Deranged Media sat down with lead singer Bob James from Silent Theory to get their take on all things music and bring some news and excitement to the music industry.
We kicked off the interview by getting to know about the band and what is new and what they have been working on.
The biggest news is that they have a brand new album being released on September 13,2024 called “Tell Us How It Ends.” James stated they are excited for the album to be released and they took some chances on this album and hopefully fans can go out and take a listen. A link to a few of the new songs are in the interview if fans want to go and check them out.
For this album they wanted to do something different then what they have done with the past few albums. The band writes all the material and they recorded the music with the same producer. This time around the band decided to switch things up and decided to record with Chris Dawson. He used to play with Seasons After and now he has been recording with a pretty much every band you hear on Octane. He has a good sound and a good sense of what is going on in radio. So they decided to work with him and also a few different song writers to get their take on what was going to work for them and try to stay current and make sure their knowledge was modern. They wanted to make sure they were not doing the same types of songs from the last few albums. They learned a lot and got a lot of new experience from different aspects of the industry.
They have doing this a long time. They played their first show November 2009. They have done a couple albums since then and wanted to make sure they are doing what they can to stay on top of their game. They have 3 albums prior to the release of the new album.
As far as touring goes, they just got out from doing a few west coast shows with Skylandge Riot this past summer. They played rockfest and have been trying to get some stuff booked around this album release. They had one band reach out and they were gonna start planning on that then something fell through on their end so that didn’t pan out. They then got another opportunity but that feel through. So they are still working on trying to get some dates for this fall to promote the new album. Hopefully they will have some information soon.
Deranged asked James if they had any collaborations with other artists on this album or was it strictly just the band. James stated that they had a few singles that they released in between albums and one of them featured Josey Scott from Saliva. They had a few other ones here and there so they are open to doing more collaborations with other artists. They are looking into doing acoustic versions of their songs to give it a different perspective and look at the songs in a different lens. They may do some type of alternate versions acoustically here in the near future so we can hope to see that from them soon.
Deranged asked James if they could collaborate with any artist who would it be. James stated “that was a hard question because there are so many people that are talented and they would love to work with.” The one that he mentioned that had the most impressive vocal performance capabilities in the rock scene currently would have to be Johnny From Nothing More. “The stuff he can do with his voice and then he climbs on that big contraption. He would be really cool to work with.” “There are so many other people too. Like Noah from Bad Omens. I love pretty much all they are doing. He has a unique sound. We have had a few conversations with bands like Any Given Sin about doing some stuff with them. We almost had a thing booked with them this spring but they got picked up on a bigger tour so that didn’t happen.”
Deranged asked James what their favorite venue to play at is. James said “As a fan one of my favorite ever venues I have been to is The Original Show Box in Seattle. Its just this really cool venue that holds maybe 1000-1500 fans. Just the way it is set up and the whole vibe is awesome. I have had some great experiences with concerts there. We have had some really great concert experiences in Salt Lake City actually. It has a really great rock scene. We have played there a few times. Really great crowd. We had the same type of experience in Denver this time around. It is the people that are there to see us or even someone else and as long as they are having a great time it makes us have a great time as well.”
Deranged asked James “What is a good way for newer bands to get their name out there.” James stated, “You need to play shows and then get good at playing those shows. Once you do that you need to take the show on the road. You may not be great at the beginning but you need to just keep practicing and getting better playing in front of people. It comes with time. The more people you meet and introduce to your music the more followers you will get. Also the internet and social media is a big game changer in a lot of ways too.” With us not even touring outside the US we have fans in Brazil and Germany and that is all because of social media. Its just a lot of hard work.”
Deranged and James talk about how times have changed over the years in regards to the internet. In the early 90’s and late 80’s bands used to have their singles on cd’s and would stop by a radio station and have them listen to their single and then play it on the radio station. Now they send it to XM/Sirius Radio and have stations like Octane play it from a digital version. They find bands online that sound good and fit their listeners and they play them and it reaches people all over the world that stream their station online. So times have come a long way and have changed over the decades.
Deranged then asks James about his role in the band. He is the backup vocals and does rhythm guitar. He goes into how they come up with songs and lyrics. James states that “Scott does majority part or most of the writing. Mitch contributes to that as well. If he has an idea he will send it over to Scott and he will play around with it. Dakota writes 99% of the lyrics. Every now and then he will pitch something to the band to see their take on it. The band will give their take on it and then maybe if it is a hit they can use it if not then it just turns into an idea. Dakota is great at telling a story in a way it is intriguing but it is also more open to interpretation while still being more specific.” Scott and Dakota are basically the song writers for the band.
Deranged then asks James about his role in the band. He is the backup vocals and does rhythm guitar. He goes into how they come up with songs and lyrics. James states that Scott does majority part or most of the writing. Mitch contributes to that as well. If he has an idea he will send it over to Scott and he will play around with it. Dakota writes 99% of the lyrics. Every now and then he will pitch something to the band to see their take on it. The band will give their take on it and then maybe if it is a hit they can use it if not then it just turns into an idea. Dakota is great at telling a story in a way it is intriguing but it is also more open to interpretation.
They went into talking about Linkin Park and their new singer and how it is changing the bands sound and how the new lead singer fits in with the band.
Deranged and James talk about their name and how their name came about and if there was any other name for the band. They have been playing for 14 years now. He talks about how they were playing together under a different name and decided to abandon that project and start over. The band sat at a Mexican restaurant and were shooting out ideas for names and they came up with Silent Theory. They decided to play one show and see how it goes and the name has stuck it out for 14 years now.
James then talks about what they would be doing if they were not doing music. We do the band as much as we can but we all still have day jobs we got mortgages and families to take care of. He does advising and recruiting for a local university. James and his wife just bought a farm recently and he is trying to have to try and figure out quickly how to be a stay at home dog den and stay at the farm all day.
The last part of the interview is talking about how to get to see them and how to hear their music. The links and the video coverage of the full length interview are attached below. If you want to check them out their social media links are listed below as well. It was fun getting to know Bob James from Silent Theory and getting to know some insiders to who the band really is.
Silent Theory
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