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Hisland leaves Horseshoe Island for The Spoke

Being an independent, unsigned band can be a full-time job. Not only are you playing several shows in a month and trying to write and record new music as much as possible, you have to deal with multiple social media accounts, book shows in various cities and constantly attempt to find new ways to get your music heard.

But for Andrew Silvestro of the upcoming blues-rock band Hisland, doing these things are part of the process of making this hobby a career. Silvestro sat down to talk about the formation of Hisland, upcoming projects and their unexpected quick success.

Can you explain how the four of you came together and started playing music?

Our drummer Jacob and I grew up playing hockey together as kids. One day, I decided to learn guitar and he decided to learn drums and we kind of went on from there, picking up the other two members [Mat and Pavel] along the way.

Is it difficult to arrange shows since you live in London and the rest of Hisland lives in Kitchener?

We usually deal with it as it goes. Whenever I get back in town, we always try to find some time to jam, or I just go back because we have a show coming up. We usually play around three or four shows in a month right now, so it can get pretty busy.

You guys compare your sound to The Strokes or Kings of Leon’s older music. Where does this sound come from?

Our sound definitely comes from that type of music—the early 2000 or 2001 garage rock revival type stuff. Myself and the other guitar player really dig that sound a lot.

You received quite a few nominations for your debut EP Muckshack, which you wrote and recorded up north on Horseshoe Island. How does it feel to be recognized at this level so early on in the game?

It’s really hard to describe, to be honest. [The nominations] were all really unexpected. All of a sudden someone would be like, “Hey, you were nominated for this,” and we wouldn’t have even known people were out there listening to our stuff yet. It almost seems sort of surreal. Like earlier this year I got nominated for “Best Male Vocalist” at the 2011 Los Angeles Music Awards and I was just like, “what?” I think it’s cool that people are out there that actually appreciate what we’re trying to do.

Do you think it adds a little pressure for you guys to keep improving in the future?

We’re always aiming to do better, because there’s always room for improvement, right? We’re not perfect and we never will be, so as a band we always strive for the next song to be better—we just have that mentality. So I think it puts a decent amount of pressure on us to keep the train moving.

What is Hisland working on right now?

You can probably expect a new EP around the summer, just because we want to get back in the studio and we have a ton of other tracks that we haven’t had time to get down yet. We also have Canadian music week coming up, which is huge since everybody who is anybody in the Canadian music industry will be there. We just want to keep writing and playing shows as much as we can.

Are you excited to play in front of your peers at Western? And what can people expect from the show on Friday?

I’m really excited just because it’s at my school and a lot of people I know are going to be out there, which is nerve-wracking but it’s also going to be a really good time. I think people can just expect that it’s going to be a great time. Come with an open mind! There’s going to be a lot of drinking and dancing, which is exactly what we set out to do.

Catch Hisland performing tomorrow night at the Spoke at 8 p.m.

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