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Oct 05, 2021 By Mark Redfern Photography by Róisín Murphy O'Sullivan

Dublin post-punk five-piece Silverbacks have announced a new album, Archive Material, and shared its title track, via a video for it. Archive Material is due out January 21, 2022 via Full Time Hobby, their first for the label. The band’s own Daniel O’Kelly directed and stars in the video for “Archive Material,” which was filmed in Dunkirk, France. Watch it below. Also below are the album’s tracklist and cover art, as well as the band’s upcoming tour dates.

The band features Daniel O’Kelly (vocals/guitar), Kilian O’Kelly (guitar/vocals), Emma Hanlon (bass/vocals), Peadar Kearney (guitar), and Gary Wickham (drums).

Daniel O’Kelly had this to say about the title track in a press release: “The initial demo version started from a drum sample taken from the opening of Jean-Pierre Massiera’s ‘Bonne Annee.’ When we fleshed it out as a full band and Gary gave the track his usual kick up the arse, the song went full Les Baxter exotica mode.

“When writing the lyrics, I imagined a bunch of government officials in the deep underground of their building digging into archives. As the night continues, they get unusually aroused by the access they have to top secret information that the common folk never see.”

Archive Material includes “Wear My Medals,” a new song the band shared in September via a video partially made in claymation. “Wear My Medals” was #1 on our Songs of the Week list.

Archive Material is the band’s sophomore album and follows the 2020 release of their well-received debut album, Fad, which came out on Central Tones.

The album was recorded at Dublin’s Sonic Studios in November 2020. Girl Band bassist Daniel Fox produced Fad and also recorded the new album. Reference points/influences mentioned in the press release include Neil Young, Weyes Blood, Bradford Cox and Cate Le Bon, Television, and Gang of Four. Some of the songs deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown.

The press release explains in more detail: “On several songs, the pandemic functions as a particularly effective prism through which to examine ideas of community. ‘A Job Worth Something’ finds Daniel reflecting on his real-life experiences working in insurance while his sister treated patients on a COVID ward, and the feelings of futility and guilt he felt at the time. ‘Different Kind of Holiday’ was inspired by the ways in which previously uncommunicative neighbors bonded with each other during periods of enforced confinement. Throughout, his observations arrived drenched in the same surreal strain of gallow’s humor that many of us were forced to adopt to lighten the toughest moments of the lockdown.”

Daniel O’Kelly further elaborates: “I can’t remember who it was, but I saw a musician who said that they’d be keeping away from writing anything about the pandemic, because who wants to hear about that? But I’d much rather hear about an event via someone who actually lived through it, rather than someone writing about it retrospectively.”

When Fad was announced the band shared a new song from it, “Muted Gold,” via an amusing video for the track. “Muted Gold” was #1 on our Songs of the Week list. The Fad single “Up the Nurses” also made our Songs of the Week.

Read our 2020 The End interview with Silverbacks.

Archive Material Tracklist:

1. Archive Material
2. A Job Worth Something
3. Wear My Medals
4. They Were Never Our People
5. Rolodex City
6. Different Kind of Holiday
7. Carshade
8. Central Tones
9. Recycle Culture
10. Econymo
11. Nothing To Write Home About
12. I’m Wild

Silverbacks Tour Dates:

21st Oct - IE, Limerick, Kasbah Social Club
22nd Oct - IE, Dublin, The Grand Social
24th Oct - UK, Birmingham, The Hare & Hounds
25th Oct - UK, Glasgow, Hug & Pint
27th Oct - UK, Brighton, The Hope & Ruin
28th Oct - UK, London, The Victoria
29th Oct - UK, Southampton, Heartbreakers
30th Oct - UK, Bristol, The Crofters Rights
17th Nov - IE, Spilt Milk Festival, Sligo

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