It wasn’t tough for guitarist/songwriter Teddy Kim of the Minneapolis group Sliver to figure out what he wanted to do with his life.

“This band is my career in the sense that it’s the only thing I really care about,” Kim said.

Kim wants nothing more from life than to simply play music. After his last group broke up, he was fed up with trying to make music and decided to try law school at the University of Minnesota.

His time at the university was short-lived after he realized, “Music was more important to me than I had supposed, and that I couldn’t be happy without it.”

Not long after moving from Minnesota to Chicago, he found his perfect bandmate. While attending a local high school’s “Battle of the Bands” contest, he saw before him on stage a beautiful girl named Laura Harley.

He quickly fell in love with the way she played and eventually fell in love with her. Not long after Harley and Kim met, they started playing and writing songs together, and Sliver, not Silver as they are often called, was born.

“We argue a lot, but only about music,” Kim said. “Once Laura was so mad at me she punched me in the face and broke my nose.”

The band may have its fights, but the chemistry between Kim and Harley seems to be working, despite the fact that the group has spent the last few years switching bassists and drummers like musical chairs.

“All of our bassists and drummers weren’t very good,” Kim said. “Beyond that, it’s extremely difficult to find musicians who are willing to quit their jobs, go on tour and put it all on the line.”

It seems as if bassist Kirk Nelson and drummer Matt Leitl may be the final pieces to the Sliver puzzle.

After being picked up from indie label Guilt Ridden Pop by a friend who slipped a demo to the company’s head honcho, the band released Sliver’s first full-length album titled “Beneath the Waves.” Kim said the album took almost two years to complete.

“We weren’t very happy with the initial recording, and we realized that we hadn’t been critical enough of our songs,” Kim said. “It’s really hard to be objective about our stuff because are songs are so introspective.”

However, the band has already shared the stage with such artists as Beck, and toured virtually the whole nation. The group also has a new EP in the works and have been deemed one of the freshest and most intriguing bands in the Minnesota scene.

Sliver plays a brand of music normally tagged as “emo,” which is basically just another way to say “emotional rock.” The band plays down-tempo emotionally-driven sing-alongs that are sure to get into the listener’s head.

“Beneath the Waves” documents hard times in the lives of Kim and Harley and raises some serious topics, both spiritual and romantic.

“I’ve always been a little uncomfortable with spiritual topics, but more bands are able to do spiritual music well nowadays,” Kim said.

However, judging by the artistry on “Beneath the Waves,” Kim and Harley have no trouble collaborating great spiritual songs. Kim wants to see the band stay together and not let the “crappy” side of the music business get to them.

“Right now indie is right for us because we’re a young band with a relatively small audience,” Kim said. “I guess I don’t see any point in going to a major label and getting dropped within a year. We have a lot of friends on major labels, and it’s pretty scary seeing what they go through.”

Sliver plays at the Maintenance Shop Friday night at 9 with The Follow. Tickets are $3 for students and $4 general admission.