About
Silver Torches is the moniker of Seattle based singer/song-writer, Erik Walters.
Erik Walters doesn’t like talking about himself. Getting him to open up about his new album is like prying open an oyster. The former singer and guitarist for Spokane post-rock band The Globes (Barsuk), Walters has struck out on his own on his debut solo album, “The Living Fact,” which features songs written, played and sung by him.
Written in part while he was crashing in his brother’s kitchen during a frustrating time, songs like “Hades’ Black Rattle” and “Nostalgia’s Cradle” deal with anxiety, the fear of being stuck, of growing older and wondering whether you made the right choices in life. Several songs are “written from the perspective of someone who settled because of fear and then asked why,” he explains. Others, like “Thinking of Her on Highway 90,” which borrows a lyric from William Butler Yeats, are lighter, sweet love songs sparkling with tenderness. The intricate acoustic guitar work on songs like “Castles (Que Sera, Sera)” lends Fleetwood-folk flair, while the surging bass and keyboard on “Blue Eyed Mary” recall prime-era Tom Petty with their propulsive energy.
Produced by Steven Aguilar (The Head and the Heart, Dave Matthews Band, Moby), “The Living Fact” features guest appearances by Northwest musicians such as Michael Lerner of Telekinesis and John Van Deusen of the Lonely Forest. The songwriting on “The Living Fact” follows in the confessional and personal footsteps of the Northwest indie sound of Death Cab for Cutie, David Bazan, and Damien Jurado, but with an iconography unique to Walters.
No wonder Walters doesn’t like bragging about his album. He doesn’t need to. The music speaks for itself.
