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Sep 02, 2021 By Mark Redfern Photography by Roisin Murphy O’Sullivan

Dublin post-punk five-piece Silverbacks have shared a brand new song, “Wear My Medals.” Lauren Gregory directed the accompanying video, which starts off as claymation before switching to live action and featuring the band. “Wear My Medals” is Silverback’s first release for Full Time Hobby, a label the band has just signed to. Check out the video below.

“Wear My Medals” follows the 2020 release of their well-received debut album, Fad, which came out on Central Tones. The band features Daniel O’Kelly (vocals/guitar), Kilian O’Kelly (guitar/vocals), Emma Hanlon (bass/vocals), Peadar Kearney (guitar), and Gary Wickham (drums).

“From the very start, we’ve always wanted to be a ‘career band,’” says Kilian O’Kelly in a press release. “We don’t see the point in not constantly making music—if you’re lucky enough to be able to make music you like and enjoy it, why put restrictions on it?”

The band began writing sessions for new material in early 2021, with Daniel O’Kelly now based in Paris and the rest of the band still in Ireland. Girl Band bassist Daniel Fox produced Fad and they’ve been working with him again on the new material.

Emma Hanlon takes lead vocals on “Wear My Medals,” as Daniel O’Kelly explains: “We always set out while demoing to write ‘Emma Songs’—songs that we think will specifically work for Emma’s vocals. We were quite a ways through the latest batch before we realized we hadn’t gotten any Emma Songs down so herself and Kilian got to work.”

Lauren Gregory had this to say about the “Wear My Medals” video she directed: “The band gave me complete creative license, so I really got to let my imagination run wild. For the swimming scenes, I took inspiration from the movie A Philadelphia Story, a scene in which Katherine Hepburn is swimming and climbing out of a pool. When I was working on the boxing scenes, I watched a lot of footage of Muhammed Ali warming up before fights, jumping and punching the air, and tried to emulate his movements. Out of everything, sculpting the hands playing bar chords on the guitar was the most fun.”

When asked how fans of Fad will react to Silverbacks’ new material, Kilian O’Kelly responds: “We don’t really know—people say we’re post-punk, but we aren’t really. Some people say we’re an indie band but we aren’t that either. I don’t know, sometimes it’s more fun just to see what comes out when we write and let everyone else worry about what it is.”

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.

Silverbacks Tour Dates:

4th Sept - Manchester - UK Psych Festival
21st Oct - Limerick, IE - Kasbah Social Club
22nd Oct - Dublin, IE - The Grand Social
24th Oct - UK, Birmingham, UK - The Hare & Hounds
25th Oct - UK, Glasgow, UK - Hug & Pint
27th Oct - UK, Brighton, UK - The Hope & Ruin
28th Oct - UK, London, UK - The Victoria
29th Oct - UK, Southampton, UK - Heartbreakers
30th Oct - UK, Bristol, UK - The Crofters Rights

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