English teacher Alan Silvidi is the lead guitarist for his band Fallout. A few years ago, as they were playing their second song, a group of former students from ten years ago to see him play. He was amazed that they remembered him and was truly grateful.

Fallout has been together for more than thirty years. The band members include Anthony Silvidi who plays guitar and sings; Pete Martin, who plays drums, and Chas Boyden, who plays bass. Silvidi joined the band three years ago. In those three years the band has played at places like the Grog Shop, the Blue Rock Cafe in Hudson, the Venice Cafe in Kent and the Phantasy Theatre in Cleveland.

For the past year the band has been working on their first album. Silvidi has been playing in bands for almost thirty five years but has never produced an album. He described the process.

“It was just a lot of fun. We were like kids in a candy store. We did not know a whole lot about what we were doing, but luckily we had a real professional with us-a guy by the name of Ben Vehorn. I have played a lot of shows at a lot of places over the years, but it was cool to be in real recording studio and to learn a lot too,” Silvidi said.

This album will include four songs: “Chasin’ Everything”, “Ten Years From Now”, “It’s Complicated” and “What It’s Like”. Martin described the process in making the songs.

“When we wrote the first original, ‘Chasin’ Everything’, we were sitting around and philosophizing about ‘how do you get started writing a new song?’ ‘What comes first, the guitar licks, the lyrics, the melody?’ As we were discussing it, Alan played a few guitar licks and said something like, ‘how about this?’ I start playing a drum beat to go with the guitar riffs, our bass player jumps in with his bass line and our lead singer literally just starts singing lyrics he has floating around in his head. A few takes later, we look at each other in amazement and state, ‘that was fun – we just wrote our first song!’ It’s such a cool and creative process, and it’s now hard to play other people’s songs when creating your own is so much more satisfying,” Martin said.

Fallout plays a variety of music styles. Their main genre is rock but they also play some modern types of music as well. Martin described a few bands they try to mimic.

“We are a rock band that plays a mix of covers from classic rock bands such as The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M. and Cheap Trick as well as some newer artists such as Bowling for Soup, Coldplay, Imagine Dragons and others. Our originals combine elements from all of these influences,” Martin said.

Inspiration for starting a band can be just love of music or possibly making a career out of it. Silvidi describes what inspired him to join Fallout.

“My cousin called me and asked me to join. I have played professionally for a long time. I paid my way through college playing guitar in bands. I kind of gave that up. I tried to make it my profession actually, but in the early 90s, when it became increasingly obvious that I was not going to make a living out of it, I gave it up. When my cousin called, I thought it was just for one show, so I said, ‘Yeah I can do that’, but they had ideas of staying together, so I just kind of stuck with it. I guess I have a different perspective on it now, being in my late 40s, than I did in my early 20s because I know this is not what is going to put food on the table. I am just doing it for fun more than trying to make a career out of it,” Silvidi said.

Silvidi explained the most memorable event that he experienced with Fallout.

“Playing in the studio, also playing the Grog Shop for the first time was really fun, because that’s a place where a lot of national acts play. A few of so my guitar heroes were coming up in the weeks after us, so it was nice playing in the same place where they played,” Silvidi said.

Jeff Fry, American History teacher at Revere High School, has gone to see Fallout twice.

“They play genres of music I like. I wouldn’t call myself a groupie but I love them and would recommend people to go see them play,” Fry said.

The band will release their new album in late May or early June. It will be available on CD or Itunes.