Following the release of The Silver Lines' new single Hotel Room, we caught up with the artist to gain some insight into the influences that make up this raw and energetic sound. If you like their choices, be sure to check it out at the bottom of the page.
1. Rocks Off - The Rolling Stones
This is the lead track on Exile on Main Street and it’s the track which epitomises the Stones. Before we came across Exile we’d heard Satisfaction, Gimme Shelter, Brown Sugar etc (basics all the classics) and always thought the Stones were cool but when we heard this it was something different that we’d never heard before. It’s muggy, in an open g tuning, there’s this push and the pull between the guitars that battle all the way through and it’s got the most important thing that makes the stones … the swing. The vocals are buried so low in the mix but it works, we’re amazed Jagger was okay with this. This has done so much for us in terms of song writing - the dirtiness of the lyrics, willing to play around with different guitar tunings and the importance of the rhymthn section.
2. Parallel Universe - Red Hot Chilli Peppers
This track is some of our earliest memories as our dads would play this in the car as kids. It’s such a special track in the fact there’s a lot of our newest single, Hotel Room, in it with the light and shade going from verse to chorus and the staccato guitar playing at the start. We always feel a deep connection with the Chilis as like us they are just a four piece band with one guitarist and we’ve always felt there is something more exposed and vulnerable with playing music this way. It’s tougher to get right especially from a live perspective as there’s no where to hide but when it’s done right it’ll properly take off.
3. Fuck Forever - Babyshambles
This song is such a wonderful mess. It's so jumpy, almost as if it’s 3 songs just shoved together but it works. When you’re a pre-adolescent and see there’s a song with fuck in the title it doesn’t matter who you are, you’re always drawn to it and that’s the one you’ll pick first. Fuck Forever is very important because it’s loose, not overproduced and completely raw. Pete Doherty’s vocal is sloppy but so effortless at the same time, it’s like he doesn’t even have to try. This tune really encapsulates the DIY essence of guitar music which we feel no other music genre quite captures without major production, studio trickery or expensive instruments. Essentially this is a group of lads just playing honestly without the bollocks, without the glamour - exactly how you start out in a band and this idea is something we hold very close.
4. Can’t Hardly Wait - The Replacements
We hadn’t discovered The Replacements until we were in our late teens as they aren’t really a household name unless your parents are musos or were underground music goers in the US in the 80’s. As soon as we heard them we were turned on immediately. The vocal, the stops, the horn sections it’s like some hybrid wet dream of Kurt Cobain and Noel Gallagher. The line “Jesus rides beside me, he never buys any smokes” has always struck a chord, to be honest, we’re not entirely sure what its means but it’s one of those lines that just immediately grabs you. Unfortunately, since the birth of modern guitar music (1990s-present), verses are often overlooked and full of empty throw away lines which sound philosophical at first listen but realise it’s just pseudo bull, so it’s refreshing to hear something that makes you think even if Paul Westerberg is taking the piss out of the listener.
5. Maggot - Amyl & The Sniffers
We thought we’d share something that was new. We heard this on Radio 1 driving back from a gig in Nottingham and we went wild. It’s great to hear a song like this breakthrough. It’s classic songwriting, the way we like to write anyway, cool riff for the verse and a set of chords for the chorus with a bit of melody. Simple. Doesn’t get much more effective. Let’s not forget the lyrics and they’re all sung in an Aussie accent. Again they got the sleaze. Put your maggots in me… we think we genuinely believe her.