(October 2017 "FROM THE ARCHIVE) - "Silos"

I was just a teenager when I went to see a band called The Fire Theft in 2003. It was my first concert. The band was made up of former members of Sunny Day Real Estate, my favorite band who had just recently broken up (almost immediately after I had fallen in love with their music, of course). The Fire Theft hadn't even released their first album yet when I saw them play at the Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia. I can remember the seemingly unbearable leg pain I suffered from getting there early, standing through the opening bands, and not wanting to leave for fear of losing my spot. But when The Fire Theft came on stage, I completely forgot about any pain I was feeling and was absolutely entranced. The first song they played was a song that none of us in the crowd had ever heard before. They had only released three songs on their website when they announced the tour. The song had a profound impact on me. The best way that I can describe it was that it was majestic, and the whole show was life changing.

In the days that followed, I was still reeling from the experience. I especially couldn't stop thinking about that first song. There wasn't a recording of it anywhere that I could find, so I couldn't listen to it. But the vague memories of the guitar melodies kept haunting me. So I decided to attempt to recreate the feeling that I had gotten from the song with a song of my own. I grabbed my dad's beat up classical guitar, made up a weird alternate tuning, and started strumming away with a pick (I later learned that you're "not supposed" to play a classical guitar with a pick).

The result was this song. I hadn't written very many songs at this point of my life, but this was written very quickly. It felt inspired. It felt more complete than any song I had written before. I showed it to my brother Pat. He was often a harsh critic of the songs I wrote on my own, so I was usually nervous to show him something I had written. But with this one, I was more confident than ever, because I already had a love for the song. Luckily he loved it too, and he set about writing his own magical guitar part to accompany it, adding melodies and enriching the chords. I can remember trying to get him to "play simpler", something that I still try (in vain) to get him to do.

Me and Pat would play this song together often, and when we played it for other people, they seemed to be taken aback by how it made them feel. I had planned on writing some lyrics to this song and singing them, but me and Pat decided that it wouldn't add to the song, it would only take away from the eerie experience that the two guitars created on their own. I still remember the only lyrics that I had written that would have appeared in the song: "Wait under the sky and pray for night to come."

This recording was made in early 2004. It was recorded by a man named Bob Oudyk, a gentle and friendly man who attended our church and also had a home recording studio. He took a liking to the young long haired misfits from church (I suspect he was once a long haired misfit himself) and offered to let us record some songs for free. I remember the song being recorded in one take, with me and Pat playing together in the same room. We were really proud of ourselves for that.

The song went through a few titles before Pat suggested we call it "Silos". Something about the image of barn silos in an open field of farm land with a grey cloudy sky above seemed to fit the music. Maybe you can picture that as you listen to this song too.

 -Dan

This recording of “Silos” was performed by:

 Dan McGowan - Classical Guitar

Patrick McGowan - Acoustic Guitar