The Idle Silence “Close”
“Close” immediately summons the commotion and chaos energy of punk. As if hailing from a different era, the raw, primal clashing of threats, sweats, and passion is very much alive in The Idle Silence’s latest single. But there’s also a kind of disruption that rips the song in two pieces while keeping going on. The jarring dissonance is hard to ignore. It’s done intentionally no doubt, through the bending of a note, stretching to test the extreme.
There are broken glasses in “Close,” edging out in all directions. It's shocking and bizarre, vibrating between semi-industrial and semi-noir, messed up in acid and 90s rock. It’s haunting to hear the vocals floating illusively somewhere separate, like the acid sun above and outside the rest of the song. That slight hint of bizarreness makes you question everything hanging above a noise drone.
“Close” sees The Idle Silence reunite with the old punk rock sound, but in fact, they are reinventing it into something completely different. They break the old sounds and repatch them, which makes things shift a little. And that intricate asymmetry is enough to separate them from all others.
If there’s a punk revival coming, The Idle Silence would be one you don’t want to miss.
Read our interview with the marvelous four-piece band from Somerset below!
Punk Head: I love how you mend nostalgia with modernity in "Close." Is the track inspired by a particular influence?
The Idle Silence: There's definitely an element of old punk in there. I was listening to a lot of Buzzcocks, Damned, Slits, Skids and all of that sort of stuff at the time when I wrote it. But also newer bands like Screaming Females & Speedy Ortiz, who I really love. They're always on my rotation. So I suppose that's why it sounds that way.
PH: Was there any challenge that you encountered while making the track?
The Idle Silence: The biggest challenge for me is always singing in front of other people. It's fine with the rest of the band, and luckily our producer was very easy to be comfortable around. Other than those hang ups, it's a pretty straightforward song. Sort of.
PH: What is your creative vision as a band?
The Idle Silence: That's a very deep question. I suppose we want to people to like our music without watering it down at all. As songwriters we have a pretty even split between being very personal and taking on the big subjects and as a band we are on the line of being quite accessable and catchy and horribly noisy.
PH: How is the music scene in Somerset?
The Idle Silence: It's a big county (for the UK) but quite sparse and pretty rural for the most part. There are healthy scenes in the bigger towns and some really nice venues. We've met and played with some great bands here and we love playing anywhere people want to see us, really.
PH: What would you like to tell your supporters out there?
The Idle Silence: Thank you for listening to our music, all the streams and downloads mean a lot to us. And there's plenty more where that came from.
