The History of The Silents: Up Until Now
The Silents are an australian four piece psychedelic rock band from Perth, having formed in 2002. Their members are Lloyd Stowe (vocals, guitar, writing), Sam Ford (bass), Jamie Terry (guitar, vocals) and Mike Jelinek (drums). Before Jelinek, Alex Hayes was the band's drummer, but he left before the second album's production.
The very beginning
Stowe, Ford and Terry met in highschool, forming a band which would never really go anywhere. Jamie Terry would start playing guitar due to seeing Lloyd Stowe play, realising that he needed to get his hands on one too. After highschool, they went their separate ways, but two years later, Lloyd Stowe would contact Sam Ford with new material that he’s written. Ford liked the songs, and would introduce Alex Hayes to the band, as both were playing in a band at that time. They’d also re-recruit Jamie Terry, and would proceed to record a three track demo in early December 2003. The band's name was chosen at a rehearsal one day, named after the Simon and Garfunkel album “The Sound of Silence”. They changed the spelling for reasons that Stowe can’t remember. The name was also influenced by The Silence, the original name of the English band John's Children.
Flicker and Flames and 23
The Silents would make their official debut with the single “Nightcrawl”, which received large amounts of airplay on Triple J and alternative radio stations across Australia. On March 6th, 2006, the band released their first EP “Flicker and Flames” under Rubber Records and EMI, recorded with Dave Parkin of the band Red Jezebel. They would proceed to tour with The Exploders in 2006, appeared as the house band on the australian variety show Rove Live, and were nominated as “Most Promising New Act” at the WAMi Awards. In 2007, they signed to Ivy League Records and would tour with The Vines and Red Riders. In the same year, they also started recording their first album, and released the EP “23” on November 7th, containing the single of the same name, two songs that wouldn’t make it on the album, and an older, unreleased song named “Window”.
Things to Learn
Their first album, “Things to Learn”, would release on March 29th, 2008, produced by Dave Parkin at Blackbird Sound Studio and mixed by Doug Boehm at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. The tracks were written over an extended period, and the band had views on the world that were “spiritually wayward and mentally adrift”, according to Stowe. The album tackles themes of loss of innocence and child-likeness and the bleakness of day-to-day life.
After the album was released, the band would go on to write songs that would strive away from their more poppy roots into a more psychedelic punk sound. In November of the same year, Alex Hayes would leave the band, being unhappy with the new direction the band was going, proceeding to form the dream pop band HYLA. Mike Jelinek would replace Hayes as the band’s new drummer. They would show their new material to Ivy League Records, who were also unhappy with the direction they were taking, as was their manager Heath Bradby. The label wanted them to write hit singles, which the band didn’t want to do, as they just wanted to create a solid album. So they split ways with both their label and their manager, and proceeded to record their second album “Sun A Buzz” in 2009.
Sun A Buzz and the years after
Sun A Buzz was released independently on June 25th, 2010, recorded at Waves House in a remote area of Southwest Australia, the same place as Innerspeaker by Tame Impala was recorded. Additionally, it was again produced by Dave Parkin at Blackbird Sound Studio. It goes in a much more heavy psychedelic direction than their last album.
After the release of Sun A Buzz, the band would go on a national tour with Tame Impala in 2010. On November 24th, 2011, they announced on their Twitter that they were working on new music. Throughout the next few years, the band would play a few smaller performances, notably on January 2nd, 2012, as they were playing new songs and some old songs from Things to Learn with former drummer Alex Hayes, and on February 28th, 2012, playing at Ponds fundraiser. Around 2012, they signed with the newly formed Spinning Top Records. In 2014, the band toured as King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s main support on their national Oddments Tour. After years of silence around LP3, the band would reveal that they were recording the new album at Tone City Recording Studio on July 17th, 2014. This album has yet to be released.
Where are they now?
The last known lifesign of the band would be on March 4th, 2016, when they changed their Facebook profile. Since then, the band has seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth, and the fate of LP3 is up in the air. But what do the band members do nowadays?
Lloyd Stowe would go on to be involved in other projects, helping on albums such as Nick Allbrook and Cam Avery’s 2011 Album “Big ‘Art”, and GUM’s 2014 album “Delorean Highway”. (Fun fact: GUM actually covered The Silents’ “Ophelia”, which I think is cool.) Jamie Terry would go on to join Pond, which he is still a member of today. Sam Ford would launch Tone City Records in January 2022. Mike Jelinek is a music tutor, teaching various instruments, music theory and sound engineering. Alex Hayes is still a part of HYLA to this day.
The Silents have not broken up officially, but it is safe to say that LP3 shouldn’t be expected to release anytime soon. Yet their impact on the Australian psych scene shall not be forgotten.