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After a hiatus, the rock and roll band The Silent Comedy (which includes the brothers Joshua and Jeremiah Zimmerman) is back with a vengeance, reissuing their album Enemies Multiply on local record label Artist Labs.
“We incorporated everything we learned from years of playing shows around the world into the writing and tracking of Enemies Multiply,” Joshua said in a press release. “Our producer, Chris ‘Frenchie’ Smith, brought a ton of ideas to the process to try and make the album match the feeling of our live show.”
He added: “All things considered, with some time and distance from the recording of Enemies Multiply, it is still the album that I am most proud of out of anything The Silent Comedy has released. This album serves as something of a sonic starting point that we are embarking from as we write and record new material.”
Originally, the Zimmerman brothers intended to celebrate their resurgence with a McMenamins White Eagle show and a performance at Music Millennium. Catching COVID-19 put a stop to those plans, but the album will still be on sale at Music Millennium and the band will have a Portland show this fall (details to be announced).
The Silent Comedy are known for combining rock with blues, honky-tonk, and punk. After struggling with the original release of Enemies Multiply (by the end of recording, Joshua was facing a mental health crisis), the reissue represents a new beginning. The brothers even enlisted director Krista Liney (who has collaborated with Justin Bieber, Kris Kristofferson and Dierks Bentley) to create a companion film, I Am All Right.
“We haven’t felt comfortable sharing this very personal untold, story until now,” Joshua said. “We made a film to dig into the journey of the band and what led to us walking away from it for a number of years. Sad to say, that story isn’t unique and has a great deal to do with the larger narratives of mental health and the state of the music industry.”
He added: “We’ve received criticism in the past for being overly dark. We see it more as being open and clear-eyed about the darkness that is inherent in human nature, and desperately looking for some hope in art and music. The events of the past few years have made it abundantly clear that no one is immune from hardship.”