Ever since they were kids, brothers Charlie Silver, a freshman in Boston University’s College of Engineering, and Jack Silver, a sophomore majoring in writing, literature and publishing at Emerson College, listened to the lyrics and guitar sounds of artists like Bob Dylan, The Strokes and Leonard Cohen.
On Jan. 31, they released their debut album “What We Became” under the band name Cut The Kids In Half. Their band consists of the Silver brothers, BU ENG freshman Kevin Mortenson on guitar, Harvard freshman Luke Tan on drums and BU ENG freshman Joey Sorkin on bass, keyboard and trumpet.
The album, composed of nine songs, meshes “poetic lyrics paired with raw guitar-driven alternative music,” and is a culmination of the band’s four years of writing and recording.
Although the band has been releasing singles since 2021, their goal has always been to make an album, Silver said.
One difficulty of making an album was creating a cohesive narrative.
The opener of “What We Became,” a song entitled “Storm Drain Girls,” was written when the rest of the album was completed. As the opening track, it required “grand and exciting and ambitious” imagery to “get you excited to hear what you’re about to hear,” Silver said.
Selecting the tracks on the album, Jack Silver said, required him to think about how each one fit into a larger theme.
Describing how the song “Oh Sudden Lover” came onto the album, he said “it’s very different from the others because it’s a more straightforward love song, a happy song compared to the other ones, but to me, that actually fit within the larger story I was trying to tell.”
For Jack Silver, the story was “about growing older, leaving your past behind, but still always being reminded by it.”
Growing up, Charlie Silver had an affinity for music.
“I’ve been playing guitar since I was a little kid,” he said. “Around middle school, [I] just started writing music on my own.”
Though more raw and stripped down, their early work cultivated a style of alternative rock melodies and poetic lyrics the band initially wanted to keep pursuing. Now, Charlie Silver said they want to move to “potentially more art rock stuff, more anything folk, whether it be jazz influences, just kind of expanding our sound and experimenting a lot.”
While Jack Silver grew up listening to classic and indie rock, he did not grow up singing or playing an instrument like his brother. But when Charlie Silver started writing songs, he became interested.
For a while, the brothers composed and sang songs at home. But when they started playing at local bars and venues, they realized they should officially form a band.
“We were like, we could actually recruit some more members and make this real,” Charlie Silver said.
Later on, Tan, who knew Charlie Silver from high school, joined as the band’s drummer.
The band grew from three to five when Mortenson and Charlie Silver met through a mutual friend. After hearing that Mortenson played guitar, Silver invited him to Cut The Kids In Half.
Later that day, Mortenson extended Silver’s offer to his roomate, Sorkin.
Cut The Kids In Half performed “What We Become” at Sunset Cantina March 6. Both Mortenson and Silver noted this set was the first time they were performing in front of their college friends.
While Mortenson had played a live show before, the size of the Cantina crowd and the fact he was performing in front of his friends made him a little nervous. Quickly, though, his nerves turned to excitement.
Silver said the fact that their peers and people who wanted to hear their music were enjoying their performance felt reassuring.
“People were dancing and it felt really good to see a crowd that was right for us,” Silver said.
Looking at a potential sophomore album, Mortenson said the band would keep its guitars and poetic lyrics but try to experiment with different sounds and styles.
According to Silver, the biggest change is the fact that five people are writing and recording.
“We have a lot more options in expanding our sound, and I’m really excited to see where that goes in the future,” Silver said.
Even with a new direction, much of the band’s music will still be inspired by the guitar chords and lyrics of artists like Tom Waits and Joni Mitchell.
“I like to think we wear our influences on our sleeves,” Charlie Silver said.
Even their name comes from Radiohead’s song “Morning Bell,” a move inspired by how Radiohead took their name from the band Talking Heads.
Ultimately, the album was an expression of passion and a culmination of years of work.
“[The album] has a lot of different eras of our lives packed into it,” Charlie Silver said. “I’m more proud of it than anything I’ve done in my life.”
