I recently sat down with sophomore Seth Silverman to ask him about his band and their new album.

So Seth, tell me why you think I am interviewing you.
Well, because my friends Charlie Akerblom, Tristan Fogt and I recently released our debut album.

What kind of album is it?
The band is called Inside the Velvet. The album is called “That Hip New Sound.” The album, for lack of a more compact description, is a hardcore-softcore electro-rock record.

What inspired you to do this? How long did it take? Tell me about the process.
I’ve wanted to make an album since I started playing in bands when I was 10 years old. So, in theory, this album has taken about five years to make, but in reality, it took about 6 months. The band was preparing for Battle of the ‘Burbs last winter when I said, “When this is over, we should make an album.” And Battle of the ‘Burbs ended, and we made an album.
We started in March, and we did the main part of recording from then until summer vacation. I spent the next month doing vocals, and then another month mixing. The whole thing was done in my home studio, “La Boulangerie.”

What influences impacted the album’s sound? What were you listening to when you made it? Who wrote it?
I’ll start with the easiest part of that question: who wrote it. I wrote all of the lyrics. Instrumentally speaking, I wrote all of the songs on the album except for two, which Charlie wrote. We all contributed minor details to all of the songs, but the music is officially credited to one person for each song on the album.
Many different artists influenced the album’s sound. To name a few: Gorillaz, Nirvana, LCD Soundsystem, Dashboard Confessional, Passion Pit… as well as some corny country music and jazz. During the recording process, I listened to a lot of LCD Soundsystem. During the mixing process, I was taking in The White Stripes, Nirvana, Radiohead, and Passion Pit.

Les Baxter once said that any good music has to be an innovation. What have you done that is new?
I think we’ve revolutionized the concept of a teen musical act, at least in this day and age. We speak about things that are relevant to us, and we speak about them honestly. Justin Bieber isn’t going to write a song about the immense stresses of school, or the awkward time he first found out a friend of his did drugs.

Was that your intention?
My only intention was to say what came to mind.

So, you’re saying that you approached the concept of an album blindly?
There were no overarching themes that were pre-planned. There was no plan to “reinvent” the teen band.

How can someone purchase the album? Are you playing any shows soon?
The album is up on iTunes, Amazon MP3, Spotify, and other major online music distributors. We’ll also be selling physical copies at our shows, local record stores, and through friends at school.
We played an album release show in October. We’re opening for Lucas Carpenter at Milkboy on November 16 — everyone should come!

Is there anything else you’d like to touch on?
How much I’d appreciate that anyone who can buy a copy of this album, or come see us live, do so — even if you don’t like rock music. I feel like this album could be very poignant a lot of teens. Also, we could really use the support, of course.

If you want to learn more about the band and hear some of their music, like Inside the Velvet on Facebook.