed a little earlier. What was the conversation with that? Do you guys have those? I think we're all men of a certain age, so to speak, so we all maybe have a little experience with vinyl. Why don't you tell me about the conversations you had about, "Hey, if we do this release, we should we should have a vinyl version." Maybe, Adam, you want to you want to tell us what the talk was like?

ak: I think there's part of it that we remember that, obviously, that great era, and vinyl does sound fantastic. It's also, the packaging is just so nice. The scale of it, you got the gatefold. It's not a make or break to do it, but you want to have a physical thing. Nobody's making CDs anymore. If you're going to make physical product, that's going to be vinyl. It's just a nice thing to have.

I think, also, as a band, especially for a band like us, where we're still building our whole thing, and we're more of a very DIY indie band, having those things to sell at the shows, because people love to bring things home from bands that they like. Something they can have the music on, something they can get signatures on, something they can remember. A t-shirt and an album are great. Like I said, there's no point in doing a CD. You want to go with the vinyl. It's expensive. The lead time for getting it made is tough. At the end of the day, it's really the format that's the most talked about, the most striking, the most in demand from fans coming by now.

ezt: Marc, you grew up in Long Island. If you were in Merrick, you must have gone to one of my favorite record stores, Infinity Records in-

ms: Of course. [chuckles] I don't remember that in ages.

ezt: -Massapequa Park, right?

ms: Yes. I've been to Infinity Records. Was in Massapequa Park?

ezt: Yes.

ms: I think so. Yes, I've definitely been to that. My mom took me there as a kid, for sure. It was another really small record store, tiny, tiny, that I would go, which was very close to my house, because Massapequa Park wasn't super close.

ezt: You have to go down Sunrise Highway for a while.

ms: Yes, exactly. By the Sunrise Mall, I believe. [laughter] There was a record store called Island Records. Not the record company, not to be confused with that, just Island Records. That was the record store I could walk to. It was small.

ezt: That was the one by Oceanside. It closed now. It was a little shop. I know that one, too.

ms: I have a lot of memories, but the one that stands out was when Michael Jackson's

Thriller came out. Then the first long-form video that he did, which is Thriller, I remember buying the vinyl there. I had a paper route. I saved my money on my paper route to buy this album. My mother was like, "You'll buy it yourself." I remember all that. That was great memories.

ezt: Talk to me a little bit, both of you, just a little bit about your influences. What did you listen to growing up? Again, just to tie it into this vinyl conversation, or just this rock and roll conversation. I imagine that you both love some really cool rock bands. Maybe something that's outside of the norm. I'm sure you love the heavy hitters, too. What might surprise people that you really loved listening to that has influenced your musicianship today?

ak: All kinds of things. Honestly, one of the biggest things I just absorbed from what was around me and my dad was a huge music fan, audiophile guy, always had a nice stereo and a massive vinyl collection, not quite as big as the one behind you, but it's still a good one. He was all over the chart as far as what his style choices he like. I got a great love of The Beatles as a kid, but he also had a ton of classical and jazz. He was just a really great music fan. I think I absorbed a lot of things there that I don't even know if I would be conscious of it if I tried to think of it now. I just did one of these rock fantasy camps, and Jeff Skunk Baxter was one of the guys.

ezt: He was a guest on the show a few years ago.

ak: He's great. What a character, man. That guy's got an interesting, interesting story. I was at camp, we were messing around with some songs that my band was going to play. At one point, they were talking about some Steely Dan, Rikki Don't Lose That Number. I remember my dad having that record. I remember hearing that record a million times. I would steal all what I felt were his really cool records out of his collection.

I took his Pink Floyd. I took Alice Cooper, Welcome to My Nightmare out of there. He had a lot of great stuff. I think a lot of my influences, it was before I was even playing. I think I was building that catalog. Then, obviously, once you start picking up an instrument and hacking away at it, and you're terrible, but you have these goals. Obviously, as a bass player, you got your Geddy Lee and Rush and stuff like that. I don't know, I've never shied away from the odd stuff, as long as it did something and moved me in some way.

ezt: Weirdly, you're in a band that, I think, those original Candlebox pressings that came out when the band first hit, they're probably very, very valuable now. They must be reissuing that stuff. (ed. note: Candlebox's first album (1993) was not released on vinyl until 2020 (Music on Vinyl MOVLP2499).

ak: Oh, yes.

ezt: Those things are probably not easy to get your hands on.

ak: The original ones are probably tough to do. I think they've done a whole box

set of the whole career retrospective. That's the kind of stuff fans want. They want the vinyl. The box set. I don't even know if they're making a CD box set. I doubt that anyone who would buy those things at all anymore. The vinyl, it's made a decent comeback. Never be what it was, but it's really come back. It's even trendy among the kids and stuff. My daughter gets vinyl records. She's got a player. Sometimes she'll play them, but mostly they go in frames up on the wall and she can change them out, put her influences up there.

It's interesting how they take it in a completely different way because they came in at a different time and the process in the story. One thing I was actually going to say, though, on the vinyl thing, when you're talking about the indie stores, the other nice thing about making vinyls, you support the indie stores that are still around here because they buy and sell you CDs and stuff, but like I said, nobody's really making a ton of CDs, but the vinyl is stuff that Record Store Day and these indies can get into and you can support those with all that kind of stuff.

ezt: You guys produced the album yourselves, really. Again, I think you all come with your own basket of skills from other work that you've done, but maybe you could just talk about the production of this album, how you put it together in the studio.

ak: For sure. It's a similar process. We fell into this way of working pretty much from the get-go. There wasn't a lot of debate about it in the beginning about, should we work with somebody else? We found that we could get things done. Our whole thing is we've never gone in with a specific, we want to sound like this, or we want to make a thing like this. We just go in and write things. We like this, cool, great, then we'll keep working on it.

If this is not good enough, we'll file it away, get enough collection of songs together to go, all these fit together and these feel like a good theme. Usually, because you've tracked them all in a relatively same time. We write a lot more than we release. Of the 20 songs we have cooking, which 10 make this record?

ezt: How long were you in the studio doing this one, approximately?

ak: It broke up. Like I said, the pandemic hit and we started writing on things. Dave was still with us. Then he decided that just being in a touring band wasn't his thing. He didn't want to go do that, so he bowed out. Then, of course, a couple of months go by, we figure out what to do. There was some talk about, do we want to even continue with the band? It's hard work. We were in the middle of the pandemic. Nothing coming at us. Then we said, "Let's work on this and let's try out a couple of drummers."

You get excited. We found Marc, you get things moving again. It drags out. It probably took us two years altogether from the start of this record, which is really long for us, but again, there are a lot of other substantial things around it that we came back to. We recorded it all piecemeal it together over time and then we had this thought once we solidified with Marc and the lineup of, let's go back and recut it. We actually went back and retract all the same songs.

ezt: Oh, you're kidding. That's an interesting story. You had the drum tracks done. Look, Marc is joining us just in time because he dropped out.

ak: Everything.

(Marc's connection was lost, but he returns to be insterted back into the conversation by Adam).

ms: Lost my connection. You see me okay? You can hear me?

ak: Yes.

ezt: Yes. It's a little different. That's a good segue because you're the same Marc, but you look just a little bit different because it's a different device that you're on. Marc, maybe I'll just bring you in on this because we were just talking about what parts you retract on the album from the original recordings.

ak: Marc, just real quick, we were talking about how we put the record together, and I'm saying it came out over time. Dave left in the mid process. I know you came in and we finished things, but did we not go back and pretty much take another stab at most of these songs once we were done with writing?

ms: Yes, we did. It's a bit of a blur because it was pretty intense. We started playing. We would on a daily schedule at one point. Once we decided that I was going to play on the record and be in the band, we were on a pretty regular schedule. I don't remember. It's a bit of a blur. I don't know. Maybe some of the songs.

ak: I think the majority of them, we went in and just said, "Hey, let's track these all as a fresh new batch for cohesive sound and all that kind of stuff." It all dragged out just because so much happened during the process of this time. It took a couple of years to get this record done, which for us is incredibly slow.

ezt: That sounds slow. Marc, have you ever seen those videos where they get a drummer who's never heard Rage Against the Machine, and they start playing a track without the drums on it, and then the drummer just plays what he's thinking? It's always really amazing, like, "Wow, Steve just thought of this on the spot?"

ms: Yes. Now it's coming back to me a little bit. For example, there's a song called "Running Out of Words", which seems to be one of everyone's favorites. One of my favorites. That I feel like I was the first drummer to ever play on that song. I think, because I never heard a demo of that. Then there's a song called "Giving It Back" that Peter would send me home, or he'd email me, "Here's the demo version of "Giving It Back", but we want to rerecord it with you." I would listen to it.

I think Dave Krusen was on this demo. Then I would learn it and then split the difference between what I would want to play but keep the stuff that I thought was cool that he did but not change what was cool about it, but maybe morph it. There was a combination of that going on, where I was morphing something that might've been recorded and taking the cool stuff from it. Then there might've been a song like "Running Out of Words", which I think was starting from scratch because we were really arranging that together as a new song. I think it was a combination of the two.

I have seen those videos that you were mentioning. That's very cool. It's so interesting to see how different the song is with a different drummer that never heard the song.

ezt: It's really amazing when they do that. I can't believe it when they do that. Very cool. What else should people know about this album that you've just spent a lot of time on as you're explaining? What do you hope people understand about the process of putting this together and the writing and the hard work that you put in? What are you hoping people take away from this project?

ak: I would say first and foremost, I just hope people like it. We've done our part. Once the record's done, we're out of the game, so to speak, we go out and perform it, but it's up to people to decide if they resonate with it or not. I think as far as understanding who and what we are, live, we don't play to any tracks. We're a five-piece band. We do it all ourselves. When we write and record, we try to do the same thing. The one thing we add afterwards is usually the keyboards and the refines from the guitar parts and overdubs.

When we write and record as a band, it's bass, drums, and two guitars, and a vocal. Because we write and record that way, when we play live, everyone goes, "Wow, you sound like the record." I don't think we sound exactly like the record, but we do sound enough like the record because that's what we did. It's not a stretch for us. We're not trying to fit into something that was crafted and then try to replicate it. We are just doing what we do.

ezt: What about you, Marc? When you look at it, what are you hoping people, and maybe it's a song or maybe it's a vibe, maybe it's a philosophy of the album, or a thought, or a feeling. Is there something you're hoping people take away from listening to this music?

ms: It's such a good question because I was thinking about how I would answer that when Adam was talking, which, and he answered that so well.

ezt: Good job, Adam. Good job.

ms: I'm going to tell you--

ezt: We're all really proud of that answer. [laughter]

ms: I'm going to tell you the honest truth about my answer to that in all honesty. The answer is I don't think about that. That's really the honest truth. When I play on a record and make music, I don't think about-- You want it to be the best it could be. The process of making the record is my favorite part about being in a band and more than touring, more than playing live. I love being in the studio. I love making songs happen and then documenting them forever. That's such a thrill for me, more than playing live. Live is a moment that comes and goes. It's fun. It's like a party. You know what I mean? It's not something that I like more than the studio.

While I'm making it, and then when it's done, I really love the whole process. When it sounds great, it was very rewarding for myself. I listen to it a million times at the gym, when I'm going for a walk, but I don't think it ever has and does cross my mind like, "Hmm, what do I hope people get from this?" I feel like once you make it the best it can be, you put it out there. I guess if I was to think about it, I had to answer it, I'd be like, "You hope they like it, but if they don't, that's okay, too," because I know it's good. Usually, when I know something is good, people like it in my past experience. When I played in the band Splendor, I remember we made that first album, I knew it was good. People liked it.

I also played on records where I was like, "Ah, this isn't that great," and people didn't like. Maybe some people liked it, but it generally wasn't super well received. I feel like if I know it's good, then it's good enough for me to put it out there. If people like it, that's great, but I don't put too much thought into what they're going to think or what I hope they get out of it. You know what I'm saying? If it changes someone's life, that's fantastic. [laughs]

ezt: Hey, did those Splender records have vinyl pressings, the originals, which were what? Late '90s, something like that, did they release them on vinyl?

ms: I have a couple of people that will email me, strangers, they'll send me their vinyl on their record player and they'll be like, "I'm listening to your record right now." I don't have a copy of it. I remember the very first-- what did they call them, Adam, before an album came out, they made it a--

ak: Test pressings or whatever.

ms: Yes, the very first pressings. The first time I actually had a hard copy of this very first album, it was 1999, I believe, and it was a cassette. I have that as a collector's item just for myself, just have it because I want to have it. I don't think-- Then they stopped. I remember the record label said that they're not going to press those, are just going to press CDs.

ezt: Interesting. I'm looking at Discogs now. It looks like the answer is no. The Halfway Down the Sky had a cassette in Indonesia. There was an-

ms: Wow.

ezt: -Indonesian cassette pressing, so that means there must be-- I don't know if it was recorded analog or not. See, those records came out right at the time when they just stopped doing vinyl, I guess. It was a year or two after they just went, "You know what, forget it. I'm just going to do this on CD."

ms: I could have sworn I saw-- Someone sent me a picture. If there is a vinyl that does exist, which I think there might be, maybe someone did it on their own somehow, who knows, I have seen a couple of vinyls that--

ezt: It may exist. It may just not be on Discogs, either.

ms: Yes, that's true.

ezt: It may just be cataloged, but it may exist.

ms: I would love to have that on vinyl. Wow. Especially that first album, because that was my first really big thing I ever did. Something about that first album lives with me forever, because it was such a-- for a 22-year-old kid, it was pretty incredible to me at that time, and what was going on in New York at the time, and life in general was going by really fast. It's almost like I grew up in that band and that was my first major growing experience. That record in particular would be great to have on vinyl.

ezt: Adam's going to connect you with the guys that did the reissues of the Candlebox records.

ak: There you go.

ms: Oh, that's good.

ezt: You can reissue them and they'll live. They'll be.

ak: It's great.

ms: That would be fun. No, that would be really-- I'll just get one for myself to keep in my collection just for myself. That would be fun.

ezt: Press an extra one for me, too, so I could put it in the back.

ms: I can't tell from my angles. Those are all albums, those are all vinyl albums...

ezt: Yes, they're all records. Everything's back here. Adam Ant is back here. All your buddies are back here. I got some Peter, I got some Bauhaus back here.

ms: Oh, man.

ezt: I don't have any Candlebox though. I got to get some Candlebox. I'm a child of the '90s. Why don't I-- I know I must have had a CD. I had the CDs when I was younger.

ms: Of course, yes.

ezt: I don't have anything on vinyl. As I said before, I know those early pressings would be very expensive, but they've been reissued. I'll tell you, guys, I really enjoyed this record and I'm glad I got to talk to you about it. Why don't you let people know quickly before we leave, I know the record came out in January. We're talking in-- just going to be April tomorrow. Happy April Fool’s Day. What's the thought for the summer? Are we playing or what's coming next and where should people go to find out more?

ak: You can just look Sons of Silver or Sons of Silver Band will pop up everywhere. We got our website. We're in all the major streaming platforms and this and that. You can find us all over the place. As far as summer tour goes, we've got a lot of talks, a lot of things going. We're going to be doing some dates, but we don't have any that we've actually released yet. I think you'll hear some coming really soon here, in the next couple of weeks. We might be doing a little run on our own.

We've also got a couple of co-bills looking at the summer and even some stuff, hopefully, off in the fall. Answer is we're going to stay busy, but we don't have those officially signed and inked yet, so we can't give you those dates yet. [laughs]

ezt: Obviously, check out the website, which is sonsofsilver.com to get all the up-to-date info. That's it. I wish you guys best of luck with the album. I thank you very much again for your time today.

ms: Of course. Great to meet you.

ak: Thank you. I appreciate it.