MARCH 2008 Issue.pmd - RAG Magazine

people being born into the world, and there’s been a lotof friendship that we’ve seen through and a lot offriendships that have ended; so that basically sets thetheme of the record.RAG: What have been some of the more interestinginterpretations to your songs? For example, has afriend or fan come up to you and interpreted one ofyour songs in a way that you never expected?Well, a girl came up to me a couple of weeks ago andasked me if one of my songs was about Pete Wentz fromFall Out Boy. Are you familiar with him?RAG: Yeah, but what drew her to that conclusion?I’m not really sure, but she goes (imitates girl) “What wasthat song about?” So I told her, sort of, what the songwas about, and she said “Oh, I thought it was about Petefrom Fall Out Boy.” (laughs) I was like no no no no, it’snot at all about him! And she said something to the effectof “Oh you know, it sounds like it’s about how he’schanged.” I told her that it’s just a song about somefeelings that I had.RAG: It sounds like she had her own idea. But it’sinteresting when your fans are given the opportunityto interpret your songs how they choose to. Do youhave a personal favorite Silverstein track?I don’t know, that’s kind of hard; it’s hard to choose whichkid is your favorite child. Every song I’ve written and donehas its own special place in my heart. There are songsthat you write that you know -right away- people are goingto like; those are the obvious songs. Sometimes it’s yourfavorite songs, but other times, it’s the songs that tookmore love, that took a little bit more work to get going, tokind of get to the point. Those are the songs everyonehates at first, but somehow, end of being your favorites.RAG: I don’t think most people ever expect to save liveswith music. Most of us just set out to maybe changesomeone’s perspective on how they appreciate music.Listening to your music, I sense various influences.That interesting, because I’ve had many different phases ofmusic and what I like. When I was a kid (twelve years old), Istarted playing guitar. I pretty much only wanted to listen tometal, and then when I became a teenager, I only wanted tolisten to double-time fast, punk-rock, and that definitely influencedme. But when I got a little bit older, I changed my mind that musicdoesn’t necessarily have to be heavy to be good and be impactful.So, we didn’t want to set out and be the fastest band; we wanted tobe a band that had an impact and wrote good songs.RAG: What’s the future of this project; where do you seeyourself in ten years?Ten years from now, I’ll definitely be playing music, but I don’tthink I’ll be touring ten months out of the year. There are otherthings in life that I want to experience. But in terms of thisproject, things are going awesome; we’re having a great timeand as long as that’s happening, we’re not going to stop. I’mreally excited!Silverstein will be performing liveat Revolution on March 2nd.On the record, there’s a song called, “Vanity and Greed,”and I really didn’t think it was gonna be a good song, butI’m really happy with how it came out. There’s anothersong on the last record, “Call It Karma,” which is a songthat I wrote (not thinking it was going to be a keeper) andit ended up being one of my favorites, lyrically andmusically. Those are two of my favorite songs.RAG: I like the point you made referring to your songsas children. People ask me, and I tell them I havehundreds of children, but people don’t realize theyare my songs. Basically, music is very important tous; it’s a part of our lives. I think some of the greatestrewards are when people can hear it and just get asmuch pleasure out of it as we do. What is mostsatisfying about Silverstein to you?I think the most satisfying thing is just being able to makean impact in people’s lives and do something that peoplereally care about, and make a difference. People comeup to me all the time and tell me that I’ve saved their lives,and that they wouldn’t be around if it wasn’t for my music-and that’s definitely the most satisfying thing. Touring,what we do, is not easy, and it’s not easy being awayfrom home; but when kids tell you that and you’ve reallymade it impact in their lives, it really makes it worth it.www.RAGmagazine.com | 35