LOS ANGELES, CA- Los Angeles got its first taste of Fiona Silver’s new musical identity on a night that already felt charged with possibility. The venue lights dimmed, the bassline rumbled through the room, and she emerged. No guitar slung across her shoulder this time, no blues-rock snarl curling in the corners of her mouth. Instead, there was a glimmer in her eyes, the kind that told you she was about to take the audience somewhere new. This was Life On Other Planets, her latest project, co-founded with her partner Autry Fulbright, and it was a bold departure from the gritty, vintage-rock persona she’d been known for.
It was also instantly clear that this was not Fiona Silver 2.0. This was Fiona in a completely different dimension. Gone were the crunchy guitar riffs and smoky vocal growls that once defined her sets. In their place came buoyant basslines, hypnotic grooves, and a wash of cosmic textures that felt lighter without losing their edge. The sound was funk-laced and dreamlike, but anchored in hip-hop beats and a steady pulse that made bodies in the crowd sway without hesitation.
“After spending a long time writing about heartache and pain, I wanted to make something that could be more uplifting — something people could dance to.”
This shift wasn’t a sudden whim. For Silver, the evolution toward LOOP had been a slow burn, built on a lifetime of eclectic influences. As a child, she was as likely to be singing along to Mariah Carey and Lauryn Hill as she was absorbing the bubblegum hooks of the Spice Girls. “These were artists that brought me joy and made me fall in love with music to begin with,” she recalls. Later, in her teenage years, she found herself drawn to darker, moodier worlds like Portishead and Beach House. Those artists taught her how atmosphere could shape emotion just as much as melody or lyric.
For years, she poured that range of influence into a blues-rock framework, releasing music that was both soulful and searing, touring with a guitar in hand and a voice that could fill a room with grit and vulnerability in equal measure. But by the time she began working on her 2020 EP The Spell, she sensed the change coming. She and Fulbright started writing together with the intention of forming another rock band. The sessions were fruitful. Songs like “Dreamweaver” and “Caught in a Feeling” emerged alongside darker cuts like 2024’s “L’Assassin”. But when they took a step back, they realized they’d already outgrown that idea.
“I had done almost every flavor of rock that really spoke to me, so it was time to step into a new space.”
It wasn’t just about sound; it was about energy. In the past, Silver often wrote songs in a very hands-on way: melody, lyrics, and chord structure all developed together, often built around the emotional thrust of her own voice. In LOOP, the process flips. Fulbright lays down the music first, creating intricate rhythmic foundations and unexpected textures, and Silver responds with melody and lyrics. “It’s been really cool to have such a different musical perspective driving the work,” she says. “Because his ideas are so different, it brings out new things in me too.”
That shift toward rhythm has reshaped every layer of LOOP, especially the live shows. Rather than simply recreating their recordings, they’ve built a performance that plays like a continuous sonic journey, weaving original material with carefully selected samples. “Using samples in the live show was Autry’s idea, and I love it,” Silver says. “It’s like back in the day when friends would make mixtapes for each other — and this is our mixtape to our audience.”
“We’re sharing and honoring our influences while inviting people into our world.”
The Los Angeles debut showcased just how effective that approach can be. Each transition flowed seamlessly, no dead air between tracks, just a steady pull deeper into the groove. The crowd stayed with her, locked into a shared headspace where the boundaries between influences and originals blurred into one fluid experience.
Silver herself moved differently on stage. Without a guitar to anchor her, she was freer to engage the crowd directly, her body language looser and more playful. “The vocals are way more laid back,” she explains. “I’m not growling or belting or crooning like I’m used to. It’s oddly harder for me to do less, but these songs are filled with levity, and I’m joyful just doing something new and exciting.”
That joy wasn’t scripted — not even when a surprise dancer joined her on stage. “Ha! No, the dancer was not planned,” she laughs. “Definitely a first for me.” Still, it fit the moment perfectly, underscoring the celebratory nature of the performance.
Behind the scenes, LOOP operates less like a fixed band and more like a creative collective. Silver and Fulbright split their time between New York and Los Angeles, pulling in different collaborators depending on the show. “The lineup isn’t the same at every gig,” she says. “But we’re lucky to have amazing friends who want to be a part of it.” That rotating cast adds another layer of unpredictability and freshness to each performance.
“To create something I haven’t really seen yet, something there isn’t an exact mold for — that’s both terrifying and thrilling.”
Trying to pin down LOOP’s genre is a difficult exercise. Silver calls it “dream pop with hip-hop beats… and a bunch of other stuff thrown in.” Indeed, there are glimmers of disco, hints of psychedelia, and bursts of hip-hop swagger throughout their set. It’s a sonic blend that resists easy categorization but feels fully realized in its intent: to invite listeners into a space that’s immersive, danceable, and emotionally resonant.
The reinvention is complete for now, but Silver doesn’t see this as the final chapter. “I may long to rock again at some point,” she admits. She has a backlog of unreleased solo songs and ongoing collaborations that could resurface in new forms down the line. But for the moment, her focus is on building LOOP’s world from the ground up. That means more live shows, more recordings, and more opportunities to fine-tune the balance between the personal and the political in her lyrics. “There’s a mix of feel-good disco kind of songwriting, as well as some political and personal all mixed in,” she says. “I’ve always enjoyed storytelling in songwriting, as well as pulling lyrics from poems I write.”
What’s most striking about LOOP’s arrival is how it manages to feel both meticulously crafted and refreshingly spontaneous. The music itself carries the polish of seasoned musicianship, but the energy on stage is raw and immediate, feeding off the crowd in real time. It’s a delicate balance, and one Silver seems intent on maintaining.
“It’s like starting over, but with everything I’ve learned in my back pocket.”
For longtime fans, seeing Fiona Silver in this new light might be a surprise… but it’s the kind of surprise that deepens your appreciation for her artistry. She’s not abandoning the emotional intensity that made her earlier work resonate; she’s channeling it differently, through grooves that invite joy as much as introspection. And in an era where artists are often pressured to stay in their lane, she’s proof that reinvention isn’t just possible… it can be the most exciting chapter of all.
For now, Fiona Silver is fully inhabiting this new galaxy she’s built, and she’s making it clear she has no intention of coming back down anytime soon. The invitation stands: step inside, move with the rhythm, and let Life On Other Planets pull you into its orbit.
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