“We’ve definitely refined our sound on Rosalie,” says singer-guitarist Chris Lyons of Silver Synthetic’s latest album. “We were still figuring out who we were on our first record, but this one has a clearer identity. It’s just a lot more dynamic.”
A beatific union of cosmic Americana and harmonious guitar grooves, Rosalie is certainly a step up from the New Orleans quartet’s 2021 debut. Its charm partly lies in its warm evocation of another era, while also aligning the band to contemporaries like Rose City Band or Beachwood Sparks. Indeed, the latter’s Brent Rademaker was so impressed that he signed Silver Synthetic to his Curation imprint, enthusing: “This is the album the label have been looking for!”
Curation may feel like a perfect fit, but it’s taken the band a while to find their way. The journey began in 2017, when Lyons found himself writing pieces that didn’t suit the garage-punk aesthetic of his regular outfit, BottomFeeders. His first instinct was to call guitarist Kunal Prakash. “I had all these songs with a mellower thing going on,” he explains. “I’d seen Kunal around and knew he was a sick guitar player.”
Fresh from Nashville rockers JEFF The Brotherhood, Prakash was intrigued by the invitation. The pair soon began shaping the songs together, alongside bassist Pete Campanelli and BottomFeeders drummer Lucas Bogner. “We were jamming for about a year,” Prakash recalls. “So by the time we started playing shows, it felt like we were a proper band.”
Their musical direction found a natural course. “We definitely had some discussions about what not to do,” says Prakash. “All of us – at least me and Chris and Lucas – had been playing around New Orleans, where there’s a lot of garage punk bands. So the most punk thing we could do was be the opposite of that: sing in harmony and play melodic music. Keep the guitars and production pretty clean. We didn’t want to sound like all these modern psych bands.”
Having played locally, Silver Synthetic were picked up by Third Man after a gig in Nashville, only their second ever show outside New Orleans. “From the start, the reactions we were getting were pretty high,” says Lyons. “It just felt like we’d hit something.” 2020 EP “Out Of The Darkness” and the ensuing Silver Synthetic album blended the band’s love of Neil Young, mid-’70s Lou Reed, Big Star and Eno circa Here Come The Warm Jets, but their relationship with the label didn’t work out.
“At a certain point, we knew we needed to leave Third Man,” says Prakash. “We asked them if we could and they said yes, and that we could take our record with us. So I started reaching out to friends and other musicians.”
With new bassist Ben Jones in place, Rosalie smooths the contours of their debut, streamlining those same influences into something quietly spectacular. Prakash cites Modern Nature as a key reference point: “All Jack Cooper’s stuff has been big for me. I love those albums, particularly the drum sounds. The production feels really natural and there’s a lot of space, which resonates with us, trying to keep things uncluttered and human.” Rosalie also invites parallels to Teenage Fanclub, which can be no bad thing. “We get compared to that band a lot, especially when we played the UK,” says Lyons. “Everyone was bringing them up. Even the sound guys would put them on after our shows.” Prakash can’t resist a cheeky shout-out: “They’re such a great band. So yeah, if they end up reading this, take us on tour!”
Rosalie is released by Curation Records on April 25
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