Interview with Silent Planet

Bringin' it Backwards

We had the pleasure of interviewing Silent Planet over Zoom video!
Every once in a while, wildflowers will sprout en masse in the middle of the California desert. Known as a “SUPERBLOOM,”this phenomenon paints lush colors across a traditionally arid and barren landscape. The emergence and evolution of Silent Planet mirrors this phenomenon. Since 2009, the California quartet—Garrett Russell [vocals, guitar], Mitchell Stark [guitar], Alex Camerena [drums], and Nick Pocock [bass]—have set themselves apart in the realm of heavy music. Amplifying hypnotic hooks across alternately raw and rich soundscapes steeped in hardcore, post-rock, metal, and ambient textures, the award-winning group has generated tens of millions of streams and earned tastemaker praise.
Now, the musicians tell a story as massive as their sound on their aptly titled fifth full-length offering, SUPERBLOOM [Solid State Records].
Silent Planet has consistently transfixed a diehard fanbase. The group dropped a string of acclaimed albums, including The Night God Slept [2014], Everything Was Sound [2016], When The End Began [2018], and Iridescent [2021]—which Hysteria hailed as “a vulnerable and emotional LP.” Not to mention, album standout “Trilogy” generated 5.3 million Spotify streams to sit alongside their genre-bending triumph “Panic Room” from the 2016 release, currently at 5 million. The guys notably took home “Best Underground Band” at the 2017 Alternative Press Music Awards and toured with the likes of Motionless In White, August Burns Red, Beartooth, and The Contortionist.
Over the course of two years, they recorded what would become SUPERBLOOM in Woodland Hills, CA alongside longtime producer and frequent collaborator Daniel Braunstein. A jarring turn of events split the process into two seasons. Trekking through a Wyoming snowstorm in November 2022, Silent Planet survived a vehicle accident. The van flipped over, leaving the group laying in the wreckage of a bitter Wyoming snowstorm as Garrett was hospitalized with a fractured back and head wound requiring stitches.
Along the way, they settled on a conceptual framework, expanding the scope of their vision like never before.
Silent Planet initially teased the record with “:Signal:” followed by “Antimatter.” On the latter, spacey electronic transmissions buzz. Pivoting on a dime, it dissolves into a stomping industrial groove offset by synth swells.
“It’s the conclusion of the story we’re telling,” he says. “This is the finale. There are different levels of a close encounter. It’s a close encounter of the fifth kind. It’s the destination of the music.”
In the end, Silent Planet continues to elevate and uplift heavy music to another dimension.
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