Garrett Russell (Silent Planet) on cultivating a passionate fanbase: “You can’t live your life trying to please everyone”

At the end of a flyer promoting the popular (now defunct) Scream The Prayer tour in 2013, there was a little band by the name of Silent Planet on the bill. I’d heard the name around as they had toured near and in Florida a time or two before then, but hadn’t really gotten around to checking them out yet. With just an EP (at the time) to their name, the mostly unknown band immediately captivated me with their obvious passion for the music they were performing.

For some bands I see live, there is a certain “moment” that I notice a band really come into their own. When I saw Silent Planet in Orlando that July day in 2013, I knew Silent Planet was going to be a vital cog in the music scene. While 2014’s debut full-length The Night God Slept didn’t chart in the Billboard Top 200, it was the catalyst for continued growth and success. Because by the time the band landed a spot on Warped Tour in 2016, the band’s sophomore album Everything Was Sound was released – and it moved almost 7,000 copies in its first week. While album sales are not the only thing that moves a band along, they are an important barometer in how promoters view your band’s capital.

Silent Planet’s lyrically driven and melody-laden brand of metalcore is delivered by the passionate vocals of Garrett Russell, who is as adept talking about music as he is theology and matters of the heart. In an in-depth interview with him, which you can find below, we discussed how the band was able to grow in such a short time, books, and why talking about suicide and mental health are important. Check it out below.

We traded water for salt
Something whole for something equally as broken as us
Now dying of thirst
We’ll write this out in blood and shut you in a stone cold time

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