SONS OF ADAM (AGAIN)
takes punk pop to a revitalized Christian music hotspot--Southern California.
takes punk pop to a revitalized Christian music hotspot--Southern California.
Whatever you do, don't say the words G.D. around Scott Silletta.
No, no, no... not that G.D. C'mon, this is CCM
. No, the 24-year-old front
man for
PlankEye in this case is bristling slightly with a comparison between his
band and
those other purveyors of punk pop--Green Day.
"I think they only say that because they don't know that many other
bands.
I don't think we sound
anything like anybody," Silletta says. "With this new album
[Commonwealth],
I feel like we've really
come into our own. We've kinda got our own little deal going now, which
is
good for us, because we really
didn't want to sound like anybody else."
Not that anybody would blame them for copping some sonics from what's popular. After all, PlankEye as a band has been around since 1991, which if Silletta is 24 now, that would make him... well, we'll let him do the math.
"I was 19, our drummer was 15. We were all pups," Silletta says.
So, the fact the band has moved into its own identity is made it that
much more
impressive. But, it's not that unexpected for a unit that was one of the
first bands
on the Tooth & Nail label, and one whose growth process has been
shepherded
by one Gene
Eugene.
The Adam Again leader/producer was looked upon by the band as someone with whom they wanted to work. Only problem was, when they went looking for him, they couldn't find him.
"We were all big Adam Again fans. We had heard that Gene had a studio, and we really wanted to find where Gene was and do that, and we couldn't find out where he was," Silletta says.
"We went to a music store where a friend of ours worked, and there was this guy sitting at the counter playing guitar, and we started talking to him about how we wanted to record, to make a CD, and the guy says, 'Oh, my friend has a studio.' We asked him what it was called, and he says, 'The Green Room.'
"We thought that sounded familiar, and asked who the owner was, and he said 'Gene Eugene' and we were like, 'No way!' It was totally the Lord who hooked us up because we had no idea what we were going to do."
Easy, huh? Run into somebody who knows Gene Eugene, make a record, get signed and you're off and running? That's all well and good, if you can get through the first meeting with your potential producer without wigging out.
"We drove up, got out of the car, and the drummer for Adam Again is in the driveway unloading his drums," Silletta recalls. "We walk inside, all the guys from Adam Again are there. Gene sits us down to talk to us, and they're all lookin' at us. We were, like,
'Oh... my. We're here with Adam Again.' We were freaked out."
Adam Again was only one of several Southern California bands that had an impact on the musical, and spiritual, development of the members of PlankEye. "As far as Christian bands, we really liked the Prayer Chain. They really inspired us by the way they love God and the way they would share the Lord during their shows," Silletta says. "For me, seeing them up there on stage just going off, and Andy Prickett would break out the Bible during their shows and just totally preach the Gospel. I was totally encouraged by them."
The Planksters obviously got past those first meeting jitters and went
on to produce a
demo that caught the ears of Tooth & Nail founder Brandon Ebel, who
signed
them to a deal.
1995 saw the release of The Spark
, the band's first full
album, the offshoots of which
garnered some success in some unforeseen places.
The video for the single "Open House" found its way onto a compilation
reel for the alternative rock magazine huH
, putting PlankEye
in front of an audience it would not have reached otherwise. "Time
Warner must think Tooth & Nail is this really cool little indie
label because we were on there with people like Natalie Merchant and
Letters to Cleo," Silletta says.
The members of PlankEye were road warriors last year, playing more than
150
dates fanning The Spark with their energetic live performances. The only
drawback to that much touring was that the band was a little, shall we
say, under-prepared when they were scheduled to go back into the studio
to record Commonwealth
.
"We were gone all the time, so we didn't really get the chance to sit down and write music. So when we got ready to go into the studio, we were still on tour, and we had written one song. We had ideas for a bunch of songs, but we had only finished one song," Silletta says. "We came home, and we had two weeks before we went into the studio, and we wrote five or six more, and the rest we wrote in the studio.
"We recorded, mixed and mastered in 21 days. So it was really quick, and God totally gave us songs to play. We had no idea what we were going to do, and He totally inspired us and gave us lyrics."
Silletta seems pleased with the final outcome of the band's newest effort. "This is the first record we've done that I would call a complete album. This is the first one where I feel comfortable with every song on it. All the rest of them sounded like they were just songs thrown on a CD. This feels like an album," he says.
Sitting in Nashville, surrounded by the legions of singer/songwriters, it's easy to forget there are pockets of different types of Christian music happening in other parts of the country. The Orange County/Southern California scene seems to be experiencing a revitalization of sorts, something Silletta thinks was a long time coming.
"Out here, Christian alternative, hard core, punk was dead, really for about 10 years, until The Crucified and Prayer Chain and all those guys came up and started doing things. There was never really a draw here for that kind of Christian music until those guys came along. Now there's even kind of a scene going on out here," Silletta says. "At every Christian show, there will be a lot of people out there. Last night [at an album release party/concert], we drew maybe 1200 people, 10 ten minutes away from where we were, was Michael W. Smith and Jars of Clay, and it didn't seem to affect our draw at all. We had busloads of kids and their youth pastors coming to our show, and I'm sure [Smith and Jars] packed the Pond [in Anaheim.]"
The composition of PlankEye's live audience, even from the days starting out when they would give free concerts to 150 people, is another thing that surprises Silletta. "It goes anywhere from junior high kids to adults, it's really weird. We get such a diverse crowd. We're really still just a pop band. We're just a little bit harder than everybody else."
Silletta says PlankEye has a very clearly defined goal, one which he hopes they will never waver from. "Our band is for one purpose only, and that's to share the love of Jesus Christ with people. We started this band to share the love of God with people, and we'll finish this band doing the same thing.
"We want to be the same thing we were when we started. We want to keep our focus, and keep doing what we do to lift up the name of Jesus Christ to people. That's our heart, and that's what we want people to be left with when they come see us play."