Silvertide
Silvertide is (left to right) lead guitarist Nick Perri, drummer Kevin Frank, vocalist
Walt Lafty, rhythm guitarist Mark Melchiorre, and bassist Brian Weever
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.When I was approached to do a phone
interview with the band Silvertide, ftiad
no idea what I was in for. I had just
received their demo that day and had yet to
listen to it. All I had to go on when agree
ing to the interview was a 3-song demo
and a folder full of bios and news articles.
So we set the interview up for Friday
November 1 and I went home, opened up
the folder and threw in the CD. All I can
say is wow! It was refreshing to hear
music by a group of talented guys under
the age of 21 that wasn’t bubblegum
Backstreet Boys pop. These guys decided
that they weren’t going to go for the main
stream junk that is cluttering radio air
waves, but to bring back the rock music
that our country is in dire need of. I eager
ly read through the press folder and got all
the info I could get from it and formulated
some questions based on what I didn’t find
there. Lead singer Walt Lafty and rhythm
guitarist Mark Melchiorre were the first
members of the band in January of 2001
and soon brought together lead guitarist
Nick Perri and drummer Kevin Frank.
Both Perry and Frank were still in high
school at the time. Soon after, the band
Now I was excited to talk
to a member of the band that
literally and figuratively
brought music to my ears. At
every ring of the phone I
would jump with anticipa
tion, this was the first time I
ever did a phone interview
with someone as accom
plished as these guys. Fear
and anticipation of screwing
up (which we all know I am
good at sometimes) mounted
as the appoint time
approached. Boy, the phone
rang a lot that day. But final
ly, the voice on the other line
said, “Hi, this is Mark from
the banc Silvertide.” His
calm, down to earth tone and
manner set me at easy. After a
little chitchat about where we
were from and where we
were at present, the interview
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was completed with the addi
tion of bass player Brian
Weever who had been play
ing music with Melchiorre
since they were 8 years old.
This fresh young group of
five would soon become the
hot (and still young) group
Silvertide.
I found out that they are
relatively local, hailing from
Northeast Philadelphia.
Melchiorre himself wanted to
go to Penn State but ended up
By Stacy De Angelo, Editor in Chief
going to Drexel University and taking up
engineering before getting into full swing
with Silvertide. At that moment in time the
band was in New York and would be going
back to LA where they are working on
their first album (which personally I can’t
wait for) that is due out the end of
February. “We went out to LA to work on
the writing. We never had time to focus on
just the writing,” Melchiorre stated. When
asked who writes the song he replied, “we
all do. The songs never stop coming,”
adding that he hopes they never do. I was
curious to know how they escaped the
dreaded abyss that is today’s pop music
scene. He laughed at this question and
gave one of the best answers I ever heard.
“We grew up with classic rock... we don’t
try to write anything specific. What we
write is what it is.”
I couldn’t help but inquire about the
origin of the band’s name, “Silvertide.”
There is usually a deep, philosophical or
very personal meaning for choosing a
band’s name and such was the case for
Silvertide. Melchiorre lamented, “We
were at a bonfire on the Jersey Shore and
one of the guys’ sister said to look at the
tide, that it looked like a ‘silver tide’.”
Next thing they knew, they had become
“Silvertide.”
It came to my attention prior to the
interview that Silvertide was fortunate
enough to open for classic rock icons
Aerosmith in Philadelphia. When asked
what it was like all Melchiorre could say
was, “It was chaotic. We had like 3 hours
to prepare before opening up for
Aerosmith.” Another chaotic point in the
life of Silvertide was the quick rise to suc
cess, only having been together close to 2
years, and have already been signed to a
label (music legend Clive Davis’ J
Records) for about 6 months. They have
dreams of hitting it big, perhaps working
with some of the artist that have inspired
them. Their collective favorite and inspira
tion are rock legends Led Zeppelin.
Now they have the band, they have the
name, they have the record deal, and with
all that comes the worries. Melchiorre
said, “We’re excited. This is our first big
deal.” However, when failure was men
tioned, he stated, “It’s a big fear in all of
us.” They are taking a big risk by going
against the grain of the overly common
boy/girl groups and the emergence of
punk, emo, and indirock. He went on to
add, “we’re hoping maybe can revive the
whole rock scene... its choking right
Upon ending the interview I fired my
last question, asking if he could sum up
what the last year. Melchiorre’s reply,
“Scary and weird because we’re so
young... it’s a weird feeling.”