Easy Being A Winner

As a band, Ireland 6 piece Silverbacks are restless, eager to move onto the next thing: 3 albums in 4 years is evidence of this. That their fizzing, rock-addled songs rarely pass the 4 minute mark is further proof. But in their personal lives, they’re not restless. In fact, they’re settling down. Lead singer and guitarist Daniel O’Kelly now lives on the outskirts of Paris with his wife. His brother, guitarist Kilian, has moved to Drogheda, an hour north of Dublin, with wife and fellow Silverback Emma Hanlon, where they’ve discovered a newfound interest in plants.  They’re content. Their relationships - their friendships - take the pressure off the music and ultimately allows for something that is more enjoyable to make, and perhaps, as a result, sounds more authentically like Silverbacks too. As they sing on the closing track of third album Easy Being a Winner: “You start to figure it out.”
 
As with Fad and Archive Material, Silverbacks recorded Easy Being a Winner with DanielFox (Gilla Band) in Sonic Studios in Stoneybatter, Dublin. Daniel O’Kelly is quick to praise his younger brother. “My favourite parts of the studio sessions are when we record Kilian on the guitar or piano. It’s a real joy just watching him play and effortlessly transpose the melodies in his head onto an instrument.”Peadar Kearney is the other guitarist in Silverbacks and is key to defining the sound of the opening track and lead single off Easy Being a Winner, ‘Selling Shovels’. Getting guitar feedback like that heard in the bridges and outro is an art-form that Peadar has mastered. The band’s twin/triple-threat guitarmony runs through these 11 songs, from the Cory Hanson-influenced noodles of ‘Look At All You’ve Done’ to the swells of ‘Billion Star Night Light’.
 
Some 7 years into Silverbacks, they say definitively that this is what they sound like. What they want to sound like. “A lot of the songs are new, but the album reminds me of the times Kilian and I spent in the garage as teenagers writing songs together and imagining what our band could achieve,” says Daniel. “It reminds me of the first few gigs we played with Peadar and Emma in Maynooth. Now that Easy Being a Winner is coming out, I feel I can more confidently say who we are. We’re indie rock. And this album sounds even more like the indie rock I imagined for our band all those years ago.” 

Released: October 2024
Cat: CENTONES007LPX  
Label: Central Tones

Listen

Tracklist

1. Selling Shovels
2. Giving Away An Inch Of
3. Look At All You’ve Done
4. Hideaway
5. Something I Know
6. Flex ‘95
7. Spinning Jenny
8. No Rivers Around Here
9. Billion Star Night Light
10. Songs About Divide
11. Easy Being A Winner