Changing directions: Country band Silverada celebrate name change, new musical course with self-titled album

Oct. 11—Silverada has undergone a metamorphosis that did not end with the band's name change.

Formerly known as Mike and the Moonpies, the Austin, Texas, band marks a new chapter with its self-titled release "Silverada." The album is the ninth release for the band that decided to take its music somewhere new in name and in style. It remains country at its core, with additional elements of Americana that separate it from its Mike and the Moonpies days.

"When I started the (Mike and the Moonpies), it was kind of a dancehall thing," said Mike Harmeier, singer and songwriter for the band. "And the goals were to just play around the Texas dancehall scene. Over the years, it evolved and became a little bit more of a creative journey. We've just been wanting to do something like this for a very long time. I think we got tired of having the conversation, and then we had made this record, this latest record, and we felt like it really was kind of a departure for us in a lot of ways."

He said the album "Silverada" felt right and that the band was headed in the right direction. The band decided to "rip the Band-Aid off" and change its name to Silverada.

"It's kind of breathed some new life into the band," Harmeier explained. "We've been at this for 15, almost 20 years. I think we just wanted a some fresh start and a new outlook on it."

Audiences will notice the change in direction for the band as it transitioned into Silverada. The band is made up of Harmeier, drummer Taylor Englert, guitarist Catlin Rutherford, bassist Omar Oyoque and steel guitarist Zachary Moulton.

"I think the songwriting has kind of evolved and I've gotten better at that," Harmeier explained. "I kind of wrote the same tropes for a long time. It was kind of a barroom thing. I'm writing a little bit deeper, more personal stuff these days. And, the songwriting to just the production of the music, we weren't really chasing any kind of style anymore. It was just whatever suited the song the best. I think that really kind of opened up all this creativity that the whole band got to have their input on. And it just felt more like a full band record. It's not me and these guys, it's all of us together."

The band clicked so well on the new material that the song, "Stay By My Side," took one single take to record at Capricorn Sound Studios in Macon, Georgia, while the band was touring the southeast part of the country.

"We had tried that song so many different ways, and stylized the song different ways, and we just couldn't get it right," Harmeier explained. "And then we just figured it out one day on the road, on the bus. And then, (we were) just like man, we've got to get in there and record this thing as quick as we can before we forget how this goes."

He added that a similar creative process was used for each of the songs on "Silverada."

"It was always like, man, let's just try as many things as we can, until we find where it really feels at home," he said. "And we lucked out and pretty much felt that way about everything on the record."

The song "Wallflower" contains harmonized guitar solos and driving disco beats.

"It really felt at home with the disco thing," Harmeier said. "We have a new drummer. This is the first record that our drummer Taylor has been on. We kind of get to experiment with him and the style that he can play and do new grooves that we can do with him in the band. And we just felt like that really suited the song.

"Some '70s and '80s country music as well, like Ronnie Milsap, had a lot of that kind of disco kind of thing and the kind of moody groove stuff, so we felt like it still fit. And, ('Silverada') just ended up being a part of a pretty eclectic record from front to back."

Harmeier did the brunt of the lyric writing on the "Silverada" album with some help.

"I usually come in that way for records," he explained. "I had maybe 15 things. I'm pretty well-organized and got the songs ready to go, at least from my standpoint, the first version of it. I come in with most of the lyric stuff and my producer, Adam Odor, helps me out when I get stuck in spots. We get a lot of co-writes together just because we're trying to figure out where we're headed with each song. I usually come in with pretty fully fleshed out ideas and then just kind of get it to the band and let them hear that for the first time and I kind of just naturally go where they want to go with it."