SILENT SIRENS: The Mess We Make

Listen to Silent Sirens' "The Mess We Make"

Return to the Chi-Tunes home page. Silent Sirens can be found at myspace.com/silentsirensrock.

The Silent Sirens want what every band wants: To make music not only their passion but also their occupation. Easier said than done, right?

As guitarist Jesse Christenson puts it, "Right now we're at that middle-child stage on the Chicago scene. We're not beginners. We've all been at this before, but now we want to see ourselves reach that next level."

Like many bands, the Silent Sirens came together out of the remnants of other bands that fell apart or dissolved because someone had to go back to school, get a job or otherwise engage in the pesky rituals of life that do not involve being a rock star.

Christenson and lead singer Adrian Day met and formed an instant rapport that led to the creation of their first song "The Mess We Make." From there, they gathered George Coutretsis on guitar, Joe Chouinard on bass and Adam Machalek on drums.

"We have the abilities, we have the interest," Day says, "and right now we're a one in a thousand band, but we just have to keep pushing. … Maybe a one in ten thousand band is the next step."

The Silent Sirens recently completed recording at Smart Studios in Madison, Wis., where the likes of Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Death Cab for Cutie laid down some of their most famous tracks.

"We're really excited about these songs," Day says. "And it's part of a big push we're going to make this summer, hopefully leading to a tour in the fall."

The band wants a sound that is both familiar yet not derivative of typical punk or pop music. They see a danger in sounding like every other band in Chicago and part of the dynamic between Day and Christenson as the primary songwriters is the alternating influences of aggression and melody

"It's just important that people can't immediately pinpoint what you sound like," Day says.

[ Stephen Markley is a RedEye special contributor. ]