Sliver

A letter from da Man.

Sliver's founding members first met in 1996 at a high school battle of the bands. Laura Harley was performing with her band at the time, and I was watching from the audience. The last thing on my mind that night was to start a band. I had just moved to Minneapolis from Chicago, mostly to get away from the Chicago emo scene in which my old band had been heavily involved. I was sick of scene politics, sick of music even, and would have been happy never to be in a band again. But listening to Laura's beautiful songs that night made all of that negativity disappear. I began to feel something I hadn't felt for more than a year: inspiration. After the show, I approached Laura about a collaboration, and for some reason, Laura agreed. Thus was Sliver born.

The first year of Sliver's existence was tumultuous. Both Laura and I were suffering the after effects of painful breakups. Neither of us had collaborated as songwriters before, and our songwriting sessions would inevitably turn into rancorous arguments. We burned through four drummers and three bass players before we found Matt Leitl and Kirk Nelson, who became the band's rhythm section. On top of that, in the spring of 1997, I graduated from law school and was forced to choose between my career and my passion. For reasons mysterious even to me, I chose music.

The result of that choice is that Sliver is today one of the brightest stars in the constellation of Minneapolis rock. Sliver's demos have received numerous spins on college radio, and the band's shows are packed with enthusiastic fans who love Sliver's dreamo sound. (dream pop + emo = dreamo). Incredibly, our debut CD was picked up by Guilt Ridden Pop and is due out in late June. The album is called Beneath The Waves and we in Sliver can attest that it's worth fighting for.

 Yours,

Teddy Kim

- bio used by Guilt Ridden Pop