The Silos
The Silos, the still-kicking band Walter Salas-Humara co-founded in New
York's post-punk '80s scene played Alt-Rock, Alt-Country, and Americana before
any critics coined those terms. They were named Best New Artist in the 1987
Rolling Stone Critics Poll. Throughout Salas-Humara's career his
voice has remained textured like a walnut; meanwhile, his narratives focus not
on interior, abstract weaves of doubts and anxieties but on storytelling. He
renders small incidents in granular detail that take on the weight of
attentive, convincing poetry and wry wordplay. Each tune is marked by such
humanity, which offers much refuge in a convulsive time.
Salas-Humara's legacy
would seem secure; his name is on 24 albums, his Horse Paintings hang in homes
and galleries around the world, and his WaltersDogs portraits even appeared in
the film Get Him to the Greek. but he's hardly ready to call it a day. "It's
still really fun for me," he says of his musical pursuits. "In fact, I'm much
happier than I've ever been in my life. I really enjoy traveling around
entertaining. I see myself as an artist, but I also see myself as a
communicator and entertainer - and teacher and mentor. And I love that. Back in
the day, the Silos just blasted everybody's faces off. We hardly talked at all.
Now, I play songs, I tell stories. Then I hang out after."
Salas-Humara
might have attended art school at Pratt Institute, but his songs feel shaped by
low-key vistas of everyday life. Of that era, Salas-Humara recounts: "I learned
a lot about design, conceptual ideas, and the history of art. I think that has
helped me bring a unique character to my music and art, but it's being out
there on the road, just playing and playing, singing and singing, connecting
with audiences, trying new shit out, that has made me a not only a better
entertainer, but a better person." In doing so, he has imbued his tunes with a
slightly weathered, wandering cosmopolitan Euro-Western vibe and a relaxed and
open-ended ambience. Plus, they teem with a bounty of hooks and grooves that
never distract from his musical portraits.
The space-time of
Salas-Humara is not a Technicolor world, or a green screen world of hyped
fakery, it's a workaday world, paced as such, in which home and heart are the
iconography of inspiration, played with pluck and gravelly insight. Or, as
Walter suggests, "One's environment and one's experiences always informs one's
songwriting. This happens naturally whether you like it or not. Songs are life,
and my life has been just one very long song."
Much. much more info,
music and art at
waltersalashumara.com