Split Silk
Photo Credit 📷 : @emmettcant
Atlanta, Georgia based trio Split Silk are back with their well crafted sad girl post-hardcore and we’re honored to be debuting their new single “Glimmer”.
Previously known for their work in the Athens-based sassy mathcore band Clavus, the drummer and bassist (Will and Lucia) of Split Silk. This interview with Split Silk members Lucca and Will cas conducted with us via email regarding their upcoming release Bitter which has physcials coming out on September 10th via Tomb Tree Tapes.
WHAT BANDS INFLUENCED THE SOUND ON THIS NEW RELEASE?
Lucca: Unwound definitely feels like the elephant in the room, but I'm also really inspired by Shotmaker, Rodan, Ethel Meserve, Hoover, Coma Regalia, Lync, Ache Hour Credo, Rainer Maria, Indian Summer, Moss Icon, Super Unison, Lord Snow, and The Breeders. Trying to call back to that 90s energy of when post-hardcore, emo, screamo, slowcore and indie were all a singular blend of sounds instead of distinct genres with no wiggle room.
Will: Lucca first showed me the verse guitar riffs in one of our old Athens practice spaces and the first thing I was reminded of are the slowcore-leaning parts of Repetition and Leaves Turn. The drums on Bitter are based off Lucca’s programmed demo but definitely filtered through my love for Erik Anderson’s playing in Lord Snow and Stormlight.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WRITING PROCESS?
Will: For Bitter, Lucca brought a pretty complete rough instrumental demo with programmed drums, so I was kind of learning and rewriting the part at the same time to settle on what you hear in the final version. “Glimmer” was much more worked out with the three of us live in a room together trying different things until we settled on parts we were happiest with.
WHAT WAS YOUR RECORDING PROCESS?
Lucca: We recorded with our friend Al Daglis, who we've known for a long time in Athens. Al is great to work with and let us kinda do whatever, so we got to play around with some different micing techniques. We just tracked it all together in a room to embrace that live feel since these are the first songs we've recorded as a full band. I ended up just recording vocals at home while mixing. The live tracks we recorded at the UGA radio station WUOG 90.5 FM where both Will and I DJed as students. The two live tracks are ones I recorded by myself and released on an earlier EP, but we've been playing them for so long that we wanted to document how they sound with us playing in the room together.
I mixed Bitter by myself in my spare bedroom, then we handed it off to Joel Hatsat. Joel mastered the Clavus records and also some other local favorites of ours like the Juna record, On Courage.
“THIS IS THE FIRST RELEASE BY SPLIT SILK WHERE IT WAS TRACKED AS A BAND RATHER THAN JUST A SOLO PROJECT. THIS IS HOW I ALWAYS WANTED THE BAND TO SOUND AND I’M SO EXCITED TO SEE THIS LITTLE PROJECT EVOLVE INTO A BAND WITH TWO OF MY LOVELIEST FRIENDS!'“
We're super stoked to work with Tomb Tree Tapes, as I've known Dave Norman for a decade at this point. I first knew of him through the blog and then got to see Zegema, Tomb Tree and Softseed grow to where they are today. I always have wanted to put something with him because he really supports the bands he puts out which I appreciate immensely. It drops on 9/10 on the Tomb Tree Bandcamp and I believe tapes will be available then too. Streaming soon to follow!
ANY SHOWS OR TOURS COMING UP?
Will: We’re currently booking a tour up the east coast and through the midwest for this fall, ending at Jabroni Fest in ATL. We will also be playing the second annual Three Days Till Xmas fest, also in ATL this December. We plan to tour this fall and hopefully in early 2025, as well as finishing up work on our debut album which will hopefully also be out in 2025. November 2024 marks one year with the full Split Silk lineup!
ANY CLOSING THOUGHTS?
This feels like a good place to express our solidarity with Gaza and urge anyone who reads this to donate to the various GoFundMe campaigns floating around Instagram to provide financial support to families trying to flee the ongoing genocide. We also encourage anyone who reads this to look up and support the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement targeting businesses with financial ties to Israel and the IDF. Finally, we suggest anyone reading this look for opportunities to participate in and organize protest efforts in their area - economic and sociopolitical disruption are among the most effective tools at our disposal as citizens of the country funding a vast part of what’s happening in occupied Palestine.
