Silence Betrayed, a rock band out of San Diego, has been hitting the music scene hard with its grunge-metal style since 2006, but it is anything but amateur.

The four members of the band are passionate music lovers who “let screams and distortion do the talking.”

Front man and lyricist Joe LaLiberte, a.k.a. Joe La, shares the stage with Mike Confer, a.k.a. Mikey C, who mans the bass guitar. Joining the two are Dan Schumacher a.k.a. Danimal, and C.J. Smith, who masters the guitar and drums rhythms.

Now, as a pioneer of the touring world, the band goes from city to city bellowing its pulsing sounds into the crowd.

With a 2007 EP titled “Lascivious” and a cult-like following behind, Silence Betrayed has just released two more hits, “Little Prison” and “Be A Part.”

The State Press sat down with Silence Betrayed on Saturday before the band performed at Tempe’s Big Fish Pub on University Drive. The band members revealed their inspiration, what they think they bring to the stage and their dream of taking over the world.

State Press: What is it that you think sets your band apart from other bands?

Silence Betrayed: [Joe La] We bring a lot of sweaty energy to the stage that makes you want to keep coming back [for] more and more. We think the energy factor of rock is lost; a lot of bands think that if they wear black and get tattoos they can rock. [Danimal] There’s no aggression, there’s no intensity, there’s nothing really pumping through your vocal cords to the audience, but we bring that; we bring more passion and heart.

SP: Describe a typical recording session in the studio with Silence Betrayed.

SB: [Joe La] Lots of dirty jokes. Sometimes funky things come out that we don’t plan, but we like to go with what sounds right so if it turns out good, we keep it. We also invite a lot of other bands to come in the studio and party with us, so we like to have a good time.
SP: How did you decide to fuse metal with grunge to create your music style?

SB: [Joe La] I think it has a lot to do with who we are. Some of our favorite bands are Tool, Korn and Smashing Pumpkins, so already that’s metal, progressive metal and grunge, so we like the heavier metal side of music but we also like a more melodic style of music.

[Mikey C.] We let everyone in the band have an equal say so everything is brought to the table, diced up and mixed together to give you one product.

SP: How have you become such an established band after being together just three years?

SB: [Joe La] Well Mike is a drill sergeant. When somebody’s not pulling weight, someone else is. [Mikey C.] We have never had a major argument, we have never swapped out band members. [Joe La] it’s a good thing we have going. It’s all about dedication; we will keep investing time and money until we get there.

SP: You guys are known for your high-energy performances. How do you maintain stamina throughout an entire show?

SB: [Joe La] We practice like we play. [Danimal] When you are on stage you push yourself, you usually feel like s--- afterwards but it goes away. If I’m not sore after a show, I feel like I didn’t give 110 percent.

SP: What is the message you try to communicate to your audience during a show?

SB: [Joe La] We party hard and we want you to party with us. [Mikey C.] There are a lot of angles to the name: It’s about being yourself, go out and have a good time and don’t care what other people think.
[Danimal] We become friends with our fans, we’ll buy you a beer and hang out with you because without you, we wouldn’t be a band.

SP: What is your favorite part of touring?

SB: [Joe La] Meeting people. [Danimal] Yeah; new people, the experience, you never know who you will meet.

SP: Where do you want Silence Betrayed to go from here?

SB: [Joe La] The moon, I want everyone in our crowd to sing our words. We want to be bigger than Guns and Roses .

Reach the reporter at kelsey.groetken@asu.edu.