Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle” helped bring Silverlode soft-rockers Geoff Gibbons and Ken Kirschner together

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON APRIL 29, 1983

By Steve Newton

“We first met,” says Silverlode’s Geoff Gibbons, “during a solo audition at the Hungry Pilgrim restaurant on Hornby. It was five or six years ago–we were 18 at the time–and we’d both come with our dads. I was sitting there, kinda nervous about it, and he [Ken Kirschner] came in. So he played something, then I played something, and we ended up talking a bit.”

“Actually,” adds Kirschner with a chuckle, “I was playing [Jim Croce’s] ‘Time in a Bottle’ wrong and he came and said ‘No, here, you should do it like this.’ ”

“I didn’t say that,” responds Gibbons in lighthearted defense. “I just came up and went ‘Hey now listen, I don’t want to seem like a jerk or anything, but do you want to know a better way to play that?’ And he played it like that afterwards too.”

“Well it was the right way,” admits Kirschner, smiling at the recollection.

Nowadays, Kirschner and Gibbons have a lot to smile about. Their first full-length album, Silverlode, won first place in the Best Independent Release category at last month’s Tribute to West Coast Music. And when the two perform as an acoustic duo they are one of the steadiest-working lounge acts in Western Canada.

Sipping tea in the living room of their woodsy North Shore home, Kirschner and Gibbons relax and ponder the memories of Silverlode’s inception. Throughout the conversation an aura of brotherly allegiance runs between the two, and it’s easy to see that a strong musical friendship has grown out of that first encounter at the Hungry Pilgrim.

But, as Gibbons recalls, it wasn’t right away that he and Kirschner formed the duo.

“After that we had a couple of practices,” he says, “and went out for a couple of beers, but nothing really materialized.”

It wasn’t till he won a local talent show and was using the prize money on a trip to Australia that Gibbons put the duo idea into effect.

“After I was down there for about six months Ken came down. I had been writing letters telling him it could be really good for a duo, so we got a job in a bar down there. And it wasn’t too serious then–we were just interested in how much beer we could drink.”

Not only was the newly-formed Silverlode able to earn enough to quench its thirst for Australian brew, but while completing a four-month engagement at the Broadbeach International Hotel near Brisbane the duo placed second in the 1979 Gold Coast Battle of the Bands. Their success Down Under, and the fact that they shared a common ground musically, helped cement the relationship between Kirschner and Gibbons.

“We had a lot of common interests,” says Kirschner. “There was a common ground in that we both liked people like Jim Croce, Cat Stevens, and Dan Fogelberg.”

And even more surprising is the fact that the two singers have preformed, at different times, in the British Columbia Boys Choir. Gibbons was a soprano at age 10, Kirschner a tenor at 19.

On their return from Australia in 1980, Silverlode recorded a four-song EP at Vancouver’s Water Street Sound, produced by former Skylark/Hometown Band member Doug Edwards. The resulting single, “Sky High”, was played on major radio stations across Canada, and is included on the latest Silverlode album as well.

The only song on Silverlode that wasn’t written by Gibbons or Kirschner is the Max Merritt and the Meteors tune “Slipping Away”, which was a number-one hit in Australia and Great Britain during 1976.

“It has some strong musical things to it,” says Gibbons, “but I think the lyrics are kind of boring. Claire picked it out and thought he’d like to redo it.”

Gibbons is referring to the album’s producer Claire Lawrence, whose direction had a lot to do with the outcome of the project.

“He was the captain of the ship,” admits Gibbons.

The list of musicians who contributed to the album reads like a veritable who’s who of the Vancouver music scene. Bill Henderson, Jim Vallance, Nancy Nash, Jane Mortifee, and Shari Ulrich are just some of the familiar names that grace the album’s credits. And according to Kirschner, that’s also because of Claire.

“Those are old friends of his that he’s worked with over the years.”

Having someone of Lawrence’s stature and ability at the helm of their record production is certainly a feather in Silverlode’s cap, but the band has also done much to promote itself as a live attraction.

Last month’s appearance with the Wildroot Orchestra at the Commodore Ballroom saw Silverlode win the crowd over, not only with their own material, but with some tastefully selected blasts from the past. Songs like Elton John’s “Love Lies Bleeding” and Ian Thomas’s “Hold On” are the type of tunes that, while popular, tend not to be covered by many of today’s club acts.

Says Gibbons: “We’re always impressed by bands that don’t do every song on the Top 40, but songs to which people can still go, ‘Oh yeah. I know that tune.’ We try to pick those out carefully.”

Gibbons and Kirschner have the best of both worlds in that they can get mellow and ballady as an acoustic duo on the lounge circuit, and still have a chance to rock out a bit when playing with a full band, which includes former Crowcuss keyboardist Herman Fruhm and ex-Straight Lines/Bowser Moon drummer Dave Jonsson.

“They both have their advantages,” says Kirschner. “When we were doing the duo all the time, and we never had this band together, it was getting to be kind of a drag. But now I don’t mind going back to the duo because it’s more refreshing. They’re different moods, different energies.”

And how would the members of Silverlode describe their music to somebody who has never heard the band before?

“That is one question,” says Gibbons, “that we’ve never found an answer for. We like to have songs that have something to say, something you can think about.

“The only thing that disenchants me a bit is music that’s too loud and aggressive,” he adds. “I am not against rock music, I just like really melodic stuff that has lyrics and says something–not headbangers that just want to get up there and scream at the top of their lungs to create a beat. Even the stuff that we play with the band–like ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ and ‘Hold On’–they rock, but they’re still melodic and have good lyrics. I think you can find a happy medium.”

With their thoughtful lyrics and catchy melodies, Silverlode appear to have found theirs. As a band, the group will soon be touring the prairies, and as a duo you can still catch them this week at the Courthouse West in North Vancouver.

To read over 100 of my other interviews with local Vancouver musicians since 1983, go here.