Interview: Silver Daggers
by Jeremiah Griffey
The new Los Angeles punk attitude carves deeply throughout everything Silver Daggers does. The band’s live show drips acid-tongued ferocity. Their lyrics play the role of snarky voyeur. Until the release of “New High & Ord” (Load) all of their recorded music found its way onto various DIY comps, seven inches and a couple of CD-Rs culled from radio appearances. That’s just the way they like it.
Onstage, vocalist/keyboardist William Kai Stangeland Menchaca looks like he could have been a Marine in another life. But when he squeals and writhes around onstage another faux-tough guy comes to mind: Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart. Saxophonist Jenna Thornhill (Mika Miko) provides much onstage banter between songs, but her role in the band extends far beyond idle chatter as her bleeding saxophone challenges traditional punk conventions. Guitarist Jackson Baugh and bassist Steven T. Kim lose themselves in their own world while drummer Marcus Savino crushes his drum kit. In other words they’re one of those bands who, five or ten years from now, people will be wishing they’d have seen live during their early years, like the Jesus Lizard, At the Drive-in or label mates Lightning Bolt.
They’re also one of those bands, like xbxrx or Aa, who prefer to answer interview questions as a collective. Like their brash, abrasive spazz punk, there’s no one single voice that stands out.
First thing’s first. Does your name stem from World of Warcraft, Joan Baez or some other less-than-obvious source?
Well WKSM is an Undead Mage, Jackson has a Blood-Elf hunter, Steve kicks ass with his Troll Rogue, Jenna’s got a bad-ass level 60 Tauren Shammy who can heal and tank when needed and Marcus rounds out the guild with a level 68, feral spec Druid with tier-two epic gear. Also, the song we got our name from is called “Silver Dagger”. There are other artists who’ve used similar imagery. We put about three seconds of thought into our band name.
Your lyrics seem more observational than critical and also on the minimalist side. How’d you settle upon that style?
The lyrics are mostly observations and questions. It’s a pleasure to hear them described as minimal. This of course was never settled on or decided upon, it being simply how it is.
Do you ever grow frustrated with the lack of artistic political punk music today, or are you too surrounded by L.A. friend bands to really see how dire the situation is?
Many things are frustrating, however being frustrated seems to be a waste of time and energy. If there’s a lack of something you must fill that void, which is what we have done.
It seems like it took forever for you to release a “proper” debut album (besides your two live CD-Rs). What took so long?
We are a live band. Releasing records is more or less dictated by record labels, distributors, and the market for records. For a young band who enjoys putting out seven inches and other obscurities, it takes time to compose all the material for a full length. The truth is that our evolution is happening really organically. We never planned on being affiliated with a label. And once Load asked us to make a record, a year and some months had passed before it got released. Load is very much a DIY independent label, yet they have a superior product and this comes from taking the time to do things right. Strict ethos and attention to detail aside, there are always problems and things that go wrong. Recording this record was an amazing experience. Mike McHugh, who did the recording/mixing was amazing to work with and his humor and candor kept everything very positive and productive. It was also intense because we recorded and mixed fourteen songs in one-week, about 12 hours per day. We had to make a lot of quick decisions and it helped keep it from being over-produced. It has a low-fi feel even though it was recorded with the best analog equipment. No plans for the next record yet, maybe an EP first.
2007 New High & Ord (Load)
2005 Art School, No Bleed (Self-Released)
2004 A Tradition of Destroying the L.A. Times Building (Self-Released)
