Frank Viele Digs into Life’s Highs and Lows with His EP, ‘The Silo’ [Premiere]

Even if you make your career as a singer-songwriter, as Frank Viele does, it doesn’t imply that you can’t find room to play around and experiment with your songwriting. That’s what Viele is up to on his latest release, the new EP entitled The Silo. Set for release tomorrow via his own Bigger Beast Records, Viele finds the space to branch out from his previous musical output, while still staying true to his roots. The EP is intentionally a sonic departure, meant to showcase a different side of Viele as an artist. While his previous albums were more rock-driven, The Silo is more cinematic and acoustic.

In recording the record, Viele took it upon himself to be more experimental with his songwriting. He decided it was the right opportunity to take full control of his songwriting, from beginning to end. While he previously would collaborate with producers or bounce ideas off of friends, this EP sees Viele building everything from scratch. He played most of the instruments, wrote each song (except the exceptional Bob Seger cover), and shaped the overall musical direction of the album. He arranged a lot of the production and even did his own backing vocals. It was a fun and musically productive departure from the typical live band recording setting Viele has previously utilized.

The Silo digs right into the highs and lows of life. They were primarily written during a half-year period of change and unexpected occurrences. This period brought about a lot of different reactions and emotions from Viele, which found their way into his songwriting. While not necessarily intended that way, The Silo became a special, introspective songwriting project unlike Viele’s previous releases. Before the penning of this EP, Viele had spent most of the last part of his life almost constantly alternating between recording and touring. The Silo is his departure, an opportunity to change things up, while also offering the same hope and authenticity Viele’s listeners have come to expect from him.

Along with the premiere of The Silo, Frank Viele joins us for a Track-by-Track rundown of the album, elaborating on the origins and motivations behind the songs.

Viele comments:

“I go back to this EP every few weeks and re-listen to it with fresh ears because it’s very different than anything I’ve released before. Every time I do, I hear different things that I love. My favourite little thing on the record right now is the ghost vocals in the background of ‘She Sleeps Better In The Rain.’ At other times, I’ve been infatuated with the Beach Boys-inspired background vocals on the choruses in ‘We Can’t Have It All,’ or the slide guitar on ‘Silo.’

“Overall, I wanted this EP to feel like it was a hauntingly poetic film playing inside the head of a lonely man at the crossroads of his life. It’s a collection of songs about love, loneliness, and perspective while facing heartbreak at the hands of invisible demons you simply cannot fully understand from the outside in.

“I wrote these tracks at the tail end of a national tour from a lonely motel room in Portland, Oregon. These tracks came from a place of realizing what I had accomplished, but also what I had unintentionally sacrificed to get there, along with the toll it had all taken on me and those whom I have loved. That realization, along with an in-depth, first-hand experience loving someone inside the trauma-built walls put up by civilian PTSD, led to the introspective story that is The Silo EP.”

1. “Silo”

“The first song on the EP was also the first song written out of the bunch. It acted as the catalyst for the sound and vibe behind this entire recording. It’s a song that felt like a dark realization that silent strength can be a weakness.”

2. “We Can’t Have It All”

“Following that on the collection with ‘We Can’t Have It All’ felt right, as that song takes all the bad and good advice I’ve ever gotten and meshes it into a simple understanding that for everything you do in life, there is something you don’t, and in turn, you simply can’t have everything.”

3. “Better Late Than Too Soon”

“‘Better Late Than Too Soon’ is the next track, which to me takes the narrative of the first two songs and brings them together and further defines the tragic love story that is being told.”

4. “She Sleeps Better In The Rain”

“Then, the climax of the EP is ‘She Sleeps Better In The Rain,’ which further pushes the narrative living inside this love story that is haunted by poor mental health and trauma. That’s why it ends with the line, ‘I wanna love her, I wanna give her my name, but she sleeps better in the rain.’”

5. “Against The Wind”

“I then ended the EP with a live version of Bob Seger’s ‘Against The Wind’ to drive home the thread of perspective that runs throughout this collection. I think the decade-plus I’ve spent on the road has given me a viewpoint on life and love that has an everlasting effect on how I write and the angle I take as a lyricist. But Seger’s line, ‘I found myself alone surrounded by strangers I thought were my friends, I found myself further and further from my home,’ just said what I needed to say to finish this story.”

Frank Viele ‘The Silo’ EP album artwork