Silo The Huskie
by Matthew Toledo - 7/12/2000
About a year ago, I was surfing through MP3.com trying to find songs to stick on the Athens Musician Network Online Radio station that didn't sound like they were recorded on a boom box. After an hour of disappointing downloads, I happened upon a song called "At Least Ohio" by Silo the Huskie which restored my faith in MP3.com.
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This Columbus based, four-piece rock band's strong song writing skills and talent for creating hooks managed to snare my attention. I ended up downloading everything they had. Lucky me, Silo's label is mailing me their latest CD to boot (it's good to be the king... or at least it's good to own an e-zine)
Silo was recently picked up by a San Diego based label, Cargo Records, which is re-releasing their originally self-produced CD "Fight" to the nation on the 18th of this month. The disk took over a year to complete and has gained favorable reviews. In fact, their CD is the main reason why they got signed to their label.
The band consists of Pete Cline on Bass, Brian Barlup on vocals and guitar, Chris Bair on guitar and Stuart Van Vyven on Drums.
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AMN: How long has Silo the Husky been together?
Pete: Silo the Huskie has been around since 1994. Brian and Pete have been in bands since 1989. Chris joined a year ago to replace original guitarist Kevin Spain, and Stuart joined in to replace our drummer in 1996 or so.
Brian: There's been a few breaks, I quit for a year because I was just burned out, and we had to stop for 6 months half way through recording the record because I had vocal chord swelling.
STU: I've been in four years this September.
AMN: Do any of you actually own a dog named "silo" or is there some other meaning behind your band name? How did you pick such a unique name?
Brian: We were named "silo" for a few minutes one night, but I didn't like it. Our drummer liked it and was quite pissed at me. Anyway, we were driving up to our rehearsal space and Pete almost ran over a puppy. It was a Husky, and our drummer took it and named it "Silo". He was in the back seat petting it and saying "Silo the Husky" over and over, and I turned around and said "What about Silo the Huskie?" I changed the spelling, because I didn't like the "y", I just thought it looked better with the "ie." I plan on adding an umlaut in a couple more years, but I can't decide what letter to put it over.
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AMN: Were you all originally from Columbus, or did you migrate there for school and/or the music scene?
Brian: We all went to school at OSU, and were in various bands over the years.
STU: I'm originally from Cincinnati.
Pete: I was born in Columbus, but moved to Cleveland and came back down to Columbus to attend O.S.U.. Brian is from Kenton, Ohio and Chris is from Mansfield.
AMN: You've gone through some drummers in the past. What were their reasons for leaving.
STU: They were scared.
Brian: Our first drummer had career things he had to do, our second drummer had drug things he had to do!just kidding!
Pete: Our second drummer, Darike Harper, had come in to replace original drummer Joe Popa, who was moving to Chicago. Darike was from Cleveland and was fairly aggressive in his style. He is a great drummer but basically wanted to be a rock star without the effort. After awhile things kinda fell apart between him and Brian and Brian actually split for about a year and a half. But to be fair Brian was going through some soul searching, too so in that regards the split was ok. Stuart was brought in and we've had him since and things are good. We knew him from a previous band although is style wasn't Darike's, we were changing as players, no playing our old stuff, and his style fit right in with what were started to play.
AMN: You've got a lot of songs available for download on mp3.com. Some were recorded with a four track. That impressed me, because for a four track, some of the cuts sounded very professional. Who in the band did the recording? What gear did they use?
Brian: Kevin did the recording, on a fostex analog 4-track, that's all I know
Pete: Our original guitarist, Kevin Spain, setup the Tascam 4 track-8 track cassette recorder in our practice spot. Pete recorded direct, and there was a lot of track bumping with the drums. The guitars were recorded miked and vocals were doubled. Kevin was very good at lo-fi recording. He seemed to have a knack to keep recordings tight and kept things in control as far as that. We actually released a cassette to our friends and those tracks ended up on the CD. Chris is using his computer and software to demo the new material at his house and at rehersal, and gives us more flexibility as far as formatting arrangements and all that.
AMN: Did they have any formal training as a sound engineer?
Brian: No but he has a damn good set of ears.
Pete: It was more or less "trial by fire."
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AMN: Tell us a little about your label, Cargo/Headhunter. How did they sign you on? is it your label, a friends, did you have to audition?
Brian: Cargo is considered to be a "major indie", and they're out of San Diego. Their Chicago A+R guy found us online, and we sent him a CD, and it just made its way to the owner of the label, and everyone liked it a lot.
Pete: Cargo is a downsized version of the larger company that existed in the 80's and 90's. Cargo holds Blink 182's back catalogue (before blink got to MCA), and they have various divisions (Headhunter, Grilled Cheese, etc.). They are much smaller than they were during the mid 90's. A lot of people are surprised that they still exist when we tell them that we are on this label. Brian started to talk to Cargo late last summer, things progressed after the holidays, and we actually wound things up by March or so.
AMN: Your style of music seems to fall in line with the indie/pop rock genre that seems to be flourishing in Columbus. Bands like Pretty Mighty Mighty, The Stepford Five, Orchestraville and Templeton have carved out a niche for themselves. Do you guys consider yourselves part of that niche? Or am I way off base here?
STU: Sort of. All of those bands are really good. But we don't sound at all like any of them in my opinion.
Brian: I think that we are more "rock" than indie rock, at least as far as the live show goes. We are a hell of a lot more loud in a live setting that most "indie" rock bands are. As far at the niche thing goes, we play with most of these bands quite regularly, but a little bit louder that most of them.
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AMN: How long did it take to put together this new CD?
Brian: We started writing the record in late 1996, after I decided I wanted to be in a band again, and the guys decided they wanted to talk to me again.
STU: It took us a year, on and off, to record it. The version that Cargo is reissuing came out in January of 1999.
Pete: Well...the Cargo release is a 're-release' of "Fight" that we put out last year. That CD took 1 1/2 years, and to reissue is just a matter of new artwork, cutting some songs off the CD, and re-mastering.
AMN: Where did you record the tracks? Did you like the studio and would you reccommend it to others? Who was the chief engineer?
Brian: We recorded it all over the place. I would highly recommend Jon Chinn at Workbook, and Jeff Ling at The Recording Workshop.
Pete: All the four-track stuff was done in our practice pad or my house. There are tracks done at Workbook Studio in Columbus and at the Recording Workshop in Chillicothe. John Chin and Jeff Ling were the producers, respectively. I think John has a great ear, we've great luck with him in the past and he's a producer that kind of sees the whole picture that is in front of him. Jeff Ling was great, he really seemed to dig the tracks we did and that helps when there is someone in the studio getting off on the music. The workshop is great is great if you can so the drive there, and it only costs gas and the recording tape. The CD was mastered and re-mastered at Wavetrap studios by Chris Seifert. He studio is dope and we are thinking of using him as the next recording approaches.
STU: Most tracks were done at
Workbook
Studio in Columbus. It's a very nice home
studio. Jon Chin runs it and he was our engineer.
He did a great job. Some tracks we kept from The
Recording Workshop, in Chillicothe. I
would
definitely recommend it, for the experience if nothing
else. For one it's free. At least the basic tracks
are. Students of the school participate in the whole
session with an instructor presiding. Jeff Ling worked
on all the songs we did, and he's pretty amazing.
AMN: Yep, anyone who reads the AMN regularly knows all about the Sound Recording Workshop. My band just recorded there and I saw your 2 inch reels on the shelves. Anyhow, back to you guys... Did you guys have a lot of say in the production of your new CD? How much input do you think your producer put into it?
STU: Producer? What's that?
Chris: I didn't have any input myself because I did not come into the band until the record was already recorded.
Brian: We had a lot of input, Pete and Stuart, perhaps too much input!kidding. Jon Chinn really helped us get the sounds we were looking for, and really helped in the overdub or "song tweaking" stage.
Pete: We had the final say, really. You ask John or Jeff for their outside opinion to keep that perspective that you lose after 20 takes, so you gotta trust them and their instinct. But the final say is with us, but song selection was left to Cargo as none of the band could select or agree on the songs that needed to be dropped.
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AMN: Were you guys recorded on ADAT, hard drive or Reel to Reel? Which do you prefer and why?
Pete: We did one-third ADAT, one-third 4-track cassette, and one-third two inch analogue reel to reel. Two inch is the way to go, no doubt. The warmth when you saturate the tape is the bomb, and digital just can not replicate that.
AMN: How much did your CD cost to print? Where did you have them printed and did it arrive on time? This is a musician's web site and we like to know about such things.
Pete: The total was about 6 bills. We did the CD printing with Prophet Disc in Massachusetts. The CD arrived on time because we figured a good lead-time for production. The art was done at Kinko's, and we did the cut and folding ourselves.
STU: The disks were late. I think we got them the day before the release party!
AMN: What sort of gear do you guys play on the CD? What drums, kits, pedals, etc... Be as detailed as you want, this is a musician's site.
Chris: I basically just try to keep it simple, simple guitars, usually Fender's and tube amps.
Brian: I played an Epiphone Dot, and a Fender Telecaster, both pretty new. I played through a Marshall 4x10 cabinet, with a Marshall Valvestate head!sorry.
STU: Mainly I use a Yamaha Stage Custom kit with all Zildjen cymbals.
Pete: I play A 600W Peavy Mark VIII solid state head. An 8 by 10 peavy ported cabinet. An Ampeg 4 by 10 ported road cabinet. A Tech 21 Sans amp. A DI & XXL distortion pedal,. A Dunlop tremolo pedal. A Boss bass distortion pedal and super overdrive pedal. A Dod bass effects/tuner pedal, and I play a modified Fender p-bass and Jazz bass, plus a Ibanez A.T.K. bass. All have SIT stings 115-50 in "dropped d."
AMN: Do any of you have any favorite musical toys (pedals, percussive instrument, etc) that you like to use?
Brian: I like my guitar tuner.
STU: No. Not really.
AMN: The lead singer has a pretty distinctive voice. Does he double himself on the CD, or is there a backup singer in the band.
Brian: I'm very surprised that you think I have a distinctive voice...that's mostly because I really can't sing, but thanks. I do a lot of doubling, and I did 95% of the harmonies on the record.
AMN: Every band has influences. Were their any particular acts that played a big role in your development as musicians?
Brian: I cut my teeth on some heavy doses of Dinosaur Jr., and I also like American Music Club, Pavement, Sebadoh, and Archers of Loaf.
STU: I listened to harder classic rock mostly as kid. But Stephen Perkins from Jane's definitely influenced my style.
Pete: I would tend to say early
on it was AC/DC, UFO, Ozzy and the like, and from
there it moved to U2, Led Zepplin, and a little bit
of everything but country music. I'm very big on truck
stop love from Manhattan, Kansas.
AMN: You guys have been around for a while. What's the overall goal of the band? World domination, underground success, or just the ability to make a living in music? Or is this just a temporary thing?
Brian: Making a living doing nothing but writing recording and playing songs would be fantastic.
STU: I would love to be able to live somewhat comfortably off making music.
Pete: World domination and a better van. No really.... Just to write great songs, record them, and enjoy ourselves. Whatever positive happens is gravy.
AMN: Do any of the band members have side projects?
Pete: Just our jobs.
Brian: A side project would be a blast, but this band keeps me busy enough for now.
STU: I think Pete is in some musicals..
AMN: What's been the largest gig you've performed to date? Were you at all nervous? Were you satisfied with the performance?
Pete: Comfest here in Columbus, plus some token gigs with national acts. I freak out before every show, and i play each show like it is my last.
Brian: Let me first say that we get extremely excited if there are more than 40 people to play to, and I'm even counting band members on a three band bill. We recently played to about 300-400 people at Comfest, and it was a blast.
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AMN: In your opinion, does your "CD sound" translate well to your "stage sound."
STU: I think so. We definitely don't suck live like some bigger bands.
Brian: Yeah, for the most part it does, but that's not anything we rigidly adhere to.
Pete: Yes, but very, very, very loud.
AMN: What's your favorite place to gig in Columbus and would you reccommend other bands to play there.
STU: Little Brothers is the biggest, with potentially the best sound. But if you don't get a decent crowd, it can blow. $1 domestics make the good nights that much sweeter.
Brian: I like Little Brothers, Bernies too. Everyone should play at least those two venues.
Pete: Little Brothers is great, but the High Five is cool and making progress as a new club. Bernies is Bernies.
AMN: You've played in Athens a few times. What do you think of our small town?
Brian: Actually, we've only played there once, and to the untrained eye, we probably sucked (gear problems). I really like Athens, sems that people are more inclined to go see live bands there.
STU: I love Athens. A good friend of mine went there for five years, so I visited a lot.
Pete: Athens is cool. My dad's family lives there and it's somewhat like home.
AMN: Would you ever return to Athens again?
Brian: Hell yeah.
Pete: Hell, yes.
AMN: Ever been heckled? Every band has. I wrote an opinion colum about hecklers this month after the AMN CD release party. How do you handle them?
Chris: It's funny you asked that. I used to heckle these guys before I entered the band. It was merely fun though since I knew all the members.
Brian: Early on we used to get heckled quite a bit, it doesn't seem to happen as much now. Occasionally I'll see someone with a sour-ass look on their face, and I'll give them a stare down, they usually get nervous and either leave or beat me up.
STU: I really don't remember much heckling from Silo shows. But, if they do... fuck em!
Pete: Tell them to fuck off, that my time on stage is for me, and if there is a bigger problem I will be more than happy to shove my bass up their ass. But we don't have that problem really, so it's a non-issue.
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AMN: Non issue or not, Pete. You seem to have your course of action laid out when it comes to Hecklers. Most of them are big assholes anyway so I'm sure your bass would fit in easily. Moving on, Where can we buy your new CD?
Chris: You will be able to locate it at Barnes and Noble, Virgin Record and many miscellaneous independent record stores. You can also get it from Cargo's web site.
Pete: WAL-MART, K-MART, IGA, Walgreen's, and BP!
AMN: Couple of quick questions... Columbus: safe place or watch your back.
Pete: Safe.
Chris: Candy.
Brian: Safe for the most part.
STU: Not too bad, but I say always watch your back.
AMN: Do you like opening or headling?
Brian: Middle.
STU: Middle.
Chris: Middle slot, usually anywhere we play there is always 3 bands and middle is a prime location.
Pete: Opening, so we can drink later.
AMN: Covers: filler or essential to a good set?
Brian: Filler, unless you can really pull one off in your own way.
STU: It has to be really good if your going to do it, but I think you need one. Especially for out of town shows.
Pete: Covers are pure crap, but
it's nice to show your roots at times. More than cover
one per set is
lame.
AMN: SUV's: Monuments of yuppie indulgence or cool rides and I should stop being jealous of the people that have them.
Brian: I think that SUV's a perfect expression of the dull, mindless materialism that has plagued this country since its very inception---I own two.
Pete: Buy one and get over it, or kill an owner of one and steal it.
STU: They don't bother me much.
AMN: Hungry for Meat or Veggies...
Brian: I only eat vegetarians, so you figure it out.
STU: I have fangs, so I'm an omnivore.
Pete: Veggies with a steak.
Chris: If it moves or grows, I'll eat it!
AMN: Guitars: vintage sounds better, vintage is over-hyped and over-priced
Chris: I dig vintage just because you really have to work to get it. Its not like quality vintage stuff is everywhere.
Brian: I like vintage amps.
Pete: It's the player, not the guitar. Look at Brian.
AMN: Anything you'd like to say before we wrap up?
Brian: I got us into the CMJ!!!
Pete: Thanks for the interview. It was a gas.
AMN: Thanks
Pete: No, Thank You.
