Midland foursome The Silver Lines talk to The Star about their Sleaze EP and new single Hotel Room

What is music without inspiration? This was the very thing that bothered the Midland quartet The Silver Lines when they were formed by the two brothers Ravenscroft. Uninspired and somewhat irked by the samey landscape of guitar music they set about changing it, and The Silver Lines were born.

Driven by a desire to start making music that turned them on, figuratively not literally, Joe and Dan sought out the talents of Joe Cartwright on bass and Kindo on Drums to realise their creative collective.

Over the course of the next few years, The Silver Lines built off the back of a series of well-received, energetic, indie-punk singles that showcased their talents to not only build a notable discography but also something that had more substance to it than meets the eye.

A series of sold out hometown gigs in Birmingham beckoned, followed by disc jockey recognition on stations like BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 6 and Radio X, but that’s not all. The Silver Lines even set off on a jaunt to America where they performed at The New Colossus Festival in New York, an experience that was recently followed by a supporting gig for Buzzcocks.

So far, so good then, right?

Listen to the full conversation with The Silver Lines on the Chris Talks Music Podcast, you can also subscribe here: https://anchor.fm/chris-talks-music

The Midland-foursome released the romping five-track EP Sleaze earlier in summer, it’s a must listen if only for the joyous overtures of The Big O — but don’t sleep on the other four tracks, such as the obscenely short but indelibly sweet Packet Racket. And just last week dropped another single, but more on that in a moment.

"John Kennedy from Radio X sent us an email telling us that we need to do more with the song (Packet Racket)”

"The weird thing about that is that Packet Racket is it’s one of those kinds of songs that we used to always chant in the pub, and when we were doing it at a gig and we just wanted to just amp it up as far as we could… it was one of those songs we put together really quickly with the time we had left in the studio”

The Silver Lines are a very self-referential and self-aware band, woke if you will… but then that’s just another label which has negative connotations now having being weaponised by idiotic incels and well… bigots, as a means of demeaning a well-intentioned if abrupt message. These four chaps are not just ‘another all-white, male indie band that sings about working-class upbringings and teenage love’, sure they’re all-white but the topics within are more than alright and deserve a listen on the content alone… and the keenly put together instrumentals will keep you listening a while longer yet. For good reason.

With their Sleaze EP they set out to create an introduction to their musical and worldview that aims to both defy the genre, attack the misconceptions therein and bring something of lasting value to the table at the same time.

The end result is a riveting collection of short stories, musings and statements that take the listener on a very self-aware journey of S&M, night sweats, sodomy and substance abuse. All which are aptly amalgamated into an EP titled, Sleaze.

The romping five-some was followed by the pretty darn good, Hotel Room which was released on 22 September. A song which belies it’s outwardly energetic and punk-esque delivery, Hotel Room is an undoubtedly darker single from the foursome.

Lyrically introspective, it explores themes including ‘learnt behaviours’ from past generations, toxic masculinity and the loss of loved ones. Delivered with emotive aplomb with a pervasive sense of unknown and indecision on the part of the narrator. Anyway, go and give it a listen.

If you were fortunate enough to have heard of them before now, you may well have seen them perform at Sheffield’s Network in early-September and all being well it won’t be too long before we get to see them again.

The Sleaze EP is out now on all streaming services via their website https://www.thesilverlinesuk.com/ and it’s also available from Bandcamp too.

The single Hotel Room was released on 22 September 22.

Listen to the full conversation with The Silver Lines on the Chris Talks Music Podcast, you can subscribe here: https://anchor.fm/chris-talks-music

You can follow The Silver Lines on social media too:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesilverlines1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheSilverLinesUK/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesilverlinesuk/?hl=en