The Sword are a heavy metal act from
the USA and here’s the legend of how they came about….
Before forging the blade, the swordsmiths underwent fasting
and ritual purification. They then worked at their anvils in
white clothes, like the robes of the priests. Their efforts were
well rewarded. The final result was a blade of unparalleled
craftsmanship. Its edge is made of metal so hard that it holds a
razor sharpness even after repeated use in battle.
We sent Mark Munn along to their Scottish show investigate
the legendary band…
You can take a listen to 'Freya' via the band's Myspace
account
How has the reaction been from the UK crowds so far?
Are you enjoying touring with Clutch?
The crowds have been great so far, especially when we played
Stoke and Manchester. This is the second time that we’ve
played Scotland, last time was with a band called Nebula -
good times.
It’s really cool touring with Clutch. They’re a great
band, really polite, class act guys, everything is
great….Totally stress free. It’s a whole different ball
game from other tour managers we’ve been involved with in
the past.
What would your ideal tour line up be?
We like to headline our own tours from time to time with bands
we know back in the States. Some we really like, Priestbird
for example who are about to come over here to the UK, also
Saviours & Year Long Disaster would be cool to tour with.
They’re both on our Myspace site. Maybe add Witchcraft to
the line up too…They’re pretty good…Actually they’re
awesome!
Witchcraft are amazing - speaking of heroes, what
one super power would you like?
To have super strength would be pretty cool or to be able to
fly at the speed of light, or the power to shapeshift. You
could turn into Pamela Anderson and stare at yourself in the
mirror.
It’d be cool to have a monkey with a human brain
too….Imagine it trying to score a bit of hash? Or the look
on the dealer’s face when he’s trying to sell gear to a
monkey. Trivett would be a human with a monkey brain so he can
still look like a drummer…but can you train a monkey to play
the drums? We’re not sure..
So aside from monkeys…What are your main
influences when it comes to your music?
Playing with Clutch every night is obviously a big influence
but we’re influenced by all kinds of music. We just try and
write decent songs. It’s not all metal… I mean, we did a
cover of the ZZ Top song, ‘Nasty Dogs & Funky Kings’
we love ZZ Top.
But it’s amazing how many people think that’s a Sword
song…JD is also into reading and it influences him a lot.
The work of HP Lovecraft, Robert E Howard and George RR Martin
as well as stories and legends from Norse mythology and
fantasy stories all influence our lyrics.
Growing up it was bands like Queen, Led Zeppelin and Black
Sabbath that encouraged us to pick up instruments and start
writing songs.
What bands are you into at the moment?
We’re into some really mixed stuff, Clutch, Bad Wizard,
Wolfmother….The Melvins! There’s definitely a lot of good
unsigned bands on the tour circuits right now but too many
greedy record companies want to make a fast buck from them. We
don’t think metal ever died but it has moved on in stages.
There’s definitely a lack of strong metal bands breaking
through right now.
How and when did you guys get signed to a label?
We were signed around October 2005, initially by Kemado
Records, who were really the first to offer us a
serious deal. We were on top of the world when we knew we
could get our music out there. For any bands looking to get
signed, here’s a few tips…
Firstly don’t get a manager unless you totally trust
them, and don’t blindly follow everything they tell you to
do - only do things that you’re comfortable with. Most
importantly spend the time to write good songs. We tried
looking for managers and labels before but never really found
one that was right for us, the label found us eventually once
we had great music - the manager? Nah we manage ourselves.
You do it yourselves? Wow…
Yeah, we don’t have management, we don’t do much promotion
nor have a PR guy as such. Our publisher helps us along with a
lot of things. We just stick to making the sounds.
As for the download scene, we use Myspace to help promote
our tunes but we’d prefer fans to buy our tracks. Here’s
three reasons to buy our album…. Track one, track two and
track three…We put a lot of work and time into everything we
produce. Fans should buy it instead of downloading it for
free. We get asked for lyrics sometimes and we’re like,
yeah…He’s downloaded it…
We’re good to our fans, what we release is worth the
money. Every release features great art, heavy music, and fun
extras like lyrics.. When tours are over, we spend our time
writing and recording new songs, our hearts are in what we do
and we love creating music.
Yeah you’ve got some amazing sounds - what kind
of equipment are you using?
We use Orange and Laney amps, BC Rich and Gibson guitars and
various pedals.
How do you go about writing those heavy tracks? Is
there one main riffmaster?
Usually one of us will write a song then put it forward to the
rest of the band to add to. JD has written most of our songs
so far but we’re becoming much more collaborative for the
new album. JD writes what he feels comfortable with, his big
interest is myth and folklore - you can see that in our tunes.
We couldn’t really see ourselves writing sexy songs right
now…Heavy, powerful tracks do it for us.
Any particular songs from the ‘Age of Winters’
album that you were particularly proud of?
We don’t have any real favourites off the first album. We
mixed if for about two and a half months, it was like spit
n’ shine. It’s not perfect by any means but it’s the
record we wanted to make at the time. We’re always improving
but we’re proud of what we have achieved so far.
Here’s a track called Winter’s Wolves from off the
album…
