On: July 22 at 11:06 PM
‘”Your Ghost Fits My Skin’ is more than two years worth of songwriting, but I think it represents my life right now—someone believing he is ready to get married and at the same time realizing they are ready to die.”
Let’s not lie, those words cut pretty hard, but it might lead you to think that Kevin Lee has much more of a bleak outlook on life than he really does. He’s purely ruminating on the unforeseen intensity that surrounded the creative process for his band Silver Darling’s debut full-length album.
“They’re the things you think about when you get married, that there are things out there more important than you, about realistically being willing to die for someone,” Lee said in a phone interview from his midtown Sacramento home.
“It got pretty heavy, but I’m glad we did the album we did; it’s a pretty intense first full-length,” said the Americana band’s singer. “Getting really personal is something I hadn’t planned on doing.”
By the way, Lee is getting married in just a couple of weeks, but in the midst of planning a wedding, he still had time to complete the recording of “Your Ghost Fits My Skin,” and he’s able to fit in a Silver Darling show at Café Deva on Friday, July 25.
Café Deva is at 1202 J St. in Modesto. The show gets started at 8 p.m., and tickets are $5. Travis Vick, Chris Doud and Adam Bishop will also be performing.
Being one of their last shows before the new album drops, the show at Deva somewhat signals the end of one phase of Silver Darling’s young career and the beginning of another.
“We’re still playing a lot of stuff from the EP, it really has it’s own vibe,” Lee said. “We’re just really relishing and enjoying these last shows of the first era.”
The group’s debut EP, “Wrap Around My Heart” has an appealing yet noticeably somber, minimalist edge to its blue collar folk tunes. With Josh Alabama on electric and Jesse Phillips on bass, the band does not currently employ a drummer when they play live.
But that’s all about that change. When Silver Darling celebrates the release of their new album at Café du Nord in San Francisco next month and at Harlow’s in Sacramento in September, it will be their first times playing live with a drummer. They’ll need it, considering the change of pace their new material is going to bring.
“It’s a really fun type of album,” Lee said of the new record. “We started out as just a straight folk band, and we still have a lot of those influences, but the new stuff is just dark, heavy American music. It’s still folk at times; it’s really fun to play live.”
A double-sided album (yep, they still make those), “Your Ghost Fits My Skin” was produced by local Sacramento artist Christian Kiefer, who brought the perfect combo of technical prowess, vision and a splash of lunacy to the table while working with Silver Darling.
“It’s definitely a mood switch,” Lee said. “Christian always connects his songs in an old school, Beatles’ ‘White Album’ type thing. It’s very planned out, there are a lot of things to guide people to the place they should go for the next song.
“We talked a lot about extremes, about bringing out the true nature of each song. If it’s dark and haunting, then let’s make it dark and haunting. If it’s jangly and fun, let’s make it sound like you’re in a saloon in the 1800’s. We had a lot of the ideas of the vibe and overall energy and we knew he was good at bringing that out.”
Adding a little Black Sabbath-ish rock flavor to Lee’s already heartfelt and introspective songwriting, Kiefer helped usher Silver Darling into the next chapter of their career; a chapter that Lee and Co. are meeting head on.
“(While writing songs for the album) I told the guys, this is what’s happening,” Lee said. “I don’t even know where it’s going; this album is bigger than I thought it was going to be.”
The Silver Darling show is presented by Off the Air, which is run by Modesto promoter Greg Edwards. Off the Air has been bringing indie music to Modesto for three years, and earlier this year Edwards celebrated its anniversary with a show at Deva. Here's an interview with Edwards and a look at the show. Video by Ian Hill, edited by Hani Yang / 209Vibe.
