Rock band Cut The Kids In Half released their debut album, What We Became, this January.

BU Soundcheck

Cut The Kids In Half

Band members, BU and other area college musicians, talk about their debut album, What We Became, and tease upcoming music

In our new series BU Soundcheck, BU Today features various BU student bands and singer-songwriters. We talk to them about the stories behind their sound and where they find inspiration for their work.

On the day before their mother’s birthday, August 30, brothers Charlie and Jack Silver decided to stay up all night to deliver her the perfect birthday gift: a song. 

“We captured a sort of magic,” Charlie says. 

It started when Charlie Silver (ENG’28) was 13: he began experimenting with guitar, piano, and drums, eventually writing his own songs as well. His older brother, Jack, now a sophomore at Emerson College, was interested in writing lyrics, so the pair formed what is now a five-person rock band, Cut The Kids In Half. 

Throughout middle school the brothers wrote songs in the basement of their house in Rahway, N.J., performing them for friends and family whenever they got the chance. When it came time to find a drummer, they recruited childhood friend Luke Tan, now a freshman at Harvard. When they were in high school, with the support of their parents, the trio began professionally recording a series of songs that would form their debut album, What We Became. 

The first song the Silvers wrote for the album? “The Quiet Life of August,” dedicated to their mother.

Sound-wise, What We Became is a classic alternative-rock album. It’s guitar-heavy and oftentimes experimental, using distorted riffs to amplify themes of loss and growth, while maintaining an air of teenage angst. The album’s folkie, introspective lyrics, sung in Jack’s pleasantly deep voice, give the album an impressive level of depth. 

Lead guitarist Charlie, who wrote the album’s music, says he took inspiration from the likes of Joy Division, Black Country, New Road, and Radiohead. In fact, it was the bridge of the Radiohead song “Morning Bell” that inspired the band’s name.

But when it comes to lyrics, lead vocalist Jack says, he and his brother are speaking different languages.

“For me, it was Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, a lot of these ’60s, ’70s artists that kind of pioneered singer-songwriting, that pioneered poetic lyrics,” Jack says of the influences for his lyrics. Where his brother creates more guitar-driven, Velvet Underground–esque music, his lyrics are “more stripped back,” he says. “It was an interesting pairing between our two realms.”

Cut The Kids In Half finished recording What We Became in high school, but by the time they released the album, in late January 2025, the rock trio had grown into a quintet, adding two more BU members.

“I met Charlie on the first day of college, and he was cool and asked me to be in his band,” recalls classmate Kevin Mortenson (CDS’29), who now plays guitar and bass for the band. Mortenson then brought his own childhood friend, and BU roommate, Joey Sorkin (ENG’29), into the band. Sorkin plays bass, keys, and trumpet. Both Sorkin and Mortenson are also from central New Jersey.

“I had never heard them play,” Charlie says. “I didn’t know they were from Jersey, I kind of just asked them to be in my band, because I heard they played.” 

As Jack points out, the decision “could have been a huge mistake.” From Charlie: “I got lucky that we all get along so well.” 

Before Mortenson and Sorkin arrived at their first Cut The Kids In Half practice, Charlie sent them recordings off then-unreleased What We Became so they could familiarize themselves with the music. 

“I liked everything that they were doing,” Mortenson recalls. “But then when I heard ‘Riverbend’ for the first time, I was like, okay, these guys are really good. Hearing that song is what made me respect Jack and Charlie so much as musicians before I really got to know them.”

At 11 minutes, “Riverbend” is the longest song on the album. It’s also the one Jack and Charlie are most proud of in terms of both writing and recording.

“I was writing a song about change and leaving love behind as I was going into high school and leaving an old relationship behind,” Jack says. “So it felt perfect and in sync in a way that a lot of our other songs hadn’t.”

The brothers wrote the song’s explosive ending first, but it took them months to complete the song. “It’s the most honest thing I’ve ever written,” Jack says. “A lot of our other songs felt like storytelling, and this felt like something being born out of us.”

While Cut The Kids In Half had played “Riverbend” live a couple of times, Jack says they “weren’t able to do it justice” until Mortenson and Sorkin joined the band. “I think it’s been both very satisfying on a personal artistic level to play these songs live and to hear them expressed as a whole band as they were intended,” he says. 

This year Cut The Kids In Half has performed live at Sunset Cantina on Comm Ave, Club 101 in Midtown Manhattan, and at a Phi Tau charity event in Allston. With the help of BU’s Music Business Club, they’ve begun to gain traction among fellow Terriers, racking up over 600 followers on their Instagram, and more than 10,000 Spotify streams of What We Became. 

“It wasn’t until college that we really started seeing our live shows as a chance to express ourselves in a different way,” Charlie says. “We were playing to young people who wanted to hear music and who brought their energy to the shows.”

As the academic year comes to an end, the bandmates are looking forward to heading home for the summer and playing local venues in New York and New Jersey. 

“I think it’s extremely important to play small before you play big,” Jack says. 

The group also plans to make more music this summer, eager to embrace the natural evolution of their sound. 

“There’s so many more ears and so many more people to contribute to the songwriting process,” Mortenson says. “Now that we’re all writing songs together, our ideas are shifting to a more unique and experimental sound that draws on more influences than Jack and Charlie’s earlier work did.”

The group recently offered a preview of some of their new songs at a BU Music Business Club Showcase concert in Allston. 

“We have a lot of songs that are in the works,” Jack says. “Charlie and I have been sitting on this album since we were done with high school, and now I’m going into my junior year of college. I am absolutely ready to start recording and releasing some new material.”

Are you a BU singer-songwriter or part of a BU band and would like to be considered for an upcoming BU Soundcheck story? Email Eden Mor at edmor@bu.edu.