JUNE '26 BAND OF THE MONTH: Silk Tongue

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:43:07 -0400

˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. ˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. ˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. ˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. ˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. ˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. ˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. ˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. ˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞

𝐿 𝑡𝑜 𝑅: 𝑇𝑖𝑙𝑏𝑜𝑛 𝐴𝐾𝐴 “𝑇𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑦” (𝑣𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑠), 𝐺𝑎𝑏𝑒 (𝑔𝑢𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑟), 𝐽𝑜𝑒𝑦 (𝑑𝑟𝑢𝑚𝑠), 𝑆𝑘𝑦𝑙𝑒𝑟 (𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑠), 𝐸𝑧𝑟𝑎 (𝑔𝑢𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑟/𝑘𝑒𝑦𝑠)

The eccentric and avant-garde 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒌 𝑻𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒆 have garnered an impressive reputation locally, proving themselves to be one of the most memorable acts in the queen city, as well as consistently drawing out enthusiastic friends & supporters to every gig announced - with only the mere mention of their name.

With original recordings on the way, and a month packed full of shows to kick off the summer, Silk Tongue are making the most of the present moment and leaving a legacy that lasts. I’m joined by members Ezra, Tilbon AKA “Tilly”, and Skyler on their Clifton porch for a spontaneous late-night chat, over Busch Light Apples and soundtracked by the first cicadas of the season.

𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑏𝑦 𝐸𝑣𝑖𝑒 𝑊𝑎𝑔𝑛𝑒𝑟

𝑪𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒆𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒂 𝒃𝒂𝒏𝒅?

𝑺𝒌𝒚𝒍𝒆𝒓: I met Joey in middle school, we were in the same program, School of Rock Mason, and we started playing together there; we had a little garage band, which, funnily enough, turned into three other bands that are in the scene now…and I met Ezra my second year of college, where we both almost failed our math class together-

𝑬𝒛𝒓𝒂: I did fail it.

𝑺𝒌𝒚𝒍𝒆𝒓: He did fail it…after that, we met Tilbon AKA “Tilly” through house shows, and then Gabe through Tilbon, so that’s been the progression of our band.

𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄?

𝑻𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒚: I’ve always loved Silk Tongue a lot because each one of us gathers from so many different influences, and it all kind of fits together like puzzle pieces in the end. I know when joining the band, I was really inspired by a lot of hyperpop/digicore, as well as a lot of more digital, shoegaze type stuff that I was listening to at the time. I also was in a pop/rap boyband, so I’ve got that as an influence on my sound, but everybody’s kind of doing some different things and we all come from different backgrounds, and it makes something beautiful.

𝑺𝒌𝒚𝒍𝒆𝒓: I came from probably a pretty heavy metal and funk background, so I’ve liked a lot of hair metal - a lot of Iron Maiden, that sort of stuff; and I’ve also really liked a lot of the neo-soul and new funk, Vulfpeck, a lot of Kubla, Louis Cole as well, so those are my main ones.

𝑬𝒛𝒓𝒂: I came from a very low & slow background, I liked a lot of doom metal, especially when I was first learning to play guitar…a lot of Electric Wizard, Eyehategod, stuff like that. Towards the beginning of college, I got introduced to shoegaze, and I felt like they were really similar, cause it’s going a lot more for like, “atmosphere”, and I feel like that’s had a lot of influence over at least what I write, and my parts for the band.

𝑻𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒚: I actually forgot to give a single artist in my answer…I’m just gonna list a few: Jane Remover, Kmoe, Quannnic, Frank Ocean.

(𝑾𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒑𝒉𝒚𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝑮𝒂𝒃𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒗𝒊𝒂 𝒕𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆: 𝑸𝒖𝒆𝒆𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝑨𝒈𝒆.)

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒈𝒊𝒈 𝒎𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕?

𝑬𝒛𝒓𝒂: My favorite gig moment, I think it was January 8th of this year, we played at the Comet on a Friday, and that was really cool. We were opening and expected to have fun, but didn’t expect the biggest crowd just cause we were opening - and the Comet’s a little bit further out from campus - but then we had that place like, absolutely packed out. It also happened to be that my brother and some of my grade school friends were there, and that kind of made me realize that when you start playing music at a young age, your dream is to play a show for your friends, right? And it never happened when I was in school with ‘em, but it was cool that it happened at some point.

𝑻𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒚: We’ve got a couple. One favorite was at the Green House, when it was Skyler’s birthday and he got handed, like, five Fireball shots throughout the set…from our manager, Max (shoutout Max). Speaking of that, Mac’s Pizza Pub on April 22nd of this year was another favorite. We had, like, a LOT of technical difficulties, stuff was going a little bit crazy; Ezra left his pedalboard at home and we had to drive home and get it-

𝑬𝒛𝒓𝒂: Whoops!

𝑻𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒚: That was as we were setting up, by the way…when we came back, we persisted through it all and had a really great show. We played “𝑆𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑀𝑒” and in the outro, I shed a couple tears and got really emotional, so that one’s the most memorable for me.

𝑰𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒄𝒌 𝒐𝒏 𝒂 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝟐𝟒 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒂 𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒚𝒍 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝒀𝒐𝒖’𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑶𝑵𝑬 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 - 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒔𝒆?

𝑻𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒚: 𝐸𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 - Frank Ocean

𝑬𝒛𝒓𝒂: 𝑆𝑙𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑎𝑟 - All Them Witches

𝑺𝒌𝒚𝒍𝒆𝒓: 𝐴𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 - Dijon

𝑮𝒂𝒃𝒆: 𝑆𝑦𝑟𝑜 - Aphex Twin

𝑱𝒐𝒆𝒚: 𝐻𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑝ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑠 - Rush

𝑰𝒏 𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒈𝒐𝒂𝒍𝒔, 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒘𝒔, 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒔, 𝒆𝒕𝒄, 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒖𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖?

𝑬𝒛𝒓𝒂: We do have a new single coming out soon, “𝑆𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑀𝑒”, that will probably be releasing by the end of the month - the progression for that was written by our very own Skyler, it’s a nice little jazzy tune, it’s very soulful as well. Tilly has shed a tear multiple times while performing it live, which speaks to its emotional weight. Shortly after that, hopefully our first EP will be coming out. From there, unfortunately, I’ll be moving back to Cleveland within a couple weeks, however, this is not goodbye, it’s farewell 513 FOR NOW. As for the future of the band, we all like writing songs together - one of the original ideas was to do something a bit more electronic than other people were doing, so we’ll be pivoting more to doing stuff digitally, and we’re all getting better at making music on a computer. That will allow us to keep the music going, and when we’re all in the same place, we’ll play some shows. We’re also kind of trying to shed the thought process behind “whatever we write needs to be able to be played live”, cause then it can just be whatever we want it to be. It might sound different than it does on the album, and that’ll be a good thing - the album will be one experience, and the live show will be what it always is from us, which is something with a lot of atmosphere, a lot of energy, a lot of connection.

𝑻𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒚: We’ve got three more shows before Ezra leaves…June 5th, June 10th, June 13th. Goodbye.

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˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. ˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. ˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. ˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. ˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. ˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. ˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. ˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. ˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞

𝄞⨾💿✮˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊🎧✧🎸⋆.˚

JUNE '26 BAND OF THE MONTH: Silk Tongue