Texas quartet The Sword rocked the Soundwave Festival in 2010. Now they’re back for the 2013 line-up, and hoping for some down time in Oz.
While currently touring the US to promote their most recent album release, Apocryphon, vocalist and lead guitarist John D. Cronise — aka J.D. — takes a minute to explain the cryptic title that translates literally to ‘secret writing’.
"I've always been very intrigued by the idea of secret teachings, you know, things that aren't obvious, things that aren't spoon fed and you need to dig a little deeper. This album is also a bit more personal lyrically, drawing from personal experience and my own views and opinions more so than before. I feel like in a way it's revealing or at least hinting at secrets that were laid out in pervious albums."
The group have created a solid sound for themselves, however J.D. admits that being a rock band in 2012 doesn’t always come easy when exploring new material. "Being a few decades into rock music, a lot of riffs have been taken. You really have to be kind of zen about it otherwise you're just going to be constantly second guessing yourself, wondering if your music sounds too much like someone else. You've just got to put your stamp on it and your personality into the music to make it your own."
The Austin rockers made a splash throughout Australia during 2010, where they were blown away by their down under audience. "Australians seem to have a much longer memory span for music and just pop culture in general than America does. There's still a lot of appreciation for the past few decades of music, television, films. Here [U.S.] I feel like teens and early 20 year olds don't know about anything that happened before they were born because that's just gone from our media. We have forgotten our own culture in a way, and it's kind of disappointing.”
The Sword play the following dates on the Soundwave Festival:
Sat Feb 23 - RNA Showgrounds (Brisbane)
Sun Feb 24 - Olympic Park (Sydney)
Fri Mar 01 - Flemington Racecourse (Melbourne)
Sat Mar 02 - Bonython Park (Adelaide)
Mon Mar 04 - Claremont Showgrounds (Perth)
