Lucas Silveira: Better Than Ever

Lucas Silveira is pretty much the man. And it doesn't matter how many line-up changes The Cliks experience the core won't change. Lucas is the heart and soul of The Cliks. The guy's also a sweetheart! Not only did he get the answers back to me in an hour (record!), he also told me I could send in more questions! Well I hope you enjoy the read. It's a very revealing, sad and yet...optimistic look into the mind of Lucas Silveira.


I saw you guys play in Detroit about a month and a half before Dirty King came out. The show was amazing! How was that mini-tour? Were you at all nervous about playing new material live for fans before they had heard it?

The mini tour was unbelievably exhausting to my recollection. Short time and all you can do on the road crammed in 7 days. After that show in Detroit we drove straight to Columbus and got lost because your main highway was closed. It was a nightmare! And then arrived at 6 am, had to wake up at 10 AM and do a live radio show and play 3 songs, then go to a sound check at 1 PM. Can you say tired?

As for fans hearing the material, I think live is always the best way to introduce people to your music, so no, not nervous.More excited than anything.


I read that The Cliks actually released a debut, self-titled record in 2004. I have to admit I was not aware of this. Is this record available? If not, any possibility of a re-release?

Yes, this is true. It was an entirely different band. Actually, every Cliks album has a different band so that's a little telling. Ha ha.

There's only 1000 copies printed and I think I have about 50 left for keep sakes. You can get it online digitally though http://www.thecliks.com on the Maple Music website.

As for re-release, anything is possible, but not planning on that right now. I don't like working backwards.


I know that 2005 was a really tough year for you with that 'Cliks' line-up parting and also a lot of sad things happening in your personal life. That experience would have broken most people. How did you get through that?

It was indeed a hellish year. I've learned from that experience that it sometimes takes those bad experiences to break you down so you can build yourself back up again and I think that's what I did and am still doing. I got through that with music and some really good friends & a loving family. I'm lucky that way. I think I'm still recovering from all that because I think when trauma hits your life like that, your body holds it and releases the sadness slowly when you're in a better place so that you can handle it. So I still have bad days from remembering all of it but nothing you can do but move forward.


When you decided to transition did you have any fears or concerns about what effect that might have had on your music career?

Of course. It was my main concern. Before I came out, I completely resigned myself to the fact that I would never be successful because of coming out as a trans man. I would always do music for the love but I told myself mainstream success was going to be out of the question. Then I come out and 6 months later we got signed. I sometimes think when you stop trying so hard to be something you're not, that's when things fall into place.


I'm so sad about there not being a True Colors tour this year! And wow what an AMAZING line up last year! Did you get close to any of the other bands on the tour?

True Colors was indeed an amazing experience. The best I've had so far. I kept in touch with Brian Viglione of the Dresden Dolls and thank god I did because now he's the new drummer for The Cliks! Whoopee! I'm also pals with Margaret Cho and actually just wrote a song with her for her new album and of course have kept in touch and email often with the Queen herself, Cyndi Lauper. She's been an immense support for me.


You guys hooked up with Sylvia Massy for the production of Dirty King. She's responsible for half my ipod; from Tool to Johnny Cash to System of a Down! The woman is brilliant! How did you guys end up working with her? What was that experience like?

It was through an engineer named Mike Philips who worked at Radio Star studios that we ended up in Weed, California to record the album. He had let her hear Snakehouse and she loved it and emailed us and said she'd like to throw her hat in the ring to produce the next album and how could we say no to that? It was an amazing experience. I learned a lot about myself as a songwriter there primarily and realized that no matter how many machines and tools you have to record an album, a good record comes from good songs and that's what Sylvia taught me.


Since the most recent 'Cliks' line-up broke up you've actually been more visible/active on the web. You also seem to be interacting with fans more. And judging for your tweets it seems you've been having more time for family and friends. I know you're a bit of a workaholic, did this break-up turn out to be a much needed vacation for you?

I think my visibility on the web was always something I'd wanted to do and yes, I do it a lot more now. With the old band I really felt that I had to censor a lot of what I did. It was harder to be myself because I felt so much jealousy coming from them unfortunately. So I would sort of hand it over to them and they would do nothing. In the years that they were in the band I think they wrote maybe 1 or 2 blogs and they were very forced. They didn't feel the same way about fans that I did. It was actually part of the tension between us. I love the fans. Without fans, artists have no one to connect what they create to. Morgan and Jen resented a lot of their fans and typically only took notice of the ones that were musicians.

I have had a long forced break and yes, it's what I needed. It's like the saying goes, when one door closes another one opens and I'm doing a lot of self work right now and realizing what I actually need as opposed to what I want out of life.

The relationship I had with them was toxic to the point that Jen felt justified in sometimes uttering transphobic comments. I haven't talked about it before but feel it's due time I come out about it because it was so hurtful. There's no good that comes from a band mate calling you "it".

Sad.


So earlier this month you revealed the new 'Cliks' line-up, which includes Tobi Parks (Bambi) on bass, and Brian Viglione (The Dresden Dolls!!!) on drums. That's exciting! Any plans to start touring Dirty King again?

Yes, we're doing 2 shows this year as sadly that's all that was available at this point in the game. Brooklyn NY December 11th and Cambridge MA December 12th. Tours take months to plan so now we'll be hitting the road again in March of 2010 and finally touring the album.


I have a question from one of your fans (and twitter followers), Fireboltx:

Having had so many line-up changes in your band how easy or difficult is it to adjust to newly recruited band members, past and present?

This new line up was actually the easiest most natural change I ever went through. It's easy to feel good with the people you play with when you see they want it as bad as you do, and Brian and Tobi really do. We had 1 rehearsal for the show we did in DC and it was the best show I have ever done in my entire Cliks career. They're pros and their energy is on the money. It's not about ego, it's about music.

The band before was a lot more difficult. When I went from Heidi Chan and Ezri Kaysen, who were the original Cliks, into Morgan and Jordan, the second line up, I had a tough time. Morgan took a hired hand attitude to being in the band, like a job, even though she wasn't a hired hand and Jordan, well, that's a long story.

The addition of musicians as we went along was also difficult because everyone was always 20 steps ahead in expectations and that is what made them fail as band members. The work comes first, the reward, later. They didn't want to put their all into it and eventually got tired of waiting.

I think this new line up is completely different in that capacity because they've actually done more work already than any other band members I've been involved with and I need that kind of support because a band isn't just what happens on stage, mainly, these days, it's what happens off stage. That has to be solid because if it isn't, what happens on stage ends up falling apart.


One more question. Other than Lady GaGa, who are some of your favorite current bands/artists?

I'm actually so into the rnb and hip hop side of music right now because I feel like a lot of rock music is going to the birds.

I love the crap out of Beyonce, Jay Z, Rihanna, TI, Kid Cudi and outside of that I love the Arcade Fire, Bloc Party but mainly I am obsessed with an artist by the name of Geo Wyeth with a project called Novice Theory. He's a trans guy and on Testosterone and has been able to retain his singing voice so that has given me a new perspective on that whole situation.