JD Cronise – The Sword

The moment I listened to the trippy melodies on ‘Iron Swan’, I knew Texan metallers ‘The Sword’ had a defining originality about their music. I had a fun time catching up with frontman and guitarist of the band JD as we discussed all things ‘High Country’, the musical direction of the band, inspirations behind the new album, writing process, Led Zeppelin and more. 

JD is stoked about the new release from his band and the response it’s been getting.“Everything we’ve heard has been really positive so far and most critics have liked it.” He continued, “I like that because with ‘High Country’, I can see that there are certain fans of ours not quite getting the sound of it but objectively I think it’s a good album regardless of what it may or may not sound like or have on it. My goal was to make a good album and I think we managed that well enough.” Really liking the sound on their new album, I asked JD why he thought it might take  a little getting used to, to which he replied, ” It is a rock and roll record to be honest, which is certainly a step in a different direction for The Sword. But that’s the thing, it’s still us and we’re hoping that people see that as well.  It has guitar riffs, vocal hooks, those dynamic elements you find in any good rock album, so I would say that our sound on this one is more classic  rock.” JD is quite a huge classic rock fan, one of his biggest influences being the legendary Jimmy Page, ” Led Zeppelin, I knew playing guitar was something I just had to do. In a way  I guess it just reflects what we’ve listened during the writing process of each album. When we wrote the first record, I was listening to a lot of Sepultura, Slayer, Sabbath etc. I don’t listen to super heavy metal anymore, in fact, none of us do. We still appreciate metal, it’ll always be part of our DNA but we just like tons of different stuff and we want to be a little diverse when it comes to our music”

The first thing that appealed to me about the album was the title, given the names of their previous albums, and JD being a mountain inhabitant loving the high country life confessed,“Yes, that’s kind of where a lot of the lyrical inspiration came from, literally. Metaphorically the high country is a place where one seeks enlightenment or wisdom and that’s basically the meaning behind the album title. There was no conscious effort to make any sort of statement or concept with this record but of course there’s always going to be some commonalities between different songs.”

The writing and recording process this time around differed slightly, as the band’s bassist Brian also did some of the composing. “On the surface, that really is the main difference I would say. He hasn’t really worked on composing songs before this album but on the new material, there’s a couple of songs written by him as well as one that was co-written.” That being said, this also is quite a step in a new direction as members of the band work quite independently when it comes to writing music. “Absolutely” he agreed, “We don’t really write collaboratively besides working on each others ideas or songs once they’re done. But most of the time, we just work individually, see what we come up with and then arrange everything the way we think is best.” I was curious and prodded further to find out if this helped with the direction in which the new album went. “Yes actually! It just provided the different textures and elements, gave it a little bit of an added dimension. Some of the stuff Brian wrote are more the atmospheric, instrumental parts which we don’t really play live because we’re just a guitar, drum and bassist but we thought it would be cool to have those as well to bridge songs in between and it seems to work, and maintains a good kind of flow on the album.”

‘High Country’ boasts a solid number of 15 tracks in total, being a double album on vinyl which is pretty insane, but when listening to it, no track seems unnecessary or out of place. ” Why thank you! I actually envisioned it to be a much shorter record but once we kind of had it all recorded, everyone thought it sounded good and fits really well together.” Another interesting fact is that JD is quite an avid readers, having based a lot of their music on the fictional works of legendary authors such as H.P.Loveraft, George RR Martin etc. “I do love reading and a lot of ‘The Sword’s’ music centres around some of the books I’ve read but ‘High Country’ doesn’t reflect too much of this. It’s based more on personal experiences. We didn’t take that approach this time, because I guess I am more comfortable now than I was before, being self-expressive,’ he explains, ” I didn’t want to repeat myself with an 8 epic saga of some fantastical, mythical thing. This record is more personal, however there are some song titles that have been inspired by reading but the songs don’t really relate to them.”

Touring plans came up and Australia is on the cards. “Once we’re done with the shows in Europe, we’ll b doing a few in the States and hopefully early next year we’ll make it  to Australia. We’re really looking forward to all of them and playing the new songs live.” Dream line up for JD? ” Man, that’s a tough one! But I think mine would be playing alongside ZZ top, that would be the ultimate dream for me.” Hear that Australia? Maybe a ZZ Top and The Sword tour is in order. 

JD had one last thing to say to fans and music lovers alike about the new record, ” I think the main thing is to keep an open mind when listening to it, because it is quite different from anything we’ve done before.

Grab a copy of the new album “High Country” from the band’s official webstore.

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