SILASFUNK
Silas Funk is a musical innovator who blends rock, classical, jazz and soundtrack genres in his songs. He learned to sing and compose in college, where he also discovered his passion for sound design on his synthesizer. He played with some bands and scored some documentaries, but he felt limited by the musical direction of his projects.
He went solo in 2022 and recorded an album by himself, using all the instruments in creative ways. He likes to break musical rules and expectations, and create new sounds that challenge and surprise the listeners. Silas sings and plays the bass on stage, and he draws inspiration from the rock and roll era of the late 70’s to mid 90’s. His debut album, “SUGARFIXX”, will be out on September 28, 2023, after six singles throughout the summer of 2023.
Who is the person behind the artist Silas Funk and what's his story?
Believe it or not, Silas Funk is a real name. I know it sounds like a made-up band name because of the word Funk. I do combine it into one word however, SILASFUNK, simply because there are a couple other Silas Funk musicians out there that I do not want to be confused with them. My name goes back a long way in my family history, originating with my great-great grandfather, Silas Funk, who was a sheriff in Kearney, Nebraska. He was on the hunt for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and chased them on horseback as they robbed the trains. I was originally not going to use the name and go by a totally different obscure band name but then my friend Julia said she liked SILASFUNK the best, so I agreed to stick with it.
I started writing music at 19, when I entered college in Los Angeles on a music scholarship. Three years later, I started a band and we recorded an EP and played out live in LA for a couple years. We were in the process of recording our second album when we split up over “irreconcilable music differences.” I tried playing with a couple other bands over the years and recorded a few more EP’s but those projects all fizzled into non-existence as well.
In the meantime, I was writing a lot of music on the side for documentary shows as well as shooting video projects for JPL/NASA- I shot lots of robotic tests in the desert, so there will be some music video inspirations from all that experience.
I was classically trained in music however, both in voice and composition, so this is why my fallback employment has been composing music for various documentary projects over the years. Classical music was my first love, and I will never tire of writing a good score.
But being part of a rock band was a dream I had since high school and right up until last year, I had pretty much given up on it completely. But then in October of 2022, something inside me kicked in high gear and I made a commitment to record this album. I had to play all the instruments myself, but that was OK since I had learned how to play all of them over the years.
Your latest release, “Love Strikes Again”, sounds awesome. What inspired you to create it?
It was meant to be an encouragement to myself, and whoever else who’s been in love with someone who seems to be losing interest. It sucks and it’s easy to get depressed about it. But I’ve witnessed in my life, so many times, where that same person eventually comes around and finally likes you and even starts pursuing you. They just needed time to get in touch with their feelings and it helped when you simply backed off and stopped pursuing so much. So that’s it really, just learning to back off and wait. And don’t be a jerk and let your pride get in the way because your ego is bruised. Those exciting feelings of being in love with someone are incredible and worth holding on to but they need to be placed in the right timing in order to grow into something more solid. So just be patient – very patient and focus on doing what’s best for that person. That’s what love is after all- not being self-centered, but being patient, hopeful and enduring through the difficulties. It’s like wanting to hold a bird in your hand where any sudden moves will make it fly away. But if you just be still and wait and it’ll come to you. Of course, that’s also the strategy of a cat, but that’s the topic for another song.
How would you describe your upcoming album, which will also feature your latest track?
This album will center around my experiences of various stages of a relationship with a woman- mostly the struggles as they tend to me more interesting and relatable, such as: being in love and not able to act on it, losing a relationship and wanting to turn back time, missing someone to the point of feeling dead without them, recalling the day you met the love of your life, realizing you want nothing else in the world but them, etc. etc. There are no sad songs on this album though. I wanted to write a summer album. So even though there are songs about relationship struggles, they never venture into sadness or “woe is me.” The first single released called Drive, is about as “woe is me” as it gets.
Then there are a few songs that don’t deal with relationships at all, but I’ve placed them on the album where they still actually fit within the arc of the overall story. Yes, there is a story arc to this album. Telling stories is what I like to do and so this album will tell a story.
The music videos will also have a story arc and follow a character on a journey. The videos will have something a little more unique, however. While on the surface, there are the lyrics dealing with love. But then visually, there will be a story of a man getting stuck in the desert, getting captured and forced to work in a top-secret government facility, unable to leave and coming to grips with the things in his life that need to change. Basically it will act as a metaphor for what’s going on lyrically. And that story will keep going into a more mysterious world from that point.
I’m wanting to have fun with this. In addition to the music videos, there will be a blog on the website, with some short video segments that will also be following this story of the main character being captured.
But this is just what I do. I love to tell stories and I love music. I love building sets and shooting scenes to write music for. So, any chance I get to combine the two into the same project, I will. People that know me are not surprised by me going so elaborate. I’ve done things like this my whole life. And so I have a crazy set being built in my loft currently to shoot some scenes in. Luckily, I have a lot of props from previous shoots.
What does your creative process look like and how do you overcome creative blocks?
I think it’s important to get a song done quickly. My best songs were written in a week. I might’ve messed around with them and tweaked the sounds, but the main part of the song and the lyrics were written in less than a week. You have to force yourself to just get it done and move on. When you play some creative chord progressions week after week, month after month, and you still don’t have a vocal melody or lyrics, usually that’s a sign that you will never get that song done and it’s just not gonna work. Let it go. I think a good song will inspire you to finish it right then and there. You won’t want to sleep until it’s done. And I’ve learned that the hard way. This album started out with a lot of old songs that I had sitting unfinished for years. But in the process of recording them and trying to make them work, I ended up throwing all of the unfinished ones away and writing new ones. And all the new ones are way, way better. And I wrote each one of them within a week.
But I guess, setting out to record the old songs is what led to writing new ones. So maybe the best advice would be to just get to work on something, but just not be so stuck on that first thing. Be prepared to see it simply as practice. It’s like priming the pump. It’s just there to get the brain working.
I’ve done some speed writing sessions in the past that have really worked well with getting through the writer’s block. I’ll set out to write 4 songs a day and give myself 30 minutes per song and really force myself to move on after 30 minutes.
It may sound impossible to write a song that fast, but really, it’s just like doing thumbnail sketches for an artist. They’re not complete songs, they’re just a verse and chorus with maybe a bridge and some impulsive lyrics and a vocal melody. Just move quickly, no matter how stupid it may sound and then move on. And the real trick is- don’t listen to it again that day. Forget about it completely and go to bed. It’s such a great feeling when you hear it with fresh ears in the morning, having totally forgotten what you recorded. You’ll be amazed how good some of them will sound and your brain will just know where that song needs to go in order to be finished.
When can we expect to see you perform live on stage?
I hope so! That’s the goal anyway. I need to put a band together to do that since I’m solo. Most likely that will have to wait until I’m signed with a record label or at the very least generating substantial income from the music, as putting a band together and touring would be very expensive. And I don’t want to do a stripped-down version of the songs and have it be just me on stage with a guitar. That’s not the act I’d want to do. It’s got to feel like a real show.
But I love being on stage. I grew up on stage. I was meant to be a performer and be in front of people- whether that’s singing or acting or public speaking and I’ve done all of those over the years. I think a lot of that has to do with being somewhat introverted. It’s not that I’m shy, it’s just that my mind has a very singular focus, which is creating things for people to enjoy. So, when I’m not doing that, I feel a little awkward in a social setting. I’m not good with small talk I could never talk sports or TV shows or food. I have little interest in all that. Sure, I like a good restaurant, but I don’t want to get into endless conversations about the best places to eat. I could certainly have many in-depth philosophical conversations about life, but that’s not small talk.
So, putting me on a stage and being the entertainment is where I feel more natural. Not because I feel I need to be the center of attention but because the stage is where I feel I get to use the gifts God gave me. I have a light inside me and it needs to be seen and not placed under a desk in a small room where it does nobody any good.
A few years ago, I had to give a 45 min talk to over 13,000 students at a university in India. I didn’t stay at the podium but instead took the mic and walked to the front of the stage so I could see people better. Halfway through the talk, my microphone died, but it didn’t slow me down one bit. I just spoke really loudly so people in the balcony could hear, and I made people laugh and I felt really alive.
Being active on social media is obviously a must for musicians today. How do you feel about that and what are the pros and cons?
Yeah, it’s a necessary evil unfortunately. I do think it’s great to be able to find your audience. That is a huge plus that didn’t exist until 15 years ago. We didn’t have social media when I was in my first band, so we had to find fans simply by playing out in LA and collecting emails. That didn’t work very well.
But to be honest, I have a really hard time posting. It’s really got to feel important to want to put up a post and even then, I feel somewhat uncomfortable by doing it. But I know I need to get past that if I’m going to get the music in front of enough ears. But I like being uncomfortable with it because I don’t ever want to overdo it and become narcissistic with a daily “look at me, please.” There are people who just post waaaaay too much. In fact, I usually see the same people, day after day, posting about their food and feelings and vacations and new pictures of themselves and it’s nauseating and distrubing. But I’m not even posting once a week so I’m nowhere near that.
I definitely see the destructive nature of social media and how it’s taken over people’s lives and they don’t go outside, and they don’t socialize and they can’t think of a time when they didn’t record every moment of their vacations or personal lives just to impress the faceless masses of followers. I don’t want that. I want real relationships and so when I get a message from somebody on social media, I will always answer back. And that can be exhausting and just eat up your day.
What are you working on right now and what can we expect from you next?
Well, I’d love to be back in the studio writing more songs, but I need to focus on promoting this album. So, I’m currently shooting music videos for each new single as well as other short videos that will appear on the website. These smaller videos will be following the story of the main character, played by myself, who is going through all these crazy experiences after getting stuck in the desert. It’ll be a little mini sci-fi B-movie when it’s all done.
I do also want to venture into the TikTok world with these videos. I haven’t put together a strategy for that yet but it’s on the books. And yeah, marketing strategy… that is basically where I’m at right now. The album is done, aside from some final mixing to do on a few of the songs. So, my main focus now is just getting it out there and heard by as many people as possible and figuring out creative ways of doing that. And hopefully, doing that legwork will get me on tour in the near future.
But I’m sure I will write a song or two… or 12, in the meantime. It’s inevitable. I can’t ever shut that off. It can be difficult to sleep sometimes.
