passion and a desire to express hope. It is an even extension. “Silent Era is one of the more collaborative bands I’ve played with,� says Hill. “We all share our insights into arrangement, editing, and texture. Our aesthetic and moral directions are on a fairly common wavelength and collaboration feels very nurturing.�
poignant. Even just the concept of acknowledging people’s potential for transformative growth calls into question the existence of prisons, police, the concept of punishment, and struggles around power.� The record ends with the expansive “Future Dreams,� a number equal in grief and joy. Silent Era play for each other, and in doing so, play for everyone. “The revolution’s inside you,� Hill sings as the band wraps its support around her. Great bands have a knack of sacrificing themselves, if only for a second.
Eight songs on Rotate The Mirror lay classic in their incantation. Each step of the way, a building of spells and angst, and then a recognition of the space the band has formed. In this way it is a path. To a new world perhaps, this is a band that enacts a charged spirit, a dose of “I’d like to state the themes at work in reality to the moment we’re living the process of making this record,â€? in. The group asks if we have a say Hill adds. “The search for equilibin our future. Does anyone? rium and harmony, understanding that feelings, however important, “This is the first time I actually am aren’t facts, that stories can be angry about the vote I feel I will rewritten, and that all persons have to cast later this year,â€? Hill carry within them the potential for explains. “And since the personal transformative growth.â€? is political, I’d say the politics of this record feel particularly Sounds like a way forward. đ&#x;’Ł PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRNO
INTERVIEW WITH BASSIST JULIA BOOZ-ULLREY, VOCALIST MICHELLE HILL, DRUMMER GREG HARVESTER, AND GUITARIST MATT BADENHOP BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON
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akland’s Silent Era balance “I’ll imagine the snare drum as message and resonance, a cop’s face, or the cymbals as bouncing around possible the racist Baptists I grew up with,� directions with a heart for togeth- notes drummer Greg Harvester. erness. The band is the thing. And “I think struggle is inherent to all through this thing, an energy is re- music.� leased as the ultimate potion. On their latest record, Rotate The Mir- It’s the noticeable aspect to Silent ror, out September 15 via Nervous Era’s sound, a grouped joy shimIntent Records, the quickness of mering through each member’s their movement parallels the anger particular feelings. The music is through which they show their love. direct and yet abstract. Guitarist Matt Badenhop’s watery riffs sit “I would say most of our songs are linear to Michelle Hill’s loose hopeful and about envisioning a vocals. Ullrey and Badenhop sit better world,� says bassist Julia back as the foundation, a stone Booz-Ullrey, “seeing a way through quarry of two, holding things as and believing in each other.� one. As riffs ring out and compositions counter back, the fullness And the impetus for such commu- and support is clear. There is nion is the ultimate in transformation. anger that is reinforced by com-
66 NEW NOISE
