Wading though the masses of future doctors and international policy gurus between classes, it is sometimes difficult to imagine anyone at Hopkins doing anything else other than studying at the MSE and planning out their futures at graduate/medical school.
Hopkins seniors Austin Tally and Amanda Glasser, known collectively as the band Silent Whys, are that wonderful exception
Austin, a Writing Seminars major and French literature minor, and Amanda, a Cognitive Science and French literature double major, met as sophomores, and, after playing at a number of local venues including the Annex and the Metro Gallery, are now steadily completing their first album, which they hope to have it ready by the end of the year.
The News-Letter caught up with Silent Whys, who are also currently in a romantinc relationship, at Austin’s apartment on St. Paul St. to find out what life is like for the bandmates, who are fast-rising stars in the Baltimore music scene.
The News-Letter (N-L): How did you guy’s meet?
Amanda Glasser (AG): During sophomore year I was sick, and took some time off from
school for a semester. I came back and didn’t know anyone . . . and then I saw Austin at Nolans (we had kinda known each other freshman year). He was interested in this really nice synthesizer I had.
Austin Tally (AT): We went into the Charles Common’s practice rooms to play, we just kind of were messing around. Then we realized we liked the same type of music, we both liked this band called Low. We kept playing music like that, and maybe two months later we started . . . AG: dating!
N-L: What was your first show?
AT: The Nolan’s Open Mike.
AG: Was that or was that the Golden West? Oh God, I guess we really did start on campus. We got second at the Open Mike competition, and won $250. And then what happened was that this guy had been contacting me on Myspace . . . this guy found my music on Myspace, and he worked for a record company called Environmental Aesthetics, and . . . haha this feels like a long time ago!
And then I met up with him on the Beach, he is a Hopkins alum, and he signed us. He got us a show . . . you remember the 6 Day Jam? We did that, which was cool.
AT: We played at Spring Fair.
Then we had two shows at Golden West, which introduced
us to the bands in Baltimore. Even if it was like three people in the audience.
AG: And now . . . and now I’d like to think we are more legit. I mean we learned to play shorter shows. Playing too much turns people off, play one a few songs and they like it, they can be like “Oh, ok, maybe I should check them out”
N-L: What is your “sound”?
AG: We started out with a guitar and an accordion, but now we have added a few more instruments. We just try to have a good balance. Each instrument is played once, except for maybe the banjo.
AT: We’re not sampling anything. A little because we don’t have
the technical ability, but also because we don’t need it. It keeps us simple. So we are definitely not electronic.
N-L: Where are you going with the band? Whats the next step?
AT: The first step is the album. I mean we are still playing many
of the songs we started out writing. We have a lot of ours songs out online for free, and a lot of those are what we started out writing.
AG: You mostly write about nature stuff. I’m kind of about death (laughs). My goal through this music is to making something you can stand behind and meet people through, make connections. I’m not into self-promotion.
N-L: What were some of the obstacles that you had to face?
AG: Being a student from Hopkins is hard. People come up to me and ask if I go to MICA, and when I say I’m from Hopkins, they immediately give you this weird accusing look. I mean I really like Baltimore, and am
planning to stay here for grad uate school.
Music is directly related to what I do, seeing how people react to our music, to music in general. I’m kind of a nerd.
AT: I don’t think we feel very connected to the Hopkins community.
AG: I don’t think Hopkins is as connected to Baltimore as it
should be, at least culturally. It’s a bubble and it is kind of unfortunate.
It is difficult to separate yourself and get involved in the music community, or at least combine both of those worlds. It’s very contained.
N-L: If you guys ever split up do think you would stick together as a group?
AT: I don’t know. But the songs aren’t necessarily about one
another. Some of them naturally are of course.
But I think at this point we each have our own different style of song-writing, that the other one can make it by themselves . . . I think it stays very much in the background. One doesn’t necessarily affect the other.
