Editor<p><strong>Silica rocks Swansea’s bunkhouse</strong></p><p>The concert on Thursday 5 June 2025 was supported by three other Swansea-based rock bands: Four Act Riot, Frontier and White Leather.</p><p>Established in late 2024, hard rock and grunge band Silica began playing a range of gigs across Swansea, such as Battle of the Bands alongside a supporting show at Elysium. </p><p>This led the group to build traction in Swansea’s grassroots music scene and in late May, it was announced that Silica would be giving their first headline concert at the independent music venue, Bunkhouse.</p><p><strong>Silica drummer Oli said: </strong>“It was scary to play our first headliner, mainly because we weren’t sure if people were going to come or enjoy it on the night.</p><p>“But I think it went really well and the crowd enjoyed themselves, people were dancing and singing along.</p><p>“Even though we didn’t completely fill the venue, I was really happy with how many people came out and the charisma of those who did made it feel like five times the capacity.”</p>Silica at Bunkhouse Bar and Music Venue in Swansea<br><em>(Image: Amelia Young)</em>Silica at Bunkhouse Bar and Music Venue in Swansea<br><em>(Image: Amelia Young)</em><p>The band was brought together by the shared musical interests of lead guitarist Soren Neyland and drummer Oli Young, it then grew with the addition of guitarist Jerard (Jerry) O’Malley and bassist Josh W.</p><p>Silica worked alongside the organisers to gather a collective of alternative rock bands local to Swansea to play on the night.</p><p><strong>Oli said:</strong> “We admired the other bands a lot and so felt we had much to live up to at the gig, the supporting groups were great.”</p><p>Bunkhouse opened in 2017, and prides itself for providing a platform for locally-emerging, grassroots performers in Swansea.</p><p>With the band’s original members Oli and Soren having met in Bunkhouse watching Big Red Car, a group in which Josh also plays bass, Silica has its foundations in the grassroots music scene of Swansea.</p><p>Oli stated that the band are hugely grateful to the venue for granting Silica the opportunity to headline and promote their original music further.</p><p>Following the Bunkhouse gig, Silica is looking to record more demos which they plan to release on Soundcloud and Spotify.</p><p><strong>Oli said:</strong> “The goal is to play outside of Swansea, current benchmark being Cardiff, before we expand hopefully into the rest of the UK.”</p><p><a href="https://www.elysiumgallery.com/events/event/live-music-silica-polyester-skies-slinky-malinky-fler-7pm/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Silica’s next concert</a> is at Elysium, Swansea on 21 June.</p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://swanseabaynews.com/tag/music/" target="_blank">#Music</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://swanseabaynews.com/tag/rock/" target="_blank">#Rock</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://swanseabaynews.com/tag/silica/" target="_blank">#Silica</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://swanseabaynews.com/tag/swansea/" target="_blank">#Swansea</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://swanseabaynews.com/tag/the-bunkhouse/" target="_blank">#TheBunkhouse</a></p>