Silver Tears is the new joint venture by Berlin-based artists Luca Venezia and Damian Shilman, known respectively for their work as Curses and Skelesys.
The duo first debuted in 2023 on the Next Wave Acid Punx Deux (Chapter 2) compilation, delivering a track rich with deep basslines, crystal-clear guitars, and captivating mechanical drums. A somehow classic formula, elevated by a universal allure that left listeners wanting more.
And here we are: these two charming creatives have been hard at work over the past two years, and their first self-titled full-length album is finally ready.
The release features eight new cuts of elegant, beat-driven cold wave, blending baritone vocals, sharp arpeggios, and slow, atmospheric passages that evoke the essence of ’90s shoegaze and moody grunge.
It’s a subtle interplay of contrasts: dancefloor-ready grooves and introspective retreats, kinetic energy and caustic edges—sometimes crowned by the duo duetting on vocals.
Hello both! It’s great to have you with us. We know you from other projects but if you could you start by introducing yourself to our readers ?
Whats up! We are Sklesys and Curses from Buenos Aires and NYC but both living in Berlin since 10 years now. For SIlver Tears, everything started when we did a collaboration for the last Next Wave Acid Punx Comp, with our track ‘Always Shine (Wait For The Rain). After that song, we realised we wanted to do more than just 1 song together and so the project took flight.
Silver Tears has been a long time in the making—two years of hard work. What was the creative process behind crafting the self-titled album?
We both have been meaning to collaborate for a while, and it just happened naturally finally. We set aside a week in the studio and made 15 -20 songs, inspired by bands we discovered before listening to post punk and new wave, which is obviously prevalent in Curses and Skelesys. Instead, with Silver Tears we channeled bands like Alice in Chains, Faith No More, Jane’s Addiction etc…
The album mixes elements of cold wave, shoegaze, and grunge. How did you both settle on this fusion of sounds, and what drew you to these genres in particular?
With Silver Tears, we wanted to embrace the influence of the bands that shaped us as guitarists before discovering acts like Sisters of Mercy, The Cure, and others. With this project, our aim is to go way back to our early roots of playing guitar—drawing inspiration from legends like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Slash, Billy Corgan, and Jimi Hendrix.
You both have rich individual histories in music—Luca with Curses and Damian with Skelesys. How have your past projects influenced the direction you took with Silver Tears?
With Silver Tears, we wanted to do something different from our individual projects, so we even made a conscious effort to bring out musical ideas and lyrics we had brewing inside but couldn’t as Curses or Skelesys.
Given that Silver Tears is a collaboration, how do you approach working together creatively? Is there a specific back-and-forth dynamic, or do you take turns in the process?
We really wrote everything in the moment, together in the studio. Sometimes one came up with a guitar riff, the other a synth melody, another a vocal idea. Because were such close friends outside of writing music, its easy to understand each other’s idea, so the workflow was pretty smooth and easy.
The album touches on both dancefloor-oriented rhythms and introspective, almost melancholic moods. Do you see the album as a reflection of your own emotions, or more as an exploration of the themes within goth and alternative culture?
Definitely a reflection of our own emotions. We both never like to pigeonhole anything we do and enjoy being part of many different genres or scenes — it’s always interesting to take what catches your attention and interpret it in your own way. When it comes down to it, we’re just making music we love, and we’re lucky if it resonates with people, goth or not.
What’s the next step for Silver Tears ?
Our next step is to celebrate the upcoming debut album, coming out May 23 on Avant! We’ll also be playing a bunch of shows and festivals throughout the year. It was so much fun to do the debut at Grauzone earlier this year, and we can’t wait to do more in the coming months!
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A wide musical cape cloaking every angle of the goth subculture, Silver Tears proves that this aesthetic and sound can still feel deeply relevant, even so many years after it first burst into the world.
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