Whatever you do, don't say
the words G.D. around Scott Silletta.
No, no, no... not that G.D. C'mon, this is CCM
.
No, the 24-year-old front man for PlankEye in this
case is bristling slightly with a comparison between
his band and those other purveyors of punk pop--Green
Day.
"I think they only say that because they don't
know that many other bands. I don't think we sound
anything like anybody," Silletta says. "With
this new album [Commonwealth],
I feel like we've really come into our own. We've
kinda got our own little deal going now, which is good
for us, because we really didn't want to sound like
anybody else."
Not that anybody would blame them for copping some
sonics from what's popular. After all, PlankEye as a
band has been around since 1991, which if Silletta is
24 now, that would make him... well, we'll let him do
the math.
"I was 19, our drummer was 15. We were all
pups," Silletta says.
So, the fact the band has moved into its own
identity is made it that much more impressive. But,
it's not that unexpected for a unit that was one of
the first bands on the Tooth & Nail label, and one
whose growth process has been shepherded by one Gene
Eugene.
The Adam Again leader/producer was looked upon by
the band as someone with whom they wanted to work.
Only problem was, when they went looking for him, they
couldn't find him.
"We were all big Adam Again fans. We had heard
that Gene had a studio, and we really wanted to find
where Gene was and do that, and we couldn't find out
where he was," Silletta says.
"We went to a music store where a friend of
ours worked, and there was this guy sitting at the
counter playing guitar, and we started talking to him
about how we wanted to record, to make a CD, and the
guy says, 'Oh, my friend has a studio.' We asked him
what it was called, and he says, 'The Green Room.'
"We thought that sounded familiar, and asked
who the owner was, and he said 'Gene Eugene' and we
were like, 'No way!' It was totally the Lord who
hooked us up because we had no idea what we were going
to do."
Easy, huh? Run into somebody who knows Gene Eugene,
make a record, get signed and you're off and running?
That's all well and good, if you can get through the
first meeting with your potential producer without
wigging out.
"We drove up, got out of the car, and the
drummer for Adam Again is in the driveway unloading
his drums," Silletta recalls. "We walk
inside, all the guys from Adam Again are there. Gene
sits us down to talk to us, and they're all lookin' at
us. We were, like,
'Oh... my. We're here with Adam Again.' We were
freaked out."
Adam Again was only one of several Southern
California bands that had an impact on the musical,
and spiritual, development of the members of PlankEye.
"As far as Christian bands, we really liked the
Prayer Chain. They really inspired us by the way they
love God and the way they would share the Lord during
their shows," Silletta says. "For me, seeing
them up there on stage just going off, and Andy
Prickett would break out the Bible during their shows
and just totally preach the Gospel. I was totally
encouraged by them."
The Planksters obviously got past those first
meeting jitters and went on to produce a demo that
caught the ears of Tooth & Nail founder Brandon
Ebel, who signed them to a deal. 1995 saw the release
of The Spark ,
the band's first full album, the offshoots of which
garnered some success in some unforeseen places.
The video for the single "Open House"
found its way onto a compilation reel for the
alternative rock magazine huH ,
putting PlankEye in front of an audience it would not
have reached otherwise. "Time Warner must think
Tooth & Nail is this really cool little indie
label because we were on there with people like
Natalie Merchant and Letters to Cleo," Silletta
says.
The members of PlankEye were road warriors last
year, playing more than 150 dates fanning The Spark
with their energetic live performances. The only
drawback to that much touring was that the band was a
little, shall we say, under-prepared when they were
scheduled to go back into the studio to record Commonwealth
.
"We were gone all the time, so we didn't
really get the chance to sit down and write music. So
when we got ready to go into the studio, we were still
on tour, and we had written one song. We had ideas for
a bunch of songs, but we had only finished one
song," Silletta says. "We came home, and we
had two weeks before we went into the studio, and we
wrote five or six more, and the rest we wrote in the
studio.
"We recorded, mixed and mastered in 21 days.
So it was really quick, and God totally gave us songs
to play. We had no idea what we were going to do, and
He totally inspired us and gave us lyrics."
Silletta seems pleased with the final outcome of
the band's newest effort. "This is the first
record we've done that I would call a complete album.
This is the first one where I feel comfortable with
every song on it. All the rest of them sounded like
they were just songs thrown on a CD. This feels like
an album," he says.
Sitting in Nashville, surrounded by the legions of
singer/songwriters, it's easy to forget there are
pockets of different types of Christian music
happening in other parts of the country. The Orange
County/Southern California scene seems to be
experiencing a revitalization of sorts, something
Silletta thinks was a long time coming.
"Out here, Christian alternative, hard core,
punk was dead, really for about 10 years, until The
Crucified and Prayer Chain and all those guys came up
and started doing things. There was never really a
draw here for that kind of Christian music until those
guys came along. Now there's even kind of a scene
going on out here," Silletta says. "At every
Christian show, there will be a lot of people out
there. Last night [at an album release party/concert],
we drew maybe 1200 people, 10 ten minutes away from
where we were, was Michael W. Smith and Jars of Clay,
and it didn't seem to affect our draw at all. We had
busloads of kids and their youth pastors coming to our
show, and I'm sure [Smith and Jars] packed the Pond
[in Anaheim.]"
The composition of PlankEye's live audience, even
from the days starting out when they would give free
concerts to 150 people, is another thing that
surprises Silletta. "It goes anywhere from junior
high kids to adults, it's really weird. We get such a
diverse crowd. We're really still just a pop band.
We're just a little bit harder than everybody
else."
Silletta says PlankEye has a very clearly defined
goal, one which he hopes they will never waver from.
"Our band is for one purpose only, and that's to
share the love of Jesus Christ with people. We started
this band to share the love of God with people, and
we'll finish this band doing the same thing.
"We want to be the same thing we were when we
started. We want to keep our focus, and keep doing
what we do to lift up the name of Jesus Christ to
people. That's our heart, and that's what we want
people to be left with when they come see us
play."
