Unsigned Spotlight: The Silent Mile
Emo rock quartet The Silent Mile hails from the Green Mountain state, based in the city of Burlington, Vermont.
Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.
Hunter Phelps is our fearless leader and plays guitar and sings lead vocals. Conrad Beckmann plays bass and sings backup. Tyler Jackson plays drums. Meghan Burke plays lead guitar.
For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to The Silent Mile? How long has the band been around?
Hunter and Meghan actually met about 4 years ago playing in a punk band called Mr. Doubtfire. After they both left that band, Meghan started a punk band called Kitten of the Sea and later a folk punk project called Snow Day that she still currently plays in. Hunter has been in several Vermont bands including Mr. Doubtfire (as previously mentioned), Regret, and Non Commercial Use. He was also briefly a part of a pop punk band out of North Carolina called Maybe Next Midnight.
Tyler played a lot of metal before joining The Silent Mile and was previously in a death metal band called Destructive Nature and plays in an alternative rock band called James and the Giant Sleep. This is Conrad’s first time being in a band that plays live shows and records. The Silent Mile got its start in fall of 2018.
What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?
Hunter came up with the name by combining the title of an American Football song “Five Silent Miles” and the name of a band he really enjoys called The Saddest Landscape. The name has never been changed.
Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?
Hunter usually has segments of a song written, musically and lyrically, that he then brings to practice and we all sort of build on top of that. The underlying theme for most of our songs has been about losing someone you love. We are not sure where our songwriting will take us, we draw a lot from personal experiences.
What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
We get a lot of inspiration for our sound from various emo and pop punk bands including Jimmy Eat World, Boxcar Racer, The Early November, and really anything we are into at the time. There’s a very long list.
Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?
Meghan grew up listening to punk and pop punk bands like the Clash, Ramones, Joan Jett, and Social Distortion because her dad showed them to her at a young age. Green Day was definitely a big inspiration to start playing music for her. Hunter used to listen to Blink-182’s live album on repeat and wanted to be just like Mark and Tom.
Just like Hunter, Conrad also idealized Blink 182 growing up and wanted to play music like them. Underoath is a big inspiration for Tyler, he always admired them, as well as Killswitch Engage. His friend Brit’s band Get a Grip played the first local show he ever went to. It was the first heavy show he had ever been to. It made him get his shit together and start a band.
What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …
Hunter stretches (sometimes lol). Meghan mentally prepares herself and sometimes tries to visualize playing the set. Tyler tries to get a good night's sleep before a show if possible to be well rested. Conrad drinks lol.
What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?
Last June we got to play one of the largest venues in our area, Higher Ground in South Burlington, Vermont. It was a super cool experience and we hope we get asked to play there again.
If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
Omg, this could be a very long list. I think we would be all over the place with this answer. It would be a lot of fun to play with some of our favorite bands like The Wonder Years, Jimmy Eat World, MxPx, August Burns Red, Frank Turner. The list could easily go on!
Is there anything else you would like to add?
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