The Cliks
With Canada conquered, the Toronto quartet is ready to take on America
By Bess Korey
Published: June 11th, 2007 | 3:44pm
Toronto quartet the Cliks have an amazing list of accomplishments behind them for a band that just released its first album, Snakehouse. The album’s opening track, "Complicated," appeared on The L Word, they've played South By Southwest, and they’ve garnered a coveted spot on this summer’s True Colors Tour.
Backstage at Detroit’s Shelter on Snakehouse’s release date, April 24, 2007, the band sported a just-off-the-road look with cutoff jeans and T-shirts. It’s a look contrary to the well–put-together, classic, and casually androgynous one they’re known for having on stage and will sport later that night.
"I started the band about four years ago,” lead singer Lucas Silveira says. “It was a different reincarnation at that point.” Silveira is referring to previous band members who quit, but helped with recording Snakehouse, a few bass players and a drummer. The current lineup has Morgan Doctor on drums, Nina Martinez on guitar, and Jen Benton on bass, and Silveira spends a great deal of time talking about their contributions to the band in detail, without focusing on his own contributions as the Cliks’ founder and primary songwriter.
Although he downplays his role, Silveira is often compared to Chrissie Hynde, ironically a singer who has fielded her own share of gender-themed questioning, specifically when it comes to her vocals. Like Hynde, Silveira has a voice versatile enough to carry off soul ballads and harder rocking songs. Traces of the Pretenders' influence can be heard on Snakehouse in slower numbers like "Misery" and "Whenever," which recall Hynde's voice on songs like "Stop Your Sobbing," "Kid," and "Talk Of the Town." But the Cliks are not entirely retro in their approach or their influences.
"I listen to everything,” Silveira says. “I listen to Jeff Buckley, hard rock, pop music. I'm not afraid to say I listen to pop music. I can listen to Tool one day and then the next day, pop in George Michael's Faith and be completely happy."
Some moments of Silveira's live performance reflect this pop sensibility. They have a David Bowie–like swagger to them, but they in no way resemble the drag and camp of Ziggy Stardust. Thin White Duke is more the par: Silveira comes across as butch, but still retains an air of androgyny and a whole lot of bravado to him. It seems fitting given the personal and professional changes he’s been through in the past few years — ones that go far beyond the typical PR pabulum and possibly add to Silveira’s self-assured, been-through-fire-and-now-I’m-back performances.
The most drastic change was undoubtedly the one Silveira is tired of talking about: when he started the Cliks, Lucas Silveira was Lilia Silveira.
For Silveira, there’s no role-playing, no alien spacesuits, and no glittery, face-splintering makeup to his performing persona. It’s just who he is. His decision to live life as a man in such a public arena as rocknroll performance is astounding for its bravery. Although rocknroll audiences are purportedly more accepting, they are fickle, slow-changing, and, let’s face it, predominantly divided along traditional gender lines, no matter the nods to Bowie. It’s one thing to dress the part, but it’s another to be the part.
Since making his decision, Silveira has had to survive a lot of emotional challenges, all of which is reflected in an honest and painful way through the lyrics on Snakehouse. But he’s also had to deal with numerous changes in band personnel.
Because Silveira wrote all of the band’s original songs, the current lineup did not contribute to the songwriting on Snakehouse. But they’ve made their mark on the music in other ways. "The songs are great to begin with,” Benton says. “We just get to add the spice on top, make it our own, add little touches, and that's it. Morgan can add some crazy drum beats and flips, and it's more than we thought it can be. It takes on a whole new spin and makes the song better."
Silveira agrees. Like any person who has come to embrace change, he’s looking forward to recording the next album with the new lineup. “It's going to be even more interesting to see all the different influences that everybody has,” he says. “For example, Nina is really into guitar rock and progressive-sounding stuff. It’s going to be really interesting to see how she implements that into the new material."
As to the attention Silveira will probably receive in the near future for things outside of his music, he seems more concerned about creating rocknroll that is emotionally intense and relatable to people from all different backgrounds than he is about getting a queer or transgendered agenda across. “I think I just am who I am,” he says. “To some people that happens to be political, but I don't have an agenda. I think that if you have a certain place in society that's sort of outside of ‘normal,’ you automatically get pegged as being political, but I think we're just a rock band.”
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Additional stories by Bess Korey
Lesbians on Ecstasy
Team Gina Interview
Kerry Davis Interview
Issue #35
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