Interview

Silent Civilian Vocalist Jonny Santos Discusses New Album "Ghost Stories"

Los Angeles, California's thrash tinged metalcore act Silent Civilian recently released a new album titled "Ghost Stories" while out on tour with Fear Factory and Prong. "Ghost Stories" is the second full-length release by the band, which was formed by vocalist Jonny Santos after departing Spineshank.

Jonny Santos spoke with me about producing the album to get a more raw feel and his departure from the political themes of the lyrics on the band's debut release "Rebirth of the Temple." Commenting on "Ghost Stories," Santos said, "It’s heavier and dirtier. For lack of a better term, I want to say the word 'dangerous.' You don’t really hear that term applied to music anymore, but that’s kind of what I feel like."

xFiruath: So you guys are actually currently on tour aren’t you?

Jonny: Yeah we are out with Prong, Fear Factory, and Thy Will Be Done.

xFiruath: We just had the passing not too long ago of legendary metal icon Ronnie James Dio. Is there anything about Dio or his music you’d like to discuss?

Jonny: It’s horrible man. It’s a huge a loss. One of my very first metal records in elementary school, I was probably something like seven years old, was “Dream Evil.” I was like “Woah, what’s this?” With what that guy did and accomplished for metal in general, it’s just really tragic. It was much too early. Even at his age, he had many, many more years in him. Then last month we had Pete as well. I had the opportunity to do a tour with Type O Negative, so being able to say that I personally knew Pete and hung out with him, that was really cool. I wish I could say the same of Ronnie James Dio, but I guess I’m a little too far down on the totem pole for that.

xFiruath: Tell me about your band Silent Civilian. What has the band done and how did it get together?

Jonny: I was in Spineshank and in late 2004 we decided to separate, so I wanted to start something. Back then in Spineshank we were under such pressure from the labels to write radio friendly music, but that wasn’t something I really wanted to do. It wasn’t real to me. Growing up I was in punk and thrash bands, so I was just like “I’m going to start another metal band here.” I went ahead and started writing tunes and rounded up some guys to jam with me. I didn’t really know what it was going to do and didn’t really expect it to do anything at all. Next thing I know there’s offers being made on it and we put a record out. We were on MTV and all that good stuff. It was a very pleasant surprise, let’s put it that way. I feel very fortunate because not a lot of people get a second chance in this business when they leave their main project.

xFiruath: How would you personally describe the sound of Silent Civilian to a potential fan?

Jonny: It’s definitely metal. There’s a lot of thrash roots in our music and a lot of stuff that will take some people back to old Testament and Death Angel and Sacred Reich. That stuff that I really loved as a kid. Old Megadeth and Metallica and Motorhead. I really wanted to bring that element back into what I was doing. Not to say that I’m going around reinventing the wheel, that’s definitely not the case. I just figured if I was going to do something that I was going to do something I really wanted to do. Guys like Alex Skolnick and Chuck Billy were my heroes when I was younger so that’s kind of where I went with, especially with the new record.

xFiruath: The new album is “Ghost Stories,” which was just released. How does it differ from your other work?

Jonny: This one is straight of the box a way more brutal record. It’s heavier and dirtier. For lack of a better term, I want to say the word “dangerous.” You don’t really hear that term applied to music anymore, but that’s kind of what I feel like. The first record is really good and I’m really proud of that first record, but I think in the end I look back on it and it seems really polished to me. It almost seems overproduced to me, and I don’t think that’s the way a thrash metal record should sound. I produced this record myself and it was all about performance in the end. We kept editing at a minimum, just little things here and there. By the time the record was done everybody was like “Jesus Christ this thing is fucking brutal.” It sounds good. Sonically it’s got a really dirty, raw, thrashy, garage band kind of sound, which is what I set out to do.

xFiruath: Where did you record the album?

Jonny: We did it the same place that we did the first record. We did it in Undercity Studios in North Hollywood.

xFiruath: Can we expect any music videos coming off this album?

Jonny: Yep, we already shot one for “Last One Standing” and you can see that on our MySpace or Youtube. We’re getting ready to shoot a video for “Atonement.”

xFiruath: What are the lyrics about on “Ghost Stories?”

Jonny: Lyrically I was really angry and pissed off making this record. I went through some pretty hard shit in my life. I went from owning a house and almost being married with the dog and the backyard and everything to being homeless and sleeping on the floor of the studio. So there was a lot of anger issues. I tried to challenge myself a little bit more lyrically on this album. The first record had a very political overtone to it and I wanted to stay away from that on this record because I didn’t want the band to be pigeonholed into “that band.” I didn’t want to be a one trick pony limited to writing about one thing. I didn’t want us to be the Rage Against the Machine of thrash metal.

xFiruath: What bands are you digging these days?

Jonny: All kinds of stuff. I’ve been digging the new Alexisonfire record. I listen to a lot outside of metal. I tend not to listen to too much current metal, but I’m definitely a huge Lamb of God fan. I listen to the classics like Pantera or Death Angel, Iron Maiden, everything like that. I listen to acoustic shit too like Elliot Smith. At the end of the day, especially when you are on tour, the last thing you want to do is jump in the van and hear million mile an hour kick drums. We all try to switch it up and listen to other stuff. I listen to punk stuff too. I’m a huge Misfits fan and stuff like that. I have a pretty wide range of music and I don’t really limit myself to one style of music. You never know what you are going to be influenced by. I’ve been influenced by a Weezer song in the past. When you apply that in a metal sort of way no one’s going to say “Wow that sounds like Weezer.” I need that to try out different things. Every now and again I’ll pull out my Led Zeppelin CDs, so I will pretty much listen to everything expect country. If it’s going to be country, it’s going to be Hank Williams III.