Silence is Broken

We all constantly hear people talking about their favorite local band. You know, the one that your best friend's cousin's brother-in-law is in and "they're the next big thing!" It's almost by default when we go to local shows nowadays that you'll hear a few locals telling you you're going to be blown away by their performance and music. And also as we all know, this is very rarely true. Then we ran into a band called Silence is Broken, and all those great things we had heard were nothing short of absolutely true. Hard-Rock-Reviews.com sat down with vocalist Aaron Fishel and Drummer Kyle Urbanik to talk about where they came from, and where they're headed.

Hard-Rock-Reviews.com: So how did you guys get your start?

Aaron Fishel: Me, Jamison (Parker), the guitar player, and Shawn Wade, our bassist, started this band five years ago. We had just gotten tired of the scene around our hometown of Rockford (Illinois). Same bands, same people; like regurgitated everything. People who had quit this band and joined another band, you know? And they just weren’t very good bands, not to be an asshole or anything. We’ve been doing nothing but shows. We’ve toured with Dope and Anew Revolution, 12 stones, played (WJJO) Band Camp this year, which was a major highlight for us. Pushing and pushing and pushing with the ultimate goal being to get a record deal obviously.


HRR: What sets you apart from other upcoming local bands?

Fishel: Our thing is man, that we are still trying to pull that early 2001, 2002 music. Your Reveille’s, your 40 Below Summer’s, your Ill Nino’s, your One Minute Silence, Coal Chamber. We are trying to pull that style of music into today. It’s not rap-metal, but it’s got the same hardcore break downs that make you feel like, “Man, I just want to punch somebody right next to me.” We are all huge Limp Bizkit fans and 36 Crazyfists fans so we try to keep that feel. A lot of these that bands come out now they’ll come out with a great first CD but than the record company will come out and alter them or dumb them down. We try to combine that with the old school “bring it,” and still have singing so the girls and the guys can understand but when it breaks down we want you to understand that it’s because we’re pissed about something. Not just random screaming.




HRR: Is there a message you’re trying to send to people with your music?

Kyle Urbanik: I don’t really know if we’re trying to send one specific message. I mean we’re trying to send a message in every song like what we’re feeling. And that’s why we write it is to show what we are feeling.

Fishel: My message is just rise, revolt and live. We got a song called “Rise, Revolt, Live” and that’s my message. It’s rise up, don’t let people put you down. Revolt against what everyone else thinks you should do and just live and be you. If you do that, I guarantee you’ll make it and you’ll be just fine. You know what I’m saying. These kids these days get told, “You got to wear Abercrombie to be cool.” And that’s not true whatsoever.

HRR: As an up and coming band, what do you guys think is the hardest thing about breaking into the music scene? There’s thousands of bands that are trying to do it.

Fishel: The hardest thing is that there used to be camaraderie between bands. Now bands look at you and say, “Oh my God. You’re a threat!” So it’s hard to break into the scene because nobody wants to give you a chance. You find yourself saying, “I’m going to have to go out and make a scar on the face of the music scene.” Then before you know the same bands who didn’t want to let you play with them are going, “I see you guys are drawing 100-200 kids every night. Do you want to play with us?”

HRR: Yeah! You guys seem to really draw a bigger and bigger crowd each time you come to Madison.

Fishel: We’re from Rockford dude, but Madison is definitely our home away from home. We just played with Anew Revolution and Aranda and that place was packed. We sold tons of CD’s, shirts. We got people on Facebook putting up CD’s that we signed and we’re just like, “We love stuff like that!” We really started to notice that something was happening when we played Kenosha and people came from Band Camp to see us and wanted to take pictures with us like we were this major headliner. We were just all like, “Man, what’s going on? We’re not used to this!”

HRR: Is that what it is that fuels you guys? You got a little bit of a taste and now you want more?

Urbanik: Yeah man, it’s all about the fans. They are what drives us.

Fishel: Band Camp for us was just surreal. That’s the only way to describe it. The fans are what made it that way. They loved us, embraced us. Everything we did that day and that’s what its about man, the fans. All these bands just get huge and forget about their fans, and I just don’t see that. Fans make the day like you could be having the worst day in the world and then you walk out and see your fans screaming their lungs out.

HRR: What is it about Madison, or even Wisconsin fans in general? Are they more metal or maybe just more accepting?

Fishel: They have a love for music. They don’t sit there and judge. They listen to what you have to offer and if they love it they’re on board full go. We have never had a bad crowd in Madison or even in Wisconsin. We played Middleton at Scatz, with Anew Revolution and that was even packed. We’ve played Kenosha and had decent crowds a well as the Back Bar in Janesville and the crowds there were great. It’s just once Madison latches onto a band, they’ll follow you. We’ve even had fans from here (Madison) that come to Illinois to watch and it’s just, “Really? You drove an hour to come see us? That’s awesome!”

HRR: Tell me about a “Silence is Broken” fan. Are they metalheads, or just plain rockers?

Fishel: You know I could tell you it’s the metalheads but then we get a guy who only listens to rap come up to us and say, “I only listen to rap but I love Silence is Broken.”

Urbanik: Even age groups. We’ve even had a young pre-teen kids come up to us and say, “You guys rock!” We’ve had a fifty year old guy who all he likes is Frank Sinatra come up to us and tell how much he likes our rock.

Fishel: But what they say every time is that they love our music because we can understand what you’re saying. And that’s a big factor nowadays. You get all these bands coming out that think it’s so cool to come out and (screams). Ok? No one can understand it.

HRR: That’s one thing I’ve noticed about your music is that you’re on that edge where you could kind of fall off into the screaming, but you have heavy drums, heavy guitar but at the same time, clean drums and clean guitars. I think that’s where you guys are at.

Fishel: I think it’s the Midwest. That’s the kind of music that comes out of this area.

HRR: Tell me about any albums or anything coming up.

Fishel: We are taking December and most of January off to write a twelve song album. What we’re doing with that is producing it ourselves, recording it ourselves and then we’ll send it off to the labels and the managers and the people who have asked for more. I can’t guarantee when it’ll be released, because if someone likes it then it’s in their hands at that point.

HRR: Tell me a little about it. Are you guys changing anything or are you keeping the same formula?

Urbanik: We obviously have some material already written but we’re going to go in there and we’re going to write. As far as direction, the skies the limit pretty much. We still want to keep that hook and keep that drive.

Fishel: That’s what we’re focusing on is hook. Let’s be true to ourselves but have killer hook. You could be happy as hell but if you’ve got that hook and people want to sing along, forget about it. It’s done.

Urbanik: You can’t get the song out of your head!

HRR: Is there anyone out there right now on the scene that you look up to and respect with your fullest admiration?

Fishel: Sevendust and Anew Revolution. We’ve toured with them and they are just cool to everyone involved.

HRR: Is there someone that you’ve gone on stage with and you just really drew from their performance or music and wanted to try that with your stage show?

Fishel: For me it changes every day dude. I went to see (hed) P.E. and I wanted to do stuff like Jared does. It’s like Fred Durst (LimpBizkit), fucking Chino Moreno (Deftones), and Corey Taylor. I’m a huge Corey Taylor fan. Chad (Gray) from Mudvayne. And Joey (Duenas) from Anew Revolution.

HRR: And what about you, Kyle?

Urbanik: Definitely Morgan Rose (Sevendust) and Tommy Lee! You know let’s face it, I’m no elaborate drummer but at the same time you got to go big or go home. Have that stage presence for people to visually see and then they hear what you’re producing and the next thing you know they’re in love and they can say, “I felt the music that you were playing.” It’s all emotion. You’ve got to feel it.