Peter Silberman- The Antlers

Today, I had the pleasure of being in a class that got to interview Peter Silberman of The Antlers. Aside from being an all around cool guy, he had some interesting things to say about his album, "Hospice".  I wouldn't feel right about divulging all that he said, but I will share some stuff that I thought about the album based on the conversation. First of all, I think it is interesting to look at the two story lines that run through the album, one of an abusive relationship and the other of a woman dying in a hospice. I think the discussion about whether one is a metaphor for the other is a tad pointless as it doesn't really change the meaning or affect of the album. It is cool to see how Silberman relates sickness spreading to a diseased relationship and how that affects the speaker, even down to his sense of identity.

The other thing I found interesting was the way in which Silberman writes songs. He told me he likes to set limitations on himself to spawn his creative process. That makes sense as I have always admired "Hospice" for its unrelenting emotion, but also the restraint in expression which does not make the emotion gratuitous.  The album does not fall prey to the flaws which haunt such musical genres as emo. "Hospice" does not fall prey to the mopey, excessive posturing that run through many albums with equally literate, verbose songwriters (Cassadaga? anyone??). Anyways if you have not listened to this album you should and if you have you should take some more time with it as it has many more nuggets that become apparent as more time is invested.

Two- The Antlers