The Winter Sessions

The Silent Union – The Winter Sessions 

“Lost in the cedars
Silver-burning twilight…
Silently creeping over now…..”
(Lost In The Twilight)

So, winter then… Often a freezing, forbidding, fairly gloomy time of year interspersed with a couple of overly glitzy and largely underwhelming festivals, right? Right. But for a band the winter can be a productive time and a rich source of inspiration. As that tired, hazy sun falls low in darkening skies and the trees turn skeletal and forlorn, there’s a certain mood, an atmosphere, something you can work into songs of hope or redemption.  

So when the winter kicks in, we’re all over that. We make it our own. We hunker down in our bunker, we write, we rehearse, we dream…  It’s just what we do.

Life in The Silent Union is looking brighter and busier than ever before right now. Back in September, we played a couple of well-received acoustic gigs in and around Leicester – the excellent All About The Music Festival in Hinckley and then a key support slot with NME ‘Ones To Watch’ Jim Lockey and The Solemn Sun at Leicester Soundhouse. We’ve also been looking to complete our line-up and we’re delighted to be able to confirm that multi-talented Emma, of London band World Before Wireless, has joined us on bass, piano and vocals. We’re also in the process of finalising our lead guitarist, we hope.        

So, exciting times ahead. With Emma on board and electric rehearsals back in full swing, we’re already shaping our plans for 2013 which include full-band gigs, more demos and even our debut album…

But for now, when you see those epic skies turn silver-grey and then black; when you see the trees shiver and shake and the shadows get longer – that’s where we’ll be. Taking it all in, writing, dreaming…

See you in 2013…

The Silent Union  

Join The Union...

"And as the evening sun slipped slowly away leaving us alone in the
fading light; and as the birdsong signalled the falling of the magic
hour all around, we witnessed for the first time, intoxicating, the
silent union of the golden fields, the drowsy air and the coming
night..."
(The Silent Union)

Everything happens for a reason. Sometimes the songs you write have a
mind and a life of their own... Sometimes you bring them into the world,
let them live a little and find they won't let you go. They're there
late at night when you can't sleep. They're there in the morning in that
space between your dreams and being awake. Haunting you, whispering in
your ear, demanding to be heard.

The Silent Union never went away and yet we're back... With a renewed
focus and a hunger to get these songs out into the public consciousness.
There are songs we wrote a year ago that sound like jukebox classics to
us and yet hardly anyone's heard them. That's about to change very soon. And there are new songs that we have crafted since then, over the long
winter months, and these sound big and grand and vital. Melody is our king and words just keep coming.

There will be gigs. There will be recordings. We'll road-test the songs
acoustically. A good song is a good song and stands up regardless of
backing. There may be full electric gigs at some point too, hopefully.
But for now it's about the buzz; about getting out there and playing the
songs.

Take a ride. Join the union...

Laying the foundations…

So, as promised, here’s the new update…

Over the next 10 days, The Silent Union are gearing up for hitting the studio and we can’t wait to get some of these songs down. Choosing which songs to do first has been tough, but we’re really excited about the 3 we’ve picked. We’ve deliberately chosen 3 very different tunes because each one reveals a different side to what we’re all about: there’s a surging, upbeat rocker; a sweeping, windswept ballad and a weaving wildcard of a track that might just become something of a Silent Union calling-card… We’ll see. And that’s just for starters…

The Silent Union is the sound of 4 lads getting down and making music out of passion, belief and just because we love doing this. Sometimes it’s music that can help you through the day… Maybe that’s where we come in for you…?

If our music can take you somewhere else and make you feel something, even just for a moment: that’s what it’s all about for us.

Back soon with more news on the recordings…

The Silent Union

“We're moving satellites…”

Welcome to the world of The Silent Union…

We’ve started this blog to keep you up-to-date with all news and musical happenings within The Silent Union. So, let’s start at the beginning…

In November 2010, a couple of weeks after recording what sadly turned out to be the farewell Castillo recordings, Dale and I started planning our next move. We still had the passion for this whole music thing and we had a bunch of song ideas that didn’t have a home. So, as logic dictated, we formed an ‘acoustic duo’ and set about writing material individually, but without any major set plan; just to see what we could do. By Christmas, however, the songs were pouring out…And we got to thinking maybe these songs deserved a full-band sound? We thought so… Luckily, Matt & Ed were up for it and at our first session as a four-piece it all gelled really well. Within a couple of hours, we basically had a full set list of near-finished songs.

It’s now March and rehearsals are going really well. We have a tidy stockpile of demo ideas still to work through as and when, but for now the hard work is done and we’re consolidating what we’ve got: Gritty tales of urban drama, narcotic escapism and celestial redemption stand alongside classic heartbreaker ballads. Edgy lyrics; heartfelt tunes – it’s the only way we know…

We’re hitting the studio soon to lay down some initial demos and then we’ll see where we’re at. We’re still on the lookout for the right lead guitarist to complete the line-up though, so if you think you could be our man or you know a likely candidate,  get in touch. More news to follow shortly…   

Jay