Silent Pictures

"Silent Pictures put on a great show channeling the sounds of Joy Division, Roxy Music, Japan and The Smiths with their own unique twist." - DARK BEAUTY MAGAZINE “Part performance art, part post alternative dance pop, meets short film, San Francisco based Silent Pictures fuses art with music and their live shows consist of each song being performed to short films where they take their fans on a moody experience through sight and sound.” “ Call them different, maybe adventurous even, but in a world of copy cats, it’s nice to see some originality in their musical style and shows.” - BAY FASHION MAGAZINE Alexander Mann started playing music in 1989 and has played a lot since then. He's been in Mellow Drunk, Boyskout, Your Precious You and, more recently, Silent Pictures, which is his project. Musically, Silent Pictures pulls heavily from shoegaze bands, such as My Bloody Valentine. But they also perform some Roxy Music glam-ballads, upbeat jangle-pop and even toss a few dance beats in the mix. What makes Silent Pictures interesting (And Mann enigmatic) is the degree to which he subverts attention away from himself as a performer, which he does in part by projecting videos during his performances. The eerie, moodiness of the music is thoroughly captivating. The only other permanent member besides Mann is Rene Love, whose role plays heavily into the performance art aspect of the group. -THE METRO Silent Pictures is the collaboration of Alexander Mann and Rene Love who first met and performed together between 1989 and 1991 in Valeria, a bay area based band. Upon the dissolution of that project both Rene and Alexander continued to perform throughout the world separately in multitude of projects such as Mellow Drunk, Bobbie Marie, Boyskout and Protection supporting groups such as Supergrass, The Church, The Killers, Luna, Tegan and Sara, Trashcan Sinatras, the Brian Jonestown Massacre to name just a few. In 2010 Alexander began to record music and films for Silent Pictures whose first performance was in early 2010 supporting iconic 80's glam goth band Gene Love's Jezebel in San Francisco. It was around that time that Alexander and Rene reunited in a bicoastal fashion between NYC and Silicon Valley to flesh out what was becoming one part performance art, one part visual and one part audio related project. Each song is performed to film, with films and songwriting intertwined as both motivation and inspiration. As of 2012 4 enhanced EP's containing film and audio had been released. After a few North American tours in 2011 and 2012 Legendary 4AD, Mute Records Producer John Fryer met Silent Pictures. John is credited on working on the first records for Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Cocteau Twins, NIN as well as famous singles and other albums such as "So Alive" by Love and Rockets, Wire and Chapterhouse. He began to mix and / or remix the bands recordings in Oslo Norway to put his own special touch on what was already a unique sound. A few songs from Silent Pictures upcoming LP Under Exposed are influenced by some of John's past collaborations with other artists beloved to the members of Silent Pictures. The birth of Silent Pictures began in 1878 in Stanford California when Eadweard Muybridge and his remarkable technical skills produced the first-ever silent pictures and proved that a running horse has all four feet off the ground. Hijacking a movie genre is not an easy task. Much energy is put into preserving the vast collectively owned heritage which is the public property of all free breathing citizens on the planet earth—our early life in celluloid, music, free imagery and speech. The debut full length Under Exposed will be released in 2013 on 180g black virgin wax with hand screened LP jackets. Each will also include a digital download of both MP4 films and high quality WAV audio or 320 bps MP3 audio. Silent Pictures will not add to the silicon landfill which is poisoning our planet. A percentage of proceeds from this release will be given to new forms of recycling, vinyl and vintage film preservation... Silent Pictures first EP and Films were recorded and edited by Alexander Mann whose music career started in 1989 in the Bay Area with little known UK Manchester influenced group Valeria and later project Your Precious You (named by BJM guitarist Travis Threlkell.) From early 1991 through later 1990's he began hanging out in the San Francisco Shoegaze scene opening for such bands as the Rosemarys, Yo La Tengo and Brian Jonestown Massacre to name but a few... After living some years abroad in Asia Alexander Mann joined San Francisco's Mellow Drunk and recorded on 2 of 3 of the band's full length CDs and a handful of E.P.s. He also co-wrote and recorded on all 3 Boyskout records. In 2008 Alexander began recording under the name Silent Pictures often working with many of the same musicians he has worked with in different projects. Silent Pictures mission is a blend of live performance and cinema both new and old, a tribute to great musicians, painters, modern artists and directors and of course Eadweard Muybridge. Thank you for your attention and support... A.Mann