Q&A: On The Road With The Silkies + New Single ‘Milkman’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY GIGI KANG ☆
BRIGHT, GOOD ENERGY WITH SOMETHING TO SAY—Cincinnati-based The Silkies have a clear sound, and their new indie-rock single “Milkman” showcases just that.
The Silkies are Pierce Geary (bass and vocals), Joe Pruitt (guitar, vocals, synths), Jake Merritt (drums and percussion), Tyler Peyman (guitar), John Rice (guitar and synths), and Michael Takahashi (synths and vocals).
The group came together naturally. Merritt and Geary were in a band together called Pomegranates. After it ended, Merritt “couldn’t resist the itch to play music and write [his] own songs, not just produce other people’s songs.” So he reached out to Geary.
“I was like, ‘Pierce, what if we get together, you and me,” Merritt says. “‘Let’s just open the door and see what happens.’”
The pair then got in touch with Pruitt after hearing his music—luckily, Pruitt felt like an immediate match. Peyman joined the project through Geary who worked with the former’s partner, who then introduced the group to Takahashi. Rice actually knew Merritt and Geary from college. And so became The Silkies who released their first single “IDK” on May 23.
On April 11, the band played their first show at Raccoon Motel in Iowa supporting The Criticals and Alley Eyes. They documented the experience and shared the film photos with Luna.
Hello from Joe
On July 21, the band released their second single “Milkman” which was the first song they ever wrote together. Now, they’re working towards building a community and putting out more singles before releasing their debut album.
“We have a full album done, mixed and mastered,” Merritt says. “Everything’s ready. Hopefully [people] discover us and we meet more people at shows.”
Read our full conversation with The Silkies below.
LUNA: How did putting out the first single go for you?
GEARY: It was wonderful. We approached this band and songwriting differently than most of us have with other bands where we created songs in a studio setting first and built them by recording them. “IDK” was an inversion of the process where you kind of jam until a song is created—this was built piece by piece for the purpose of sending it out into the world. It felt very gratifying to finally see it spread its wings. We played our first show just a little bit before we released the first single. It was very exciting to see people’s response to it.
Pierce at Raccoon Motel
LUNA: Did you get to tease “Milkman” at that show?
GEARY: Oh yeah.
MERRITT: The response has been very good. You put so much work, time, and energy into this little three-minute nugget and just hope that it connects with somebody.
LUNA: How did “Milkman” come to be?
GEARY: The experience of writing was very patchwork and quilt-like. It was organic. Thematically, it fits well within themes that are explored throughout all the songs [on the album to come], even though they weren’t written with any intentional through line. Themes of uncertainty, loss, confusion, lack of knowing your own identity, or grappling with changes to your identity and community, who you know is safe to get close to. They’re maybe a little shrouded in “Milkman,” but are very much there. All the other songs feel like they’re parsing out various bits of that and digging deeper. It feels like there’s some unifying philosophy that we tapped into accidentally.
LUNA: You have a run of shows in July with VEAUX and FOX ROYALE. What have you planned for that?
GEARY: It’s our first time playing more than two shows with the same band. It’s very exciting to get to know other artists a bit deeper and form some relationships, and cultivate more regional audiences. We’ve actually only played our own city [once] and, luckily, one of these three shows will be in the Cincinnati area. [Being] a band that feels comfortable in all the Midwestern cities is a priority of ours. This is a way to keep that going and draw in more people who are an hour, two hours, drive away from where we live. We [want to] invest in them.
Lovely Silkies Merch
MERRITT: It’s really fun playing a city for the first time. You have no idea who’s going to show up. Most likely, no one knows who you are. It’s like a challenge because we’re the direct support band, so we’re playing first. It’s trying to win them over and be enthusiastic and give them permission to have fun and dance around. It’s helping people warm up and get excited about being in a place where people are trying to be generous with their creativity and do something fun—community building. That’s what I’m looking forward to for the shows.
PRUITT: We’re also trying to step it up a notch. Make the production value better, vocal effects, or just tightening up as a band and refining our live show as we practice. We’ve made an effort to move in that direction. I think these are going to be our best shows so far.
Michael (left) and Tyler (right) hanging at the merch table
LUNA: Since you guys are still new to playing together, what has been your favorite part about playing with this formation?
PEYMAN: Rehearsing. Being able to spend time together. There’s something strange about soliciting band members without too much communal connection. There’s an element of friendship building. In this group of guys, everyone has their own thing. The curve of age is really great across our band. There’s a difference in taste.
TAKAHASHI: Somehow we arrive at a good spot, even though it’s so drastically different across the board.
PEYMAN: We’re at the very least aligned in wanting to pursue excellent music making in our city and to push the expectation of live music in this little southern Ohio city.
MERRITT: We all are pursuing intentionality. We’re trying to be very intentional about what we do, not just doing something to do it. And I would totally agree with what Tyler is saying. It’s so easy to feel isolated in our culture. There are a lot of people connected digitally, but not as much community building. That’s something I love. It’s a scheduled thing. We’re all going to get together and we’re going to practice and we’re going to talk about our crazy situations in life. When you’re driving to a show for five hours—you can have really beautiful conversations.
Views from the trip to Iowa
PEYMAN: It’s almost celebratory to get to play this music live. It started as a very insular, quiet studio project. It’s just the nature of writing songs as you record them. We’re lucky to have so much autonomy because of Jake’s studio. So it feels like after months of deliberation and hibernation, we get to celebrate and play this stuff loudly.
LUNA: What kind of music do you guys like listening to? Any particular influences?
PRUITT: Talking Heads, Television, and there are some contemporary bands like Geese. I really like them a lot. I think at the end of the day, we’re a post-punk band. We all have different influences. I kind of come from a garage rock thing. [Jake and Pierce] used to play together, so they have their own musical language together.
Pierce (left) and Jake (right) at Raccoon Motel
MERRITT: I would say Sparklehorse has always been a huge influence for me. The Horrors were definitely on the mood board, like the British, shoegaze, post-punk bands.
GEARY: The stuff I mostly listen to is kind of outsider, weirdo singer-songwriter stuff like Chad Vangaalen or Dear Nora. Everything that Big Thief and Adrianne Lenker have done over the past couple of years is extremely exciting to me.
PEYMAN: I’m crazy about Mk.gee like everyone else. I’ve been listening to a lot of Hawaiian slack-key guitar music, which is actually fascinating. Hawaiian psych music is very interesting because the musicians each have their own tuning systems. It’s a really interesting tradition of guitar playing. I’ve been listening to a lot of that. And Bill Frisell is my number one guy. I hope to inject some of Frisell’s adventurous spirit into The Silkies.
TAKAHASHI: Peach Pit is probably my number one influence. I like J-rock bands. Some Korean music. I’ve been listening to a lot of foreign stuff recently. I just love the interplay between their voices, like the guitar line and the vocal line meshing together. Polyphia was another big one for me too. Maybe 10 years ago, [I would have said] Cage The Elephant or The Strokes. Those are big influences that come through in this sort of music.
MERRITT: Ultimately, our king is David Byrne because Talking Heads are kind of that mixing pot of funk music, rock, and psychedelia. That’s probably a common ground for all of us.
