SilentTheory
Interview in Cleveland OH
by Drew
Silent Theory is an American nu metal band hailing from Moscow, Idaho. Formed in 2010 by drummer Mitch Swanger and lead vocalist Nick Osborn, the band has undergone several lineup changes over the years1. After Nick Osborn’s departure in 2013, Dakota Jerns joined as the lead vocalist in 2014, solidifying the current lineup.
The band gained recognition with their debut album, Black Tie Affair, released in 2011. Their subsequent albums, Delusions (2016), Hunt or Be Hunted (2021), and Tell Us How it Ends (2024), have further established their presence in the nu metal scene. Silent Theory’s music often tackles intense and emotional themes, resonating with fans through powerful lyrics and dynamic performances2.
With singles like “Fragile Minds” and “Shaking the Cages” achieving significant success on various charts, Silent Theory continues to push the boundaries of nu metal and captivate audiences with their unique sound
Drew: So, you are Dakota Jerns, the vocalist. Alright, cool. Alright, so. Let’s get started, yeah?
I’ve heard of you guys before and I’ve heard some music over the years. It’s like, “oh, who the hell is that?” I gotta go find them. Then I get to where I can find. It’s like I forget so and then I start and they’re like, hey, you want to cover sign there.
Dakota Jerns: Ohh nice!
Drew:You guys formed in 2010 in Moscow, Idaho when you hear Idaho that metal is the last thing I’m thinking of.
Dakota Jerns: OK, I have to ask… what is the first thing you think of when you think about Idaho?
Drew:Potatoes!
Dakota Jerns: Our biggest export, not our biggest import, which I mean it’s ridiculous.
And I don’t even think I have ever had Idaho potato. You know what I mean?
Drew:I saw that you guys, it was like founded by Mitch and Nick. Nick who left in 2013. And then after that you that came in to fill the vocalist slot. Very cool! After that transition, how long was it before you guys felt that you could green light this project and start making this band go forward?
Dakota Jerns: You know? Oh pretty immediately. I think we wrote songs the first weekend I came up. We were like, oh we like this! I think we did boogeyman, faceless and there was one other one. What was the other one that we did, Anywhere.
Anyways, that’s right. We did those 3, so we knocked those out pretty much in my audition week that I was up there. So it was a pretty immediate like, I always make the joke that I’ve never actually been like invited to be in the band that was just invited to do the audition. And I haven’t last. I just kept coming still.
Drew:(Laughing) That is awesome man! To get in, and just jive with the guys like that? Very cool! Yeah, I was looking back through my play lists because like I said, I’ve heard your songs here song there and when I was preparing for this, you are seriously peppered throughout my listening and streaming history!
In preparation for this interview, I was looking back through your catalog and I didn’t realize how far back you guys go with albums like “Black Cat Hair, Delusions, and Hunter be Hunted.” Now you are touring to promote the newest release titled “Tell Us How it Ends”.
(shuffling papers) I wrote too many things here. Sorry, man!
Dakota Jerns: You’re totally good.
Drew: When writing from CD to CD, what are you guys trying to do to keep the creativity growing and evolving?
Dakota Jern:Input, so everybody’s input is super important for keeping the creativity going. So, like the way we separated is these guys are really talented instrumentally, so they send a lot of the instrumentals to me. Then I write over the top and then we go over together and that way we just keep every song different and then we spend a lot of time individually on each song.
We’re a band that doesn’t really know when a single is going to hit, so we’ll just treat every song like it could be the next big song for us, which I think kind of adds to that consistency side of it. Like we treat every song like a single. So, we give it all that individual attention, which is just kind of also cool because we make a point to make each one different to we don’t want to repeat the same song. That’s why I’ve never done a fragile mind 2.0. Yeah, I think that’s mainly it, we separate those two parts and then bring them together at the end.
Drew:That is very cool, and to hear that you guys allow each other the freedom to create and then everyone has a say on the final product! Wow. Yeah, I am really in awe at this!
How is the metal scene in your hometown? Are there a lot of metal shows? Is there a metal scene there?
Dakota Jerns: Not at all. It’s dead. I don’t even think that our state knows we exist to be fairly honest. Yeah.
Last time we played in Boise was, what was it, 2020? 180 was that 2021 that. We did it, yeah.
With Gojira and that was like a fill-in replacement like last minute, is there a band from our area that could hop into this show like it’s so weird and I and I’ve known the radio people there for a while too. Yeah, there’s not a scene at all. Like, I can’t. I can’t name maybe 3 bands, even from Boise because I live in Boise. So, I’m in the capital. Yeah, I can’t name you even three rock and or metal bands that are killing it, right? Now I can’t think of anybody.
Drew: Not to sound rude, not in the slightest! You guys are easily categorized as metal, that is all fine and good! However, you are not in any way too hard for radio, you are not slash, speed, thrash, or black metal! How is it that you are not getting more radio play? That is really surprising to me!
George Swanger:
No. We are not. It’s just, see where we’re at is a small town.
Drew:This tour leg you are on, you have a total 10x stops to promote the new album, are there any cities you’re looking forward to or returning to?
Dakota Jerns: Oh yeah, for sure! New York is always fun just because my first time in New York was when we shot our last music video for the first song off of this album, and that was so much fun. Going back is going to be a blast. I haven’t been to Massachusetts, ever! Being able to go to Lowell, going to be cool because I know a little bit of history about Lowell. Yeah, like. It’s cool to hit the East Coast because we’re predominantly of West Coast fans and we do the Pacific Northwest a lot and those travel dates can be 5-6 hour drives from just one city. That’s to a secondary market city here. It’s like you go 2-3 hours, you’re in another state and that’s really helpful. East Coast is great.
Drew: I can say that we here in the East are happy to have you and anxious to see you play! I’m very limited on travel personally, but I can’t fathom how you guys live on tour. I can’t. I’ve spent three days with my friends in Cultus Black and Dead Animal Assembly Plant and they were on with Combichrist and the third day I shot a different show in another city. After those three days, I was dead man. Yeah. How you guys do this, I have no clue!
OK, moving on, man! Do you guys have any pre or post show rituals or practices to help you guys amp up or wind down?
Dakota Jerns:
After the shows? Food! Mexican food most of the time, if there anything that’s open after 24 hours is typically what we’ll do after the show. So I don’t know if we have any like pre show rituals per say. We don’t really have anything like that before a show. I’ve always wanted to do something, but not sure what.
For some reason with us, it’s Buffalo Wild Wings. I don’t know why we just happen to any city we go to Buffalo Wild Wings! Yeah, it’s not really a ritual, it just seems to always happen!
Drew:When I do go out of town, It’s just a thing I have to do, I have to have it hit a Chipotle everywhere I go.
Dakota Jerns: Now see, it’s a very similar thing. Yeah. It’s not so much a ritual habit of a habit. You know, life is like you can get anything, literally anything else. It’s even in your home city. Like, yeah, I have four of them in our area.
Drew:The lineup I saw on Wikipedia and there’s three Swanders (pronounced like Saunders) in the band, and I have siblings myself, and so how do you guys keep from any sibling rivalry being an issue? Sibling angst is kind of a part of nature in my experience.
Dakota Jerns: each other all the time. It’s not even like a situation where they’re just constantly in each other’s ear. I think that also helps. I mean, I can’t speak for them necessarily. I know George is here. So he could say probably to that. But yeah, I’m not sure how we keep it together.:I don’t know. Maybe I’m speaking out of turn and speaking for them, but being Irish twins being as close as. You guys are in age. I think that probably helps. I don’t know it cause you could say that a lot of the bands that have brothers in them are probably not a great example of like 30 bands. Ours seems to be fairly sturdy like we’ll have a fight that doesn’t last very long and usually I can’t think of the last time we had like a big fight and it’s usually about industry stuff. It’s never too like directed towards anyone individually. I don’t know. Also we separate this from like our daily life. So, like when we go home, we’re not always around
George Swanger: Of the three. I get left out of the loop and that’s just like how life has been in general, but it helps it like the biggest brother is also the most calm. And so if he was the is the biggest asshole, that would totally change the dynamic. It need to be a little different, but he’s the most calm and then. Than the oldest is more business sense and so he cares way more about that than I think the rest of us. And I’m the youngest and I’m the asshole, kind of.
Dakota Jerns: Everybody else in shock about Scott, the middle child. He’s very reserved. He’s easy going and yeah, the personalities fit really well. That’s very cool.
Drew: it’s more of a puzzle piece as opposed to grinding gears, that has to be helpful!
George Swanger
Yeah, that sounds good.
Drew: That’s awesome.
In your opinion… Why is the word abbreviation so long?
Dakota Jerns: Why is the word abbreviation so long?
Drew L. Yeah.
Dakota Jerns: This sounds like a joke… are you being serious? Is this part of the interview?
Drew: Just I throw in random stupid questions just to kind blindside people. I love the trip people up and see the reactions. When I interviewed Doyle, I looked at him and I said, “Do you think eyebrows are facial hair.”
Doyle looked at me, and straight faced says: “I don’t have any!”
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I love it. I just ask random stupid questions just to kind of trip people up, you know? It’s meant to be fun and catch people off guard. I promise, it is meant to be fun, no disrespect in the slightest.
Dakota Jerns: I get it. No, I don’t know why abbreviation is so long. (he said with a smile)
Drew: Did you guys have any other projects in the fire, on the on the back burner as they say?
Dakota Jerns: Yeah, we do. We have a couple of things coming up. We have some remixes of a couple of songs that we’re doing with some people off the new album, we have a thing we’re doing with beer union where it’s together. Both of us are doing a song together. We’ll release that one pretty soon here too. And then I think the goal is moving on from this next year to just continuously pump music anytime soon. Very cool. Like the album didn’t mean to necessarily mean an endpoint to an era. I just meant like drop the album and now we’re gonna keep pumping out new music. Yeah, the same thing in a month or two, we’ll have new music..
I don’t think we plan on the train stopping
Drew: Well, it’s like Davinci allegedly said: A masterpiece is never finished, only abandoned!
Dakota Jerns: Yeah.
Drew: Are there any other bands out there that you feel that are up and coming that?
Dakota Jerns: You guys listen to. Oh, yeah, totally. Like, recently. I’ve been listening to Thrown. I think Thrown killing it. They’re.
Personally, in my opinion, if I was doing a different project, I think that would be similar to what they are doing. Something like. You’ve got some of the bands that are popping up that I would say when I came out of high school, were just starting and now they’re like as big as they are. So, like, Bad Omens was just starting when I was just getting out of high school. Now they’re like, as big as they are. There’s a lot of them! I know The Funeral Portrait dropped an album the same time we did. They’re kind of on the same.
Drew: I know portrait. I’m actually photographing the next Friday.
Due to Funeral Portrait being in my Spotify favorites, that is where I was able to rediscover you guys! You were in the suggested listing. I was so happy, I finally had a name to the band that has so many songs I have heard over the last few years, and never really found!
Give me a moment to get this right… there’s no way of saying this without sounding rude or something, and it’s not meant to be. I love interviewing smaller bands, up and coming bands, catching local shows of bands because you don’t have the ego, and that mentality that you are above the fans. Yeah, most of the people I’ve met are really cool, but I love getting to know like people are on the way up because, you know, you get more down to Earth, you get to kind of see them on their way up, I mean this is a lot more intimate than you, you know, and it’s just more fun in my opinion!
Dakota Jerns: Here’s a question for you. Do you find the bands that have been around longer? That took a lot longer to get to that successful to be a little less egotistical than the ones that maybe have like that overnight success of like maybe two years and then they just knock it out and they’re already at the top, whereas like a band that struggled like 13 years to finally get to that arena level. I think those guys are a little less egotistical than the ones that just had it handed.
Drew: Wow… how can I answer this? In my experience, it is a case-by-case sort of thing. Surely circumstances are different for sure. There have been a couple of people that act like I’ve been owned this! I am a believer that you earn what you have, and what you get. While not every amazing band gets discovered, some of the best often are overlooked, sadly.
I do not care about how long I have listened to someone, I do not care about how bog or small your band is, if you have a nasty attitude towards people, and especially fans, I will listen to someone else, I will not photograph that person/band. Life is short, do what you love, and it is free to be a decent person.
I’m nobody of any importance in my opinion, and so I try not to have an ego! Look at this, you guys giving me time out of your day is a huge privilege and honor to me and if there is anything I can do to help you get more exposure to other bands.
Drew: So when you guys’ tour with other bands and stuff like right, you have three other acts on this on this show. What’s the kind of the criteria for other bands for you guys to come out with?
Dakota Jerns: Oh, we don’t really have one whatsoever. Like, for instance, Discrepancies, we’ve been tracking them for a while. We’ve been wanting to put something together, so we’ll reach out and we’ll be like, hey, are you available this time? So like, when we have a chance to put something like a.
Headlining run for ourselves, together we try to find bands that fit kind of what we.
Like I think Mitchell said it best the other night. He’s like, this is a great band to, like, hype you up for us? Like they’re so good at, like, getting you ready? Yeah. And like, that was perfect. And that’s how we kind of wanna be as an opener for a band as well. Like if we’re goanna open on a bigger tour, sure we’d wanna be the band. That’s like typing you up to get ready for that one. And so they’re killing it. We were so happy to be with them. And so I think if there’s a criteria in any way it would be the. We need a band that has that energy!
Drew: So when you guys are writing new music, what does your creative process look like? Is it more methodical or is it kind of just free range?
Dakota Jerns: Everybody has their own thing that comes together, like you said earlier. This last album iteration was a little different than what we did for delusions, our first album with me. We jammed music out and then we wrote it. And then I wrote the lyrics to. We went in the studio with it probably already pretty prod of it.
This time we went in kind of as a blank slate, and we wrote from the ground up and kind of built it around. And I kind of went more with my gut feeling on this go around. So when it came to the music, I kind of went with my first initial thought on what that should sound like. So in my head, when it came through, that was my first thought. And then I had. I have, like a booklet of lyrics that I’ve already built and sometimes.
Some things work, some things I make a really good thing on the fly. So it is a puzzle piece thing. But I also love to take the input of the other guys too. So if I’ve got a line that I’m Like “is this is good work?” People will be like, no, that’s shit. Stupid change that. So I love that too. So having all of the input is really helpful in the songwriting process for me.
Drew: While writing and prepping the new album, was there anything that you threw back in the vault to use for another release later?
Dakota Jerns: Yeah, sometimes like, it really has to not make the cut to even get to the point where it get. I wouldn’t even say it gets to me. But like when it gets to the point of like we’re goanna start working on this song, you know, it’s going to be like, good.
For instance, I’m not always around when Scott, Mitchell, George and Bob are putting together everything, they might be sitting on the computer and like, this sounds fucking stupid. They’ll change the rift and make it different. Then they’ll send it to me. And they’re like, so it goes through filters before I think I think get it. I’m not sure about that necessarily, but I think it does go through a filter process for sure for things that aren’t going to make.
Drew:Did you ever wonder if vegetarians are allowed to eat animal crackers?
Dakota Jerns: No, no, never, never. And I don’t ever think about vegetarians personally. Like, they’re not something that’s on my mind.
Drew:When you guys are on the road, is there any must must have snacks in the van?
Dakota Jerns: No we don’t have any snacks on the bus right now I’m so angry. I’m so hungry. Yeah. Red Bull is probably like the kidney stone creator, but Red Bull, is probably the most important thing for us is coffee.
These guys drink more coffee than they drink water and that’s insane. I would say the same thing. I’m like, if you ever want to run into a musician, just hit up like a come and go or something like that on the Interstate at like 3:00 in the morning. You’re gonna run into somebody probably famous at that point because that’s all we get. Like, by the time we’re done and loaded in, it’s like midnight. 1:00. If you’re in the gas station. So, like, the must have snacks. Probably gonna be like, you know, chips and cookies, which you can get right.
Drew: The video “Made Me This Way” the AI and that was phenomenal. I really loved that.
Dakota Jerns: Yeah! The Door Brothers killed it on that!
Drew: That was really fun to watch. I’ve watched it like 3 or 4 times right back-to-back!
Dakota Jerns: Since high school I was all about the multiplayer Call of Duty, doing everything like that. Going to destiny. Destiny from Destiny 2. I started with Dark Souls and so when I heard people say that this kind of reminded them like the beat, I kind of got that because I hadn’t played it up to that point. But I was thinking like If I had like a kind of industrial-ish, metal-ish, heavy Mushroomhead song, wouldn’t it be cool to have kind of like a steam punky type idea? So I came up with the idea of like a it was a junkyard. Geppetto was initially the initial thought for the whole thing, and then it molded from them like I told them that. And they took it and threw it into their software and built that. Over the course of like 2 weeks and so I think that’s what AI brought to that is, I’m not gonna like push AI as an advocation or anything like that. Push for bands like us in our size at the budgets that we have to make music videos to make something like that for what we paid for. It is insanely advantageous for bands of our size, yeah. We’re not going to have $30,000 to drop on a music video. I wish we did, but we don’t and we have a much smaller budget to drop on something like this. Yeah, that’s what you get. You something cool like that? I think AI will be awesome for that. I don’t think I should be used for every creative expense. For sure that was quite helpful!
Drew: I was getting speaking out about that. My wife and I both went to school for art. She has her BFA in Fine Arts and painting and an illustration minor. People started coming out using AI. She was hardcore against it. Now, the more she sees it, it’s actually giving me a lot of inspiration for photo ideas and stuff.
Dakota Jerns: That video that’s really nice. That’s awesome. I’m a painter too. So like I’ve still got some unused credits from college for painting and art and illustration specifically. Give the color blends. I only did black and white charcoal and people kind of said the same thing. They’re like, well, hey, how can you support AI and steals from artists thinking. I’ll support that when people start paying for my music again, because I can’t think of anybody advocating for the musician getting paid royalties or anything out, right? Yeah. I mean, look at what spot or what Spotify has taken from what basically Napster had created this big hole of, like, well, we’ll pirate music. No, no. We’ll give bands .06 sense of their song. Then we’ll give you credit for it. And that’s more than what, what I guess these brick and mortar artists.
Drew: Is there a platform that’s actually fairer to you guys as far as being more beneficial to artists?
Dakota Jerns: YouTube, I think pays out the highest if I’m not correct, is it YouTube, George?
George Swanger: I’m the wrong guy.
Dakota Jerns: YouTube Music, like if you if you throw on the YouTube Music, it seems to directly correlate with the channel as well.
Drew: Very cool! I’m trying to do what I can to support the bands in the ways I can!
Dakota Jerns: Basically, paying for like going to the show and paying out right is the best thing you can do for a band. But if you had to, you’d be.
Drew: What I like to do is when I go to shows, I never do selfies with bands. What I do is I buy a CD and have the band sign it because I don’t like pics of me! Just I feel like it’s too invasive to people.
Dakota Jerns: In the same way dude. It’s always weird that people want to take a photo with me, and they post it and I’m like… I’ve met a lot of people! Also, I always feel like I have a goofy smile or something weird about it, you know?
Take George! He loves it!
George Swanger
Nobody loves me more than a me and a mirror!
Drew: Looks like it’s going to get a good crowd.
Dakota Jerns
Yeah, this show had the highest presale so far.
Dakota Jerns
North Carolina is close to selling out, right? Yeah. This is our first time to the East Coast and we kind of did it as a trial run of, like, we’ll push this far and see what the turn out will be because we never know, you know, we don’t like headlining. I will say probably no band, probably likes them. Unless you’re, like, an arena Rock legacy act. I don’t think you like the headline. I always prefer to end earlier so that our fans can have that, you know, value of also going home at a good time. So last night last night our show got done. I want to say by 10:30p, or 10:40p, awesome! It was amazing cause we got on at like 9:45p or something like that. It was great and to have everybody stay and I’ve seen people filter out like if you go on at like 10:50 or 10:45 people are filtering out by midnight because they it was a Wednesday. You know what I mean? So it’s like I always advocated for people having a great time, but still getting home at a reasonable time too.
George Swanger
Yep.
Dakota Jerns
Start the show earlier and the show earlier. Get people home. Then you can have your Thursday shows, right? It sucks that you have to rely on Friday, Saturday, Sunday to be your markup!
Yeah. Imagine especially, I can imagine that. I mean I wasn’t sure what I was going to see up here as far as the crowd and maybe on Thursday. So yeah, but then we were like Lakewood was pretty big from what we had heard from the market. From what we had seen, this is basically Cleveland, right? Can I say that? Is it OK to say it’s Cleveland?
Drew: Yeah. You go that way about three blocks from where we are sitting, and it is literally
Dakota Jerns: Cleveland tonight, and no one’s gonna be like you’re an idiot, but yeah, I I thought the same thing. I was like no one will show up. And if they don’t, I never really care. Yeah, you know, it’s always fun to just play the three people too. We played in the bowling alley that had, like, maybe 13 people and people were like, bowling in the lane next to me, and I was like, “it’s fucking shoulder to shoulder in here!” That’s fun to me!
That’s never nerve wracking, having 300 people in front of me can sometimes be nerve wracking. Really! Never know if they’re there because of us, especially if you’ve got 5 or 6 bands on the bill, even if they are there for you. They might be trying you out with 300 people that you’re never sure, but if there’s only like 5 people there by like 11:00 and it’s you, they’re, you know they’re there for you 100%. You can do whatever! I’ll go down and dance with the mom or whoever!
Drew L.
Well, guys I appreciate this, so much! Doors are at 7 or something and so, I will leave you to your evening, and I will see you on stage! Thank you for coming to Cleveland, and many thanks for the interview!
Silent Theory Website | Facebook | YouTube | TikTok | Twitter | Instagram |
Review from one of their shows
