Silence Is Spoken is not a newcomer band, however, it is with their new album, “11”, that they become more popular. “11” is a real blast, a grunge/alternative rock attack by an Italian band, which is determined to achieve its goals! Myth of Rock, stricken by the songs of Silence Is Spoken, contacted the band for a nice talk. Alessandro Curradi (bass, piano, synth) and Lorenzo Panchetti (drums), founders of Silence Is Spoken, talked on behalf of the band!
by Dimitris Zacharopoulos
Give us a short biography of Silence Is Spoken.
Alessandro: Hello, firstly we want to thank you for the invitation! Silence Is Spoken is a band formed in London, UK, at the end of 2004 and based in Florence, Italy. We’ve released three albums, the first one in 2007 with our first English singer Darren and the original line-up, the second one in 2012 which is the first “concept” album of the band, in which we explore a sound more introspective (also with electronic influences) and “psychedelic” and the last one “11”, recently released, that we consider a mature concept album about humanity, consciousness and spiritual growth. We’re now promoting this last album.
Why did you name the band Silence Is Spoken?
Lorenzo: The name is born from a visual point of view of filling up the silence with the spoken voice of true information and therefore counter attacking the government media propaganda internationally. The silence is spoken by the people.
You released your new album, “11”, some days ago. Which are your feelings about
it?
Lorenzo: Full blast enthusiasm at the moment!!! The album, released for WormHoleDeath label, is going really well and we can’t wait to see and hear the reactions of our fans around the globe and obviously to play as soon as possible live.
Where would you trace the differences between “11” and your previous albums?
Lorenzo: There has been a growth in the sound, and inspiration of the band from each previous album, starting from the first one (“Stuck Amongst Machines With Broken Gears”) that was a very aggressive and grooving kind of approach, and the second one, which was a concept album as well, where we actually reached out and into various different styles. “11” is an obvious consequence of whatever happened within the band starting from the various changes of line-up to the new producers, new studio etc. But always kept the Silence Is Spoken sound, which obviously evolved to the present day sounds.
How would you describe your music style?
Lorenzo: The style basically is a progression through years of listening to various different kind of rock and alternative music. There is a lot of influence by classic bands like Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and to our days with a definite grunge main influence, primarily Alice In Chains, Soundgarden and Tool. In three words, I will say Rock Alternative Grunge.
Describe the recording process of “11”. Who did the mixing and the mastering?
Alessandro: The album “11” comes from a long process, very articulated and at the same time undoubtedly full of interesting ideas. Indeed, after the release of the second album dated 2012, we had to face some changes in the line-up several times. Samuele joined the band in 2016, Maurizio during this year and Lorenzo, co-founder of the project, returned to the base in 2021, after an experience in the UK. In the meantime, various other musicians took part of the Silence project and made a contribution to our journey. This is just to give historical references that led to the birth of the album. In terms of composition and lyrics, we started working on it as early as 2015, then started recording in 2019 and finalizing the work with the production, which took a rather long time, also due to the contingent situation we have experienced since February 2020 until the end of the same year. Just at the end of 2020, we finished the synth recordings and carried out the mix and production in collaboration with the Soundscape studio of Andrea Dell’Olio and Furio Lanciano, who did a really good job. The beautiful thing, for me, is that, despite all the logistical difficulties encountered in recent years (I also put in the lockdowns and similar things), through this album we managed to represent exactly what the band wanted, both in terms of sound and of lyrics and message to convey. It’s not a trivial matter for a musician, who generally has something to complain about a job, once is finished.
Who is the composer in Silence Is Spoken? Who writes the lyrics?
Lorenzo: Composition inside the Silence family starts from various sources, mainly at say from everything writing by Alessandro backed up my drums and rhythms, and then finalised with guitar riffs and arrangements and wonderful vocal lines by Samuele. All of the lyrics for the “11” album have been written by Samuele (except “3Lateral Kingdom”) and I wrote most of the lyrics for the “black” album which was our second album.
Which are your music influences? What gives you inspiration?
Lorenzo: As I said, classic bands like Black Sabbath played a very important role on our influence. Pink Floyd, especially absolute The Wall album and on the Roger Waters period specially about the message and the importance of the lyrics in an album. I could also add Korn, Deftones, Mindfunk, Kyuss, and obviously Tool. The inspiration comes from mainly the will of spreading the word, and making people conscious of that, with music and through music, everything can be reached, every goal can be achieved, and every dream can be fulfilled.
Which feelings of yours do you express through your music and lyrics?
Alessandro: Through our music I believe that all of us musicians express everything we have inside. In music we find our light parts and the darkest areas, as it is in human nature. Of course, what we want to leave is a message of hope, certainly not depressive or negative and the lyrics of the songs can be interpreted according to the feeling of each listener.
Do you try to send messages through your lyrics? Why?
Lorenzo: As Alessandro was saying, definitely feelings of positivity and consciousness of whatever surrounds you, and it should be the way that everyone faces life in today’s world.
We are trying to send a message to people to think for themselves and always question authority, I have always a logic and detached point of view on whatever is V different political and social situations in the world. In the case of the album, “11” being a concept, like the previous one, it’s like going through a chapter of a book, so I leave you to read every single lyric of a song and make your own mind of what the message is about.
What do you think of the war against Ukraine?
Lorenzo: I like to stress about that Silence Is Spoken is against any kind of war, any kind of aggression, genocide or oppression of the people. Then talking specifically of the case of Ukrainian war, we should invite people to study and independently get informed about the whole situation, and not only listening always any kind of national media, information sources from the east, the west, the north and the south. Every war has got to be analysed in a larger frame of time of the happening. It will take a huge amount of time and analysis to answer this kind of question.
How did the Covid-19 pandemic and its restrictions affect you as persons and as a band?
Alessandro: To deny the impact that these last two and a half years have had on the lives of each of us would be to deny the evidence. Just take a walk around the street to realize the mark that all this has left on many people, at least here in Italy. At the same time, I avoid dwelling too much on our vision of the issue, because the risk is to be misunderstood and labelled. From the lyrics of some of our songs, however, it is easy to guess what our thoughts might be on what we have recently experienced. I can tell you that we have tried to stay balanced and turn difficulties into opportunities. To be honest, for the work of finalizing the album, they have been very useful months, as we have had the opportunity to constantly dedicate ourselves to the latest recordings and production. As for playing live, obviously we missed it a lot, but we are sure we will make up for it very soon.
Which are your future plans? A tour maybe?
Lorenzo: Future plans are to write a lot of new stuff already started recently after the making of the three videos for the “11” album and obviously touring. This will come as soon as the beginning of next year.
Send a message to the fans!
The Revolution will not be televised! We hope to see you all at our next shows all around the world! Thank you again for your invitation.
