Bravo Silva - by Marie Helene
music to play hooky to

Hank Silva's voice balances on a pleasing synth and the chug chug chugging of a guitar throughout their debut album, available in LES hovels near you. He explains to The Deli Magazine that he is evolving out of his Bowling for Soup influences, but do we want him to evolve that much?

I heard that two of your guitars were stolen the club was throwing you a fundraiser to help you buy new ones.

The guitars were stolen from the syrup room, a performance space Joel opened. We practice there and on Saturday nights people throw parties. My guitars (two old hollow body electrics) disappeared at one of these parties. The djs felt really bad so they held a benefit a couple weeks at the Lucky Cat, which was really nice of them. Up until then there was so much positive energy surrounding the space. In hindsight it was pretty dumb but I stored our gear under the stage at these parties and just assumed people were good and respectful. Getting my guitars stolen felt like Altamont . So now they're gone.

How is your acting career coming along? Can we expect to see any guest spots on Law and Order in the near future?

My acting career is catch as catch can. I know lots of people who have been on Law and Order. That's a good show, although not as good as “House.” Mostly I've been auditioning for pilots. I did a small movie in the fall called “Lying” with Jena Malone and Chloe Sevigny that my friend M Blash wrote and directed.

At which college did Bravo Silva meet and what were the first words you said to one another? If you had it to do over, what would be the first thing you would say to each other?

Joel and I went to Dartmouth College . I don't know what our first words were. “Pass the bong” maybe? If I had to do it over I never would have gone to college in first place. But then I never would have met Joel, so…

New album soon?

In January we recorded a demo of new songs with Malachi Delorenzo (who produced our first album). We're looking for someone to finance and hopefully release the next album. We're ready to record it, we just don't have the money.

I've heard your music compared a lot to 80's bands (The Police, New Order, Joy Division) and I can hear influences, sure, say in the staccato Sting-ish vocals in Strawberry Blonde. Am I wrong to say/hope your music is more interesting than that?

For a while we were consciously making music that was more or less referential. That was a few years ago. The more songs we write the more our songs are sounding like us and not somebody else. I think that is a natural progression. They're still love songs for the most part. Pop songs. I love eighties music. I love the melodies.

I can see songs like “City I Love You” providing a backdrop to a scene like the following: We have Ferris Bueller, Cameron and Sloane Peterson flying on the highway in the Ferrari, toward the buildings of Chicago . For what scene from which movie can you hear your music providing a backdrop?

That's an interesting question. It must be different for every song, right? There was a movie I used to watch all the time when I was a kid called “flight of the navigator.” It's a weird movie from like 1986 with a spaceship that has the voice of Peewee Herman. It takes place in Fort Lauderdale . Maybe that one.

What would you like the readers of The Deli to know about Bravo Silva?

We're looking for a keyboardist.

If Bravo Silva were athletes in the Williamsburg Winter Olympics for Indie Music, what would your event be?

Yes! I would have to say the figure skating dancing one…with the partners and the costumes.