'We're just five Hey Boys from the Isle of Man': Silo on their 'insane' rise

Local band reflect on 'very surreal' week

If I gave you a very specific list of bands, I'm talking the likes of My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Paramore, Bring Me The Horizon, You Me At Six, Alexisonfire, Comeback Kid, Touché Amoré, Enter Shikari and blink-182 (I could go on...) and you actually knew who I was talking about, there's every chance you would know a very specific group of people very well.

That would be millennials who love a gig, probably own at least one pair of Vans skate shoes and had either very backcombed hair, a nose piercing or ear stretchers at some point in their lives... or still do.

If you weren't in the subculture I'm talking about - let me set the scene* for you (*full pun intended there).

It's hard to define, but it's the alternative music scene, encompassing everything from pop-punk to post-hardcore, and just about everything in between.

And if you were in that scene, particularly in the 2000s or 2010s, you probably read a magazine called Kerrang! and your bedroom walls were probably plastered with posters of your favourite bands from that publication.

Kerrang! dropped on newsstands every Wednesday and it was full of every band you just had to be listening to.

Think massive fringes, thick eyeliner regardless of the gender, the tightest of jeans - in an array of bright colours - and choruses so huge they'd take the roof off whatever sweaty venue you were lucky enough to see them in.

There was even an accompanying TV music channel, with rock videos on rotation 24/7, featuring a constant loop of bangers ('Fat Lip' by Sum 41 anyone?) which further solidified our allegiance to the groups Kerrang! deemed cool. (Honorary mention here though to the likes of Scuzz, which was another music channel you could flick to when adverts were taking up precious viewing time.)

Jump forward to 2026 and Kerrang! is now published quarterly rather than weekly and largely exists in its web format. Kerrang! TV wrapped up broadcasts on 30 June 2024 with a swan song of Fall Out Boy's 'Thnks fr th Mmrs' - but Kerrang! radio is still going strong, albeit only as a digital channel.

Enter here Isle of Man-based five-piece Silo, who, like me, grew up in this hallowed scene, and last week made the front page of Kerrang.com.

(Silo as featured on the Kerrang! website)

"This week, we were on the front page of the Kerrang! website, which is just insane. I grew up religiously, every single week, Kerrang! was my Bible. Honestly, we're really appreciative of the fact that they would even consider putting our little band from the Isle of Man on their website. Heads definitely fell off. I think we were all just sat looking like melted wellies for at least half an hour, just sort of like 'what is going on here?' It's a very very very surreal experience loading up the webpage and there's a photo of us five, and Dario's dog Remy." - Lar Crookall

Made up of vocalist Kriss Maguire (35), guitarists Lar Crookall (35) and Chris Barber-Shaw (36), bassist Dario Leonetti (35) and drummer Darren Shields (36), Silo was born post-covid here on the Isle of Man.

But it's safe to say things have gone a bit wild in the last week or so.

On Friday, 23 January they dropped their first single off their upcoming debut album 'Haze' which comes out on 1 May.

'Crawl in a Bottle' is 'despondent yet oddly comforting' - at least according to another major publication the boys love, Metal Hammer, which has the track in contention for its 'best new metal song' of the past week.

The single has even reached number 14 on the Kerrang! Chart.

But the album's now hotly-anticipated release wasn't necessarily part of the original plan.

(Picture credit: David Lovelady)

In August last year, the quintet set out to record their music as a memento for themselves.

It was, as Lar puts it, so the songs "wouldn't get lost to time, as in so many instances over here."

"Bands come and go and they never really sort of get their music recorded, so we wanted to [do that]. We're all mid-thirties and we all wanted to kind of document the music for ourselves."

They headed to a recording studio called the Ranch Production House in Southampton to set down some tracks with producer Kel Pinchin (Split Chain, As It Is, Thornhill).

The recording sessions were made possible thanks to funding from the Isle of Man Arts Council, which this week said it was 'proud' to have been involved, adding: "We can’t wait to see where this journey takes them next!"

But it was once all the songs were finalised that the real magic happened.

Whilst the album was in the mixing stages, the band received an email they weren't expecting, which basically said: "Who are you? What is this album?"

It was a call from Camden-based Easy Life Records, which was founded by Jamie Osman in the London borough in 2014.

Now for the fellow Kerrang! nerds reading along - Easy Life Records can tout previous and current signings that include the likes of Softcult, Lonely the Brave, Tonight Alive, Lower Than Atlantis and Fatherson.

(Picture credit: David Lovelady)

The label instantly signed them, delayed the planned December release of 'Crawl in a Bottle' and took charge of an album rollout campaign that now includes merchandise, vinyl pressings and coverage in the likes of publications the Manx group could only have dreamed of.

Bassist Dario told Manx Radio: "Everything's just steadily increasing, the amount of plays... and you just don't know what's going to happen. The main thing is that the label and everyone we're working with there, they're all really impressed, so we're sort of taking each day as it comes.

"And if this is all it gets to, it's been fun, but who knows what's going to happen tomorrow."

Lars added: "This is far and beyond anything we could have ever imagined in our wildest dreams already. We're just five Hey Boys from the Isle of Man, born and raised, so it's like for even anyone in the UK to hear our music, let alone it resonating with them, is just... I can't comprehend that."

Silo's debut album Haze will be released on Easy Life Records on 1 May. The first single, 'Crawl in a Bottle' is out now.

You can hear a full interview with the band on Live Lounge this Saturday (31 January) at 4pm on Manx Radio.

A sneak peek of that chat is below.