Antlers - Peter Silberman - Music as therapy

Hey, Peter, thanks for your time. So, I wanted to start with your issue, the tinnitus you developed in one ear. Have you recovered now? How did you take it psychologically, at first?

My hearing has come back, and the tinnitus has dropped to a manageable level. I remain much more sensitive to sound than I was before the incident, but I've made a series of lifestyle changes to live with it, and I do what I can to avoid making it worse. When it first happened, what I felt was a mix of confusion and fear. I learned to keep the fear in check by practicing meditation. The confusion and disorientation were extreme at first: I felt like I was living in a different reality from everyone else.

That must have been a terrifying experience, and you can sense a feeling of relief coming through on “Impermanence”. The first time I listened to it, I thought of it as a “good brother” to “Hospice”. Is healing the main theme of the record?

Definitely. It describes it as an ongoing process, rather than a linear one as people often tend to believe. The nature of psychological healing requires time and recursion, incorporating healthy mental activity to break harmful patterns. The record describes this journey, from suffering to healing, and back to suffering and to healing again. The pain fades as relief takes hold. And again and again and again…

One of the first “side” questions that comes to mind is: why did you decide to release it as a solo record instead of with your band?

It's material that's better suited to solo performance. The music is quite severely minimalist, essentially an interplay between voice, guitar and silence. Maybe the choice to release it as a solo artist also relates to a shift in my career, where I produce and create as an individual rather than as a member of a collective. Maybe it's a move toward greater self-sufficiency in my life, and a need to try things outside my comfort zone.

Eastern religion and philosophy have always been present in your music, from the start, but they seem stronger within “Impermanence”. They permeate the whole conceptual framework and directly inspire at least two songs. Can you tell us about your relationship with Buddhism?

Buddhism has been a useful mythology for me to better understand the world around me and how to live in it.

One element that's perhaps important in the creation of “Impermanence” is your new residence, now in the least populated part of New York State, if I'm not mistaken. Do you think this place will influence your future releases?

Definitely. I'm about to set up a new workspace here, and I think the environment will play a hugely important role in shaping the projects I develop here. There's an abundance of quiet here, which amplifies subtleties. Being close to nature helps clear my mind when I'm stuck.

Despite the minimalism, there's a great deal of attention paid to sound on the record. As you yourself have said, as much care goes into what's played as into what isn't. How do you actually work with silence when you're recording a song?

Working with silence happens because you allow it to happen. For me, it's all about restraint, about questioning the impulse to fill "dead air." It's also the result of slower tempos, of having slowed time down, or at least made time more malleable for the listener. Space emerges when you separate things: the universe is constantly expanding.

I also read about how, by moving out of the city, you reorganized your relationship with social media and the internet in general. It's interesting, because one might think that going to live "out there" means saying goodbye to technology, but at the same time the very champions of the virtual world take relocation and decentralization as effects of the "power of the network." You can live anywhere and still enjoy the same services and the same social life. How do you manage this aspect? Naturally, "Impermanence" seems to touch on this subject, though perhaps not as one-sidedly as one might expect.

I make an effort to manage my participation in social media. Needless to say, there are tremendous benefits to humanity and to individuals from the spread of information. But being connected all the time is incredibly addictive, not just because it forms habits — it's addictive in the sense that it infiltrates your mind and dictates the course of your life. I do my best to be conscious of my inputs, I keep relatively informed, but I also consciously disconnect. I'm trying to be more present in my physical reality, in my immediate surroundings.

What kind of venue do you expect to play these songs in?

I find that the best venues for these latest shows of mine are small, intimate and comfortable. Even better if people can sit down — otherwise they tend to get disoriented or fall asleep.

Thanks for your time. Can we hope to see you in Italy this year?

I really hope so. I've never been, and I've always wanted to come.

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