Fresh Acts: Swärdh<br>STALKERs Fresh Act September 2011 - STALKER MAGAZINE inside out of rock´n´roll

Swärdh
STALKERs Fresh Act September 2011

In another world far away called Riverland you can still find mighty warriors wielding swords of steel, it´s a realm governed by King Gloryman. When glimpsing onto earth he beholds, much to his displeasure and distress, that evil forces have conspired against the True Metal warriors, in Riverland as well as on earth, and earthlings nowadays worship false Metal. Therefore to the rescue he sends to earth his bravest warriors, Sir Longsword and Sir Battlefield – who are telling STALKER a bit more about their True Metal Mission.

Hey knights, how are you doing? How are you spending summer?
Behold, we are all feeling really true this summer. There has been a lot of things going on this summer, both in Riverland and on earth. We had a huge invasion of trolls and thunder dwarfs ganging up on the true metal warriors in Riverland, so we had to go back to Riverland for a while to fight them off. But also here on earth there was a lot to do. We have been writing a lot of songs this summer. We have also recently selected the songs for our debut album which we will begin recording in September. And we recently played our first show ever.

Could you please introduce the Band! Who are you? Where are you from and what kind of music do you play?
We are a couple of true power metal warriors who were sent from the glorious and epic land called Riverland. We prefer calling our music “folk-music” (that is the correct term for this type of music in Riverland), while you earthlings better recognize it as Heavy/power metal. Our music is everything from epic to hard, from glorious to true.

Can you tell us about the foundation of Swärdh, where did you met each other and how did it all begin?
Well, it all started back in Riverland when King Gloryman realized that the earth was ruined by the false and untrue metal. So he called the bravest warriors in Riverland to go through the portal that leads to earth. Where we would write the most true metal that your world has ever heard of and convert the plague of posers into true metal warriors

Why did you choose the Bandname Swärdh?
Our bandname is Swärdh (with an ä) and we didn't really choose the bandname ourselfs, it was given to us by King Gloryman right before we left Riverland. The name Swärdh stands for everything we do and because King Gloryman gave us that name, it´s the right name for the truest group of the defenders of true.

Who is responsible for the music and Lyrics in the band? Is it all teamwork?
It is a tight and deep teamwork between Sir Longsword and Tron Battlefield that has been developed for a long period of time, to find the perfect way to write the truest metal of all time. To be more precise, it's what you call “years” here on earth, about 10 years we have been working to develop our song writing to Swärdh.

You have made a Video for your Song “Beardbattalion” (Link: http://youtu.be/nF0wSFNFTv4) Where did you shoot it and why did you choose this song?
We shot it at this epic place in southern Sweden called “Färskesjön” right outside a village called “Jämjö”. We picked that place because it was the perfect environment for this song. It had this “Riverland Viking” touch to it. We had 4 song to choose from when we started to write the script. The other 3 songs where “Moonforest”, “Hemanowarrior” and the epic tale of “Dolph Lundgren” (and we will soon shoot videos for these songs, too). But the song Beardbattalion was picked first, because it shows a lot of what we Swärdh stands for. It has a clear message that we are pure and true to our Metal Music and you can clearly see that this is for real, we are here to stay.

You guys have artist names, and a tale behind your band that you were sent by King Gloryman to defend the world against false metal. Do you think an interesting story is important for a band to be successful?
It´s very important to us. Our origin makes us believe in ourselves and makes us fully understand the mission we have been given. I guess you can become a successful band without a concept story, but a story makes the music more interesting. Rhapsody of Fire for example get their inspiration from the enchanted lands. It´s a place they have made up. But Riverland truly exists. We want to give the listeners more than just music, we want to entertain and educate the people on earth in the same time. If you close your eyes while listening on our music, you should be able to see unicorns, dragons and epic fights between true and false. Music should be a journey of the imagination, if this doesn´t happen, then it is not music.

Where do you get the inspiration from?
Sometimes you just get a riff or melody in your head while you strolling a valley or running in the wilderness. The singer Pierre Longssword writes a lot in the forest, standing amongst the trees and let the fantastic creatures and mushrooms inspire to write some good vocal melodies. Some songs are written thanx to King Gloryman´s telepathic abilities. When you least expect it you can fall in a trance and King Gloryman will plant it he seeds to new songs and song titles in our minds. We also watch a lot of documentaries for inspiration, such as He-Man master of the universe(with Dolph Lundgren as He-Man) Conan the Barbarian and of course Thor. We have these documentaries to thank for many of the songs we have written so far and, it’s a good method writing music like that.

Who do you want to reach, or what do you want to achieve with your music?
We want to reach everybody that loves heavy epic music. People that love to headbang and sing a long to our hymns of glory when we are playing live.

How are your live shows like? What´s for you the perfect gig?
On our latest gig we had a little bit of a struggle during the second song, Skeletor managed to get up on the stage and tried to ruin a riff for our guitar player. Luckily He-Man was there and laid him down with ease. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efilMEcGxr4 We want to empower the lyrics by having guest appearances by the persons we are telling stories about, its like a music theater. Our perfect gig will be on a big open air festival with a massive audience as the greatest choir of all time. Maybe the stage will be a Viking boat or maybe a castle, on the perfect gig King Gloryman will do a speech or singing a tune (he is a good bariton-voiced singer), that would be awesome. One of our biggest dreams.

You´re looking for a label, how would you promote yourselves to appear more interesting? What do you guys have what other Bands can’t offer?
We have a hunger and the urge to tell a story, we think that is what many of today´s power metal bands don’t have. Many of the bands in the genre doesn't sound interested anymore, just a day on work and the records are just echoes of earlier better records. We are a very creative band, we write songs and work with other metal related ideas ALL THE TIME. We make hard, catchy and epic tunes and having a blast doing it.

Which band would you enjoy touring with?
Rush (with Geddy Lee). Probably Manowar, their fans would embrace us and the crowning of the true metal kings could take place. Other bands we like to tour with is: Anvil, Maiden, Blind Guardian, Lost horizon and Rhapsody of fire because they all are devoted and makes good metal.

What do you plan in the near future?
We are currently working harder than before to promote the band and hopefully we reach our first goal which is to record a debut album. It will be a very good album where you don’t want to skip a single track. We also have plans to shoot another video, we have some songs with stories that could work awesome as videos. We are also putting the finishing touches on a very loooong song about the adventures of Dolph Lundgren. Stay tuned on that one, it will be a 125 minute epic that contains everything our band is about. But our primary goal right now is to get the record out and take as many gigs as possible.

What would you like to be asked in an interview you´ve never been asked before?
Is the Norse god Balder named Balder cause is more bald than the other gods in Asgard? We don’t have an answer for that one right know, but it’s a hell of a good question.

If our readers wanna check out Swärdh, where can they do that?
www.myspace.com/swardhofsteel
www.facebook.com/swardhofficial

Thank you very much for the interview all the best for the Band and fight till the endAnd thank you for being True to Metal.

Author: Sandy Mahrer, photos: Band
Date: 2011-09-01

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