Finding ‘Faults'

The Silent Comedy are on a roll. Thanks to their whiskey-soaked songwriting and high-energy performances, the San Diego band has amassed a passionate following, repeatedly selling out the Casbah as if it were their grandma’s basement. The five-piece will return to the venue on April 2 to celebrate the release of their sophomore album, Common Faults. We sat down with singer/keyboardist Jeremiah Zimmerman to discuss the album, the joys of having a supportive fan base and the band’s love of mustaches.

SoundDiego: The concept of the album is that it’s about people’s flaws. Since the songs were sometimes written years apart from one another, when did you decide on that concept?

Jeremiah Zimmerman: When we put together the track list, we asked, “Why did we pick these songs? Why do they seem to work together? What is the commonality?” Every time we looked at it, every song had some sort of error in it, either in ourselves or what we see around us in society. In every song, there’s jealousy or excess. There's a song about drinking too much, and one about child trafficking, and songs about religious hypocrisy, and deceit, and all the things that are wrong with the world. The album felt “dark” to us, but that took on a context of skulls and hot topic that we weren’t comfortable with, so we said, “It’s not ‘dark’ so much as it is just ‘flawed’ and riddled with faults.”

They’re the faults you see everywhere, so much so that you can get jaded to it. The only way you can really see it is when it’s exemplified in an extreme way. Like, we all want to consume with a disregard for other people, but you don’t realize that until you punch someone to take their wallet, and then you go, “Oh, wait, there’s a problem.”

SD: The album includes a poster of fans wearing Silent Comedy-inspired mustaches, which was done in part to raise money for the recording. How exactly did the fundraising work?

JZ: We told people, “Send us a photo -- it could be Photoshopped, it could be real, it could be paper, felt, or whatever -- but send us a photo of you in a mustache and some money, and we’ll put you in the record.” [Laughs] We knew this would be the most expensive record we’d made, and none of us have that money, so we thought this would be a great way for people to be involved in it. People have been so supportive. Everyone who likes the music wants to support us, and people will go so far as to hand us $20 at a show for a $5 CD and not let us give them change.

Click here to read more of this interview on OwlandBear.com

Chris Maroulakos is a writer and editor for the San Diego music blog Owl and Bear.

Contact Us