Singled Out: Sons of Silver's Tell Me This

Keavin Wiggins | 02-16-2024

Sons of Silver just premiered a music video for their new single "Tell Me This" (from their forthcoming album "Runaway Emotions"), and to celebrate we asked Peter Argyropoulos to tell us about the song. Here is the story:

Tell Me This is the first single we are releasing from our upcoming album, Runaway Emotions. The album was written, recorded and produced by the band in the winter of 2023 at our studio in Santa Monica.

The song was inspired by the intro guitar riff. "It was a practice riff; something I came up with while doing guitar exercises. I put it together with a basic idea for the chorus and brought it to the band. "It was originally called Now Hear This - a rant against political corruption. The band dug the riff and we came up with some promising ideas. But, the chorus melody wasn't happening and, overall, the energy felt a little flat. So, we shelved it.

Time off is not always time wasted when writing something new. Fast forward a few months. Marc Slutsky joined the band as drummer and brought with him a refreshing approach. "I thought his playing would be a good match for Tell Me This, so I brought the song back to the band during our last rehearsals before recording the album. I'd come up with a new chorus melody and changed the lyric to Tell Me This. The rest of the band was like, "Oh yeah, we forgot about this one' in a good way."

Marc dug in and did exactly as I had hoped. Marc can play anything, but he's got a CBGB punk rock soul. That's what was needed from the drums. He immediately lifted the song over the top. After reviewing rehearsal recordings that night, he called me and said he thought the song could be a single. Turns out he was right!

Once in the studio, Brina (keyboards) engineered while Adam (bass), Kevin (lead guitar), Marc and Peter (rhythm guitar) performed the basic track, focusing on the performance and sounds of the drums and bass.

The recording process was fast and smooth except for the lyrics. Usually, I have the lyrics well along when we begin recording, in the case of Tell Me This, those words were all I had. Getting a finished lyric was painful. The problem was that the song wanted to be a simple rocker and I wanted it to be a political statement. Once I relented, the lyrics came fast. But I quit on the song several times along the way.

Fortunately, the band wouldn't let him throw in the towel. The line that really made the lyrics work for me was, 'Do you recognize my ass on your lips' at the ends of the choruses, it added some bite and made the song more fun to sing. I was relieved when the band gave a big thumbs up.

When the production was complete, the band turned to renowned producer/engineer Tim Palmer, whose credits include David Bowie, The Cure and U2. Tim added some guitars and even some background vocals. I was texting with Tim about how happy we were with his mixing, including his guitar additions. We especially loved how he treated Brina's background vocals in the choruses. He asked if I'd noticed his own background vocals in the verses. I hadn't, they're very subtle, though significant. Very cool to sing along with Tim Palmer.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the band here