Silent Running Talk New Album, Musical Memories And More

Oct 5, 2025 | Interviews

Words by Glenn Sargeant

Feature Image Photo Credit: Bruno Tamiozzo (Unico Media Studio)

Belfast’s Silent Running folded for a full 30 years after releasing their third album in 1989. One of Ireland’s biggest musical exports in the 1980s was burned out. Now, on 7th November 2025, Silent Running release ‘NORTHSTAR’ their fifth album on CD and Digital Formats through Door Records. The band spoke to JLTT prior to the release:

Who is in Silent Running, how did you meet and what do you play?

Silent Running are Peter Gamble (Lead vocals and Guitar), Tony Scott (Lead Guitar and Backing vocals ) ,Richard Collett (Bass guitar and Backing vocals) and Gary Kirby (Drums ,Drum programming and Backing Vocals). Richard and myself were childhood friends and grew up two doors apart on the same street and shared the same dreams of learning guitar and joining a band!. Tony and Richard are second cousins and we started hanging out together when I was 17 , it turned out Tony was a great guitar player and had that magic thing a band!. He was looking for a singer and offered me an audition and I went for it even though I had never sung before and somehow I wangled my way in . Then a short while later the bass player left and even though Richard was a guitarist we thought he would be the perfect fit and he agreed to join as our bass player the three of us have played together since Ian Gault later joined and played drums on our first 3 Albums . A few years into our professional career in the late 80’s Ian left and we recruited Gary Kirby as our drummer who had been in a band called True Colours and was a Silent Running fan and that has been the line up since then.

What is your earliest musical memory?

My earliest musical memory’s would probably be playing my brother and sisters records who were both a bit older than me .My brother was into the Rolling Stones and had a bootleg of them playing in Maddison Square Garden with songs like Jumping Jack Flash and Brown Sugar, my sister had Electric Warrior by T.REX and I loved songs like Get It On and Jeepster, still do! .Seeing David Bowie singing Starman on Top of the Pops was also a revelation!.

When did you begin songwriting?

I had dabbled a little with songwriting from about 14 but started properly around 18 when I joined what was to become Silent Running , we realised that to try to turn Silent Running into a career we needed to write our own original material and so I started writing songs that I hoped would get us a record deal and it worked!. It was a process of trial and error and I am still learning!. The band have also written a lot of songs from our albums collaboratively which I have always enjoyed.

You have your fifth album ‘NORTHSTAR’ released on Friday 7th November 2025 after a thirty-year break. What made you want to release a new album now? How did you want to approach the making of the album?

We actually released and album in 2022 called Follow the Light written and recorded mainly through covid and lockdowns which was our first since 1989!. We all really enjoyed the experience and it sold reasonably well worldwide so we thought why not do another one. NORTHSTAR was a different process as we had less time , we were fortunate to acquire a grant from the Arts council of Northern Ireland to support the recording of another album .It had to be completed with 12 months and we only had a couple of songs so it was written arranged and recorded at a fast pace which I think gives the songs a oneness and a great energy

Where did you record the album and who produced it?

The album was recorded at a studio called Earth Music NI with a great Engineer called Vic Bronzini Fulton and we produced it ourselves.

Do you have any interesting, funny or memorable stories from the recording sessions?

The whole experience was interesting hearing the songs come to life and using different approaches ,I generally wrote the song and then recorded it on my own to a rough drum track in Tonys home studio and we would add bass and guitar and drums. We were lucky to have a fan David Williams play keys on the album but he lives in England so we sent him the demoes and he worked remotely writing keyboard parts. We also mixed a bit of home recording ( mainly guitars which sounded great) with studio recording the only thing I can think of that was more funny peculiar was on one of the songs Seventh Wave where the keyboards are mainly sequenced for whatever reason we just couldn’t get the track to sync up and we had to spend quite a bit of trying to fix it and pulling our hair out not sure how we fixed it eventually and I think the track sounds great but it was challenging and funny hearing the track with out of time sequencers but you had to be there!.

Did you use any particular instruments, microphones, recording equipment to help you get a particular sound/tone for the record?

The studio uses a combination of analogue and digital hardware and software including Allen and Heath GS 3000 Analogue valve desk , Cubase DAW and various outboard API ,DBX and Drawmer and AKG large diaphragm condenser and various ribbon mics. Tony used a Black 1984 Elite Strat, a Squier Affinity Tokai Les Paul , Tony also used a 40 year old Roland GP8 effects unit along with a boss ME50 various amps were used in the studio including a Marshall JCM800 AND Vox Valvetronix VT80 combo. Most of the guitars were recorded in the studio but Tony also did some home recording and used a peavey SM58 type mic and a Rode condenser , Richard played a Warwick bass usually into the desk , David Williams used a mix of hardware and software including Focusr ite Scarlett 2i2 , 4^th Gen USB Audio Interface ,Controlkey 49S 49 Key Slim MIDI Conrtoller keyboard, Mixcraft 10.6 pro studio DAW ,Synthmaster3 ,Arturia Pigments ,Arturia DX7 ,Arturia Prophet V3 and Novation Addictive keys. Gary used Logic Pro for any drum programming required. We generally demoed all the songs in Tonys home studio using garageband and David would work to the demoes.

Which of your new album tracks hear you at your a) happiest, b) angriest and c) most reflective?

I would say Seventh Wave is the happiest its about a sunny day with my wife on the North coast of Northern Ireland watching the waves crash on the beach the seventh being the biggest representing the love in our hearts , the angriest would be You and Me Against the World which is a comment on sad and dangerous times we are living through in the world today and how you lean on the support of your partner to stay strong and get through it. Most reflective would be This is my City Tonight which I wrote after an evening in Belfast which was full of tourists from all over world and thinking how much Belfast has changed since I was young when we had the troubles and no one ventured into town at night , it was very uplifting and I wanted to write something positive about Belfast.

Was it a difficult album to write?

I always find when writing an album the first couple of songs are really difficult to find, and inspiration very hard to come by. Once you have managed that they just start to flow and I wrote very quickly one straight after the other , its like you work your way into a very creative mindset and then once the all the songs are written it disappears !. Likewise the arrangements the band created generally came together very quickly and recording process was relatively smooth which made it very enjoyable.

Who designed the album artwork?

The Album artwork was designed by Unico Media Studio in Northern Ireland who also took our band photographs , they are great friends of the band and I think they did a great job .

Does the album title have any significance/special meaning?

Its taken from a line of a song on the Album called Rose from a Stone about the journey of a relationship growing through adversity , “We followed the Northstar to get home, carried the weight and weathered the storm for two to be one”. NORTHSTAR also represents guidance and purpose and inspiration through life , love and even a rock n roll band!.

You have also released the first single ‘Hit and Run’. What was the story/inspiration behind the track?

Its about a woman searching for true love and is on a quest to find” the one” but finds only fleeting physical relationships ” always crashing on the road to find the one” but she keeps on trying to find “that higher love she craves so much” . I wanted to try writing a song firstly about a character rather than another song about my life and then I thought it would be interesting to write a story about the search for the one but from a female perspective which I very much enjoyed.

Is the single accompanied by a visualiser?

We made a video which I really like and is on youtube , Unico the company who produced the art work and photos for Northstar also shot and produced the video for us and did a great job.

Where is your hometown and could you please describe it in five words?

Belfast!, awful weather but great people!.

How do you look after your voices?

As lead singer I do very little other than rest my voice before live shows and drink lots of honey and lemon tea, I did used to do warm up exercises but never felt they made much difference . I just get up and belt it out and hope for the best, fortunately my range hasn’t changed yet.

Do you have any live dates planned in the UK/Europe in 2025/2026?

We have no plans for 2026 at the moment but hopefully we will be playing shows. This year we played a large outdoor 2 week long festival in Belfast called Belsonic and we played Ocean Colour Scene and Madness, and we also played another large outdoor venue in Belfast called Custom House Square along with Texas both shows were great and we went down really well. On the 24th of October we are playing in a rock club in Belfast called Voodoo which we do play a lot and the great thing is we have people travelling from England , Ireland , Scotland and even Germany to us ! Which is amazing. Once we see how the album is received we will think about live shows as we love playing live.

What two things do you hope to have achieved once you have left the stage?

That we have given every drop of energy we have to the show and that audience are left feeling glad they came!

Do you have any favoured stage instruments, effects, pedals, microphones etc?

I have always used a Shure SM58 mic live and a Valan Atlas microphone stand both of which I love, Gary plays a Pearl drum kit , Richard plays a warwick bass and Ashdown bass amp , Tony generally plays his Black 84 Strat Elite on stage through Marshall JCM 800 and 4×12 JCM cab using his Roland GP8 and Boss

You are given the opportunity to write the score for a film adaptation of a novel that you enjoy. Which novel is it and why?

I generally only read biographies as I’m fascinated with l people’s life stories more than fiction ,usually music or sport my two loves .The last novel I can remember reading was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which I thought was a great page turning thriller , unfortunately its already a movie and has a score but that would have been fun to do!

Who are some of your musical influences? Do you have any recommendations?

My musical influences are too many to mention would include Bowie, early Springsteen, Thin Lizzy, Tom Petty, Graham Parker and Neil Finn of Crowded House , all great song writers and bands and highly recommended

What makes Silent Running happy and what makes you unhappy?

The joy of writing and recording music with life long friends makes me happy and playing live together , the general comradery, the only thing that makes me unhappy is that not enough people get to hear it!