aaamusic | On 27, Aug 2011

The Silver Seas
‘Chateau Revenge’ album, out 15th September
Stream album track ‘Help is On The Way’

Listen to ‘Help is On The Way’ here – http://soundcloud.com/northernlightsmgt/sets/the-silver-seas-help-is-on-the/s-AWOGZ

The Silver Seas – ‘Help Is On The Way’ by The Lights Label

“They combine the knowingness of classic-period Steely Dan with the pop surge of a classic radio act like the Turtles and harmonies that could have wandered in from Mad Men”  The Word Magazine

“At it’s best Chateau Revenge delights…. and the likes of What If It Isn’t Out There? and Somebody Said Your Name are just gorgeous”  The Guardian

“This is uncurdled pop music, the kind of thing you could sprinkle on your dreams and eat with a spoon” The Word magazine

“The best band in the world!”  Danny Baker

“I don’t really know what to say about this. I mean, I really felt High Society (our previous album) should have been bigger than it was, which would have given us a theme to a sitcom, like Friends or something, which would have paid us enough money to get back in the studio immediately and to tour and all that, but it didn’t pan out like that (yet). I mean, people have kids and it’s hard for bands to stay together, but we did and we continued to play and write and record and it took us 3 years to make Chateau but there’s no shitty songs on it and even though it’s not as good as Coldplay, it’s still a fuck of a lot better than most records. So now, thanks to people like David Hepworth and Danny Baker beating it into the ground, we are starting to get some notice, so it looks like things are hitting a stride but as my wife says: ” You can ignore one good record, even 2 or 3, but you can’t ignore 4 or 5 really good records, so that’s where I’m going: To the place where we can’t be ignored.” Daniel Tashian, singer, The Silver Seas

The Silver Seas’ third album, ‘Chateau Revenge’ is finally getting a UK release.  Only available on import up until now, it will be available on The Lights Label/EMI on September 19th 2011.

The Silver Seas’ Daniel Tashian and Jason Lehning were raised deep within the Nashville music scene. Tashian’s dad Barry was lead singer of the Boston-based, mid-sixties cult combo The Remains and subsequently toured with Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band.  Lehning’s dad Kyle is a well-respected country music producer and the former president of Asylum Records Nashville. While the young Lehning apprenticed behind the boards, Tashian was developing into a formidable singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.

Tashian, has a knack for creating instantly memorable melodies to pair with often plaintive lyrics, though he’s no show-off; his craftsmanship seems effortless, as if he just dashed off these sneakily addictive numbers in his spare time. Grammy-winning producer, arranger and keyboardist Jason Lehning doesn’t polish these songs to perfection because they sound gorgeous in nearly naked form.

“We’re a good team,” says Lehning. “We bring to each other what the other one doesn’t have. Daniel’s an incredibly spontaneous person and I’m an incredibly pragmatic person.  When we work together, we get to be ourselves in a really good way. That makes a nice balance and it’s really enjoyable for me.”

Album track-by-track, Daniel Tashian, singer, The Silver Seas

1. Another Bad Nights Sleep – I suffered a bout of terrible insomnia in the winter of 2008 that was impervious to drugs, due to anxiety about my history of failed relationships and my thinning hair and getting older. Thank god it went away.

2. Jane – A song about friendship really. I was thinking about friends that really get on my nerves when I’m with them, then when they’re gone, I miss them. Strange thing about life.

3. The Best Things In Life – My version of “Satisfaction” or “When The World Is Running Down” – A song for when you feel pissed off and the world won’t seem to click into focus. It just seems like everything is turning to shit and all the good things are vanishing. It’s a temporary condition, but it feels real and you can’t make anything work.

4. What’s the Drawback- I noticed a tendency in myself when something is going good to try to find the flaw. Find the thing about it that’s human and, I know I have done this before, use it as a reason to end the relationship. It’s a sick thing to do, but I guess I feel uncomfortable with thinking someone is perfect. I still do.

5. Somebody Said Your Name- Pretty obvious this one. The suck-iness of a love affair gone to shit and having to hear people talk about it and hearing rumours and all the bullshit like that. Pretty classic.

6. Home and Dry – I Watched a Ken Burns doc. about WW2 and they told the story of a guy from Alabama who got in a fight with his girlfriend and went away to war the next day. He was a POW in Korea and had no contact with her and was in love with her and didn’t know if she still loved him. When he came home years later she had waited for him and he was so happy. It’s about the endurance of the human spirit through the prism of this story.
Swans mate for life.

7. From My WIndowsill- Wrote this stoned looking out the window of my attic apartment feeling a kind of melancholy optimism about the future watching all the people below looking so happy and for a moment, believing there was a whole world outside beyond my little myopic one. Turns out I was right.

8. Candy – Nice piece of melody inspired by the Pretenders, and what they did with “Stop Sobbing” – I just love those kind of songs, I don’t even know what you call that kind of song, just sugar-coated confection. Proud of this one. Lyrics somewhat throwaway, but coming from a genuine place of wanting to let my spirit soar and transcend the boringness of suburban ennui.

9. What If It Isn’t Out There- A “finger-pointing” song as Bob Dylan says, accusing someone of looking to the outside world for validation,
your sense of who you are and what you are worth. We all do it, to an extent but sometimes it’s more extreme and the insecurity can really cause problems.

10. Help Is On The Way – A hopefully inspirational song. No matter who you are and what your problems are, if you can hang on, something will change and the spirits and God and nature will come to your aid. It takes a bit of ego to write a song like this, you have to believe that a song can be globally affecting. That’s why Bono is so good at it.
I think I was thinking how hard it is for a lot of people, and how unfair life can be sometimes. I believe that the spirits want all creatures to be in peace and free from pain.

11. Those Streets – I was thinking about the way places become entangled in relationships and how you don’t ever want to see certain people again (or the places either)

12. Kid – Just a classic song about the difficulty of being young and how you always know what to do after the fact, when it’s too late. A song for the naive and partly inspired by my brother in law, and a disastrous prom night.  I fought it off for a while because my favourite band, The Pretenders, have a song called “Kid” but then finally I thought: “Fuck it.”

London dates
14 Sept – Proud Galleries, Camden
15 Sept – Islington Bar Academy