Empire Extreme is always looking for the next big thing in music. I always like to talk to bands before they hit the big leagues to pick at their minds, and see what’s inside. Empire Extreme talked to drummer Mitch Swanger of the Idaho based band Silent Theory.

Empire: Being a band from Idaho. How’s the music scene where you’re from?

Mitch: It’s not stellar, I’ll be honest. At least not in Moscow where we are from. We are fortunate to have a really cool venue in Lewiston which is 28 miles south of us called the 3rd Wheel that we really enjoy playing. Locally, we mostly play in the Spokane, Washington area, and regionally we will play Seattle and Portland quite a bit. We did just play Idaho Falls (which is south of us) for the first time and had an absolute blast.

Empire: Making the “ Watch  Me Burn” Video, how was that experience?

Mitch: It was an interesting experience. We chose to film it at the end of July in a shop that we had cleared out. I think inside while we were shooting it was about 115 degrees, so in between takes, we’d have to go outside where it was 95 degrees to cool off. You can’t really see it in the video but there was sweat everywhere! We had five projectors hanging on each of us, so during the filming of us in all white, the images that are projecting off of us were things like news stories and video of natural disasters.

Empire: How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard of you?

Mitch: This one is always a tough question for me to answer, and I’m not sure why. Musically, I’d say we have a lot of influence from bands like Breaking Benjamin and Evan’s Blue, but Dakota’s vocal style is very similar to 10 Years. We try to be eclectic in our writing and I think you see it reflected in Delusions. One unique feature of us though is Dakota’s insane talent to rap. You can somewhat hear it on Lost Forever and Watch Me Burn, but he’s honestly an incredibly fast rapper. We are hoping to really highlight that on our next album because we’ve always enjoyed the hip-hop/rock fusion.

Empire: What about your band or album “delusions” sets you apart from other bands?

Mitch:  One of the cool things is that each one of us wrote on the album. I feel like in this day of age you’ll see one or two band members write the album, or the band will have songwriters from outside of the band. We wrote all of it ourselves and had collaboration of all five members. As I mentioned before, we also try to be eclectic in our writing. We have live strings in Fragile Minds, piano in Fragile Minds and Watch Me Burn, rapping in Lost Forever and Watch Me Burn, an acoustic ballad with Sever, etc. We are kind of all over the place with the album. Some people critiqued that it was too eclectic but I’m okay with that. I don’t want an album with ten versions of Fragile Minds.

Empire: How’s it like being in a band with so many blood brothers? Is that an advantage or disadvantage?

Mitch: I think it’s a big advantage. With Scott, George and I growing up together playing music, we’ve really gotten a feel for what each person is going to do, some writing music for the three of us comes very naturally. The three of us also tend to vote alike on band issues, so I don’t know if that is an advantage of a disadvantage; depends on who you ask. We are also eachother’s biggest critics and will call it out when something sucks, so we certainly have had our blow ups over the years.

Empire: How was it like playing at the “whiskey a go-go?

Mitch: Amazing! Being obsessed with music history, it was completely nostalgic to be in that venue and on that stage, following so many icons. We were privileged to headline and had a blast.

Empire: Do you guys have any shows you would like to plug or anything else you like to add?

Mitch: Our year is winding down right now so we may have one or two more local shows to close out the year. We are however, scheduled to be back in the studio the first week of January and will record our next single, hoping to release February or March. Late spring we will record the album and have a summer release, which will allow us to push new music for touring/festival season. Please check us out on all the social media outlets, tell your friends about us, and check out our videos for Fragile Minds and Watch Me Burn!

Check out Silent Theory’s Website: http://www.silenttheory.com

About Author

Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

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