SILENT CIVILIAN Frontman Discusses Lineup Changes, Upcoming Covers EP

In a recent interview conducted by Greg Maki of Live-Metal.net, SILENT CIVILIAN vocalist/guitarist Jonny Santos (ex-SPINESHANK) discussed the two new members of the band, a planned EP of cover songs and more. Excerpts follow:

Live-Metal: There have been some changes in the band since you started touring. Who is in the band now?

Jonny Santos: "The current lineup still is me and [drummer] Chris [Mora], obviously. We have two guys that are basically on a trial period. We want to take our time, make sure we get the right guys, 'cause I don't want to go through this again. Chris and I were pretty much the whole band to begin with, so losing the other two guys, it sucked, but we haven't missed a show, literally. We even played a few nights as a three-piece. Whatever we have to do, the fans still come out, so we gotta keep it going. Hopefully, everything works out with these guys and we'll have ourselves some permanent members. You can't really get to know somebody just from meeting them and saying, 'OK, cool. You play guitar? Right on. Yeah.' And then they turn out to be a fuckin' psychopathic axe murderer. Being experienced in this business a long time, I've learned that you don't really know somebody's true colors until you've toured with 'em for fuckin' six months. Then you'll know if that person's a keeper or not, and I think it's just the right thing to do. The other thing is, Chris and I, we don't want people that think they're just getting handouts. We want hungry motherfuckers. As of right now, we're fine, the band's doing great, we're on the road doing some decent tours. And we just gotta keep going with that. We still have another year of touring left."

Live-Metal: So who are the new guys and where did you find them?

Jonny Santos: "Marcus [Rafferty] is playing guitar right now. We met him, actually, because he was working for NOTHINGFACE. So we were friends with Marcus. He really wanted to try out for the spot, and we just said, 'Videotape yourself playing the songs note for note — and that means all the leads, too, buddy. This shit ain't easy.' I mean, I knew Marcus could play, but I didn't know his capabilities as a guitar player. And he said, 'I'll do you even better.' He's from Syracuse, New York, and he said, 'How about this, how about I drive down?' — we were in Reading, Pennsylvania — 'How about I drive down there and play for you in person?' I was like, 'Fuck yeah, cool.' So he came down and note for note, two songs. And he started playing with us that night. [BLEED THE SKY guitarist] Kyle [Moorman] would play the first part of the set and Marcus would finish it out. That's how he learned all the songs. So that was cool.

"Stan [Derby], who's playing bass, was actually a friend of Marcus's. I'd asked Marcus, 'Hey, do you know any really good bass players, metal bass players?' And he was like, 'Yeah, let me make a phone call.' So we checked Stan out. He flew into Spokane, Washington, and has been with us ever since. Disco [Daylen] was playing bass for us at the time, Disco from BLEED THE SKY. It was really fun having Disco in the band for a month. That guy's awesome."

Live-Metal: I heard you were thinking about doing an album of covers.

Jonny Santos: "We're gonna do an EP. It's gonna be like a Bay Area tribute EP. We're gonna cover a bunch of old Bay area stuff, SACRED REICH, fuckin' DEATH ANGEL, EXODUS, TESTAMENT. It's something really cool for the fans while we're… It'll probably get released right before we finish touring. We'll take like two weeks off, go home, track it and then put it out. I just really want to bring thrash back. There's so many 'core' bands, this band and that band and I just want to bring the whole thrash — it's, like, the punk beats, man, with the metal riffs, it drives me nuts, dude. Old SEPULTURA, 'Beneath the Remains' and fuckin' 'Arise'."

Read the entire interview at this location.