Capitalizing on the immense popularity of their 2006 debut album, Age of Winters, Austin's The Sword recently released album number two, entitled Gods of the Earth. They are currently wrapping up a tour with Torche in support of that album, and are gearing up for a big summer, a very big summer. As if it weren't enough to land spots on this year's redesigned, one-day Ozzfest and the sprawling music festival, Bonnaroo, they were hand-picked by Metallica for the opening slot on their upcoming European tour. Metal Review spoke with candid drummer Trivett Wingo about rip-off artists, tours that sucked balls and the pressure to perform after a larger-than-life debut album.Metal Review: Where are you right now?
Trivett Wingo: We are en route to St. Petersburg, Florida.
MR: Cool. How is the tour going thus far?
TW: The tour's been going really well! It's been really fun every night and we're out with some really awesome bands, which makes it extra rad, so very good all-around.
MR: I saw the concert a couple weeks ago in DC. It was a pretty small, which I think is good. How do the other venues on the tour rank in terms of size?
TW: In places like DC or Philly or New York or Boston, they're usually about 500 or 600 people. Something like that. So that's somewhere in the middle.
MR: I was impressed by the drum solo you played at the show-
TW: Oh, thank you.
MR: I kept thinking you were done, but you would start it up again. Was that a deliberate thing to mess with the audience?
TW: No, it's just kind of a jazz-type format. It's a little bit looser, but we play in rounds, so I just do a few rounds.
MR: Do you take a lot of cues from jazz drummers in general?
TW: Not for my playing, song-related. But as far as soloing is concerned, I pretty much just go off of jazz for those because rock solos are typically really dry, uninspired and generally shitty-sounding.
MR: Does that mean that you have a more broad-reaching taste in music than just rock or metal?
TW: Yeah, I think it's pretty true for everyone in the band that we're into rad shit of all types. We don't just listen to metal or even rock. Everyone has kind of their own thing. Shane is more dependent on quality. We all enjoy really kick-ass rap jams or slammin' pop hits or whatever it is that is the crème de la crème for whatever that particular genre is. No one is really tied to a genre of music.
MR: Do you see yourself ever incorporating that into The Sword's music, or not?
TW: I don't think The Sword is that open-ended. We all take our inspiration from some not-so-obvious sources and some very obvious sources, but The Sword has a point. It has a sharp point, and it goes into a very particular direction. It's not like it could just turn into anything.
MR: Regarding the more obvious influences, I noticed during "Freya" at the DC show that you incorporated a little bit of "Bring it on Home" by Led Zeppelin, is that right?
TW: Totally, yeah.
MR: Whose idea was that? Was that a collective decision?
TW: I guess that was J.D. [Cronise, vocalist/guitarist]'s idea.
MR: Do you guys play any other covers, whether it be the whole thing or a version integrated into one of your own songs?
TW: "Bring it on Home" is the only thing we've ever done like that, where we throw a little bit of something into a jam. But we've done a bunch of covers over the years. We did ZZ Top's "Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings" for a while. We used to do a Pentagram song, "Forever My Queen" and we used to cover the "Immigrant Song," too.
MR: How about that band you have opening for you on this tour, Stinking Lizaveta? I was taken aback at their woop-ing into the guitar pickups. I had never seen that before.
TW: Yeah, apparently the guy from Modest Mouse has started ripping that off. Someone from Stinking Lizaveta told me - and it's kind of a convoluted story - but apparently a guy Stinking Lizaveta knows that used to play shows with them, but in another band, is now in Modest Mouse. He now plays the same electric upright bass that the guy in Stinking Lizaveta plays, and apparently the main guy started howling into his guitar now. They just think that's kind of funny.
MR: You're the headliner on the current tour. I was wondering if that is something you're used to, or if you're sort of growing into the headliner role?
TW: We primarily do our own headliners. I'd say that most of our touring, they are our own shows, in the states. We have done opening stuff in the states, but I'd say two-thirds of the tours we've done in the states were headliners. That's because we bring it. We can bring it, so we don't want anybody else to bring us along.
MR: [laughs]
TW: The opening tours we've done have really sucked major balls. We opened for Trivium, which was a regrettable embarrassment because they're so awful. And then we opened for In Flames and Lacuna Coil, which I guess they were better bands, but it was sort of weird. You go out and open for certain types of bands where someone gets this crazy idea that you're going to get new and different fans by playing for a group of people that like a different style of music. But people are actually predictable about what they will like. People that are into Lacuna Coil are not going to be Sword fans because they like crappy Italian electronic shit and Depeche Mode covers. So why would they want to listen to The Sword?
MR: One pairing that I saw that did seem to make sense was Clutch. Would you agree?
TW: Yeah! That was one where we were totally psyched because they're a source of inspiration for The Sword, so their fans categorically love us. Any time we've opened for them, it's been a total bloodbath. They're an amazing band.
MR: How are sales going for Gods of the Earth?
TW: Great! It charted - the week it came out we hit the Billboard charts at number 102 and it's held on really strong. Apparently people are really into the new album, so it's doing really well.
MR: I know that J.D. did most of the songwriting for Age of Winters. Did that change this time around?
TW: It was a bit more collaborative. Kyle wrote a substantially larger percentage of music on this record than on the previous record. The songs took form in the practice space more than they had before.
MR: In my opinion, Age of Winters was more slow and doomy, while Gods of the Earth is faster, more balls-to-the-wall type music. Did the change in songwriting approach have anything to do with that?
TW: I don't know if there was anything too conscious involved with it. That was just the prescription for the musical ills of society at the time. That was what the doctor ordered, I guess.
MR: Since Age of Winters was such a success, did you feel a "sophomore pressure" to match that on Gods of the Earth?
TW: Yeah, for sure. And I don't know if that's healthy, either. Probably not, really. If you think about how many records people make kind of in a hurry or under some kind of pressure - for us there were time constraints and certain expectations people had and various pressures weighing on us in making that record. We just proceeded in the usual manner, though, just under a little bit of pressure.
MR: I heard that you recently agreed to play the single-show Ozzfest this year in Texas. Congratulations. Was deciding whether to play Ozzfest difficult?
TW: No, not at all, actually. We're headlining the Texas stage, and the concert is like three hours from our house. So they asked us if we wanted to make a sack of money playing a show three hours from our house. That was a pretty simple decision.
MR: Witchcraft will also be playing, and I know you released a split album with them. Are you friends with them, or was releasing a split with them just an idea that sounded too good to pass up?
TW: We didn't know them before that, but we admired their music. Later, we actually met and we're kind of buddies now. We're not like tight bros, but we know them and they know us and we have an amicable relationship with them. We assume they like our music as well, but I don't know.
MR: You are scheduled to support Metallica in Europe this summer. How did that come about?
TW: Lars is an obsessed Sword fan. He's like a Sword nerd, and we're apparently his favorite band at present. That's what he told us. He's come to hang out with us a couple times. We played in San Francisco and then this last time we ended up going over to his house and he said "Hey, you guys are my favorite band," and he asked us to come on tour. So I think we're primarily on the tour to entertain Lars so he can see something cool every night.
MR: Which are you most excited about, playing with Metallica, playing Bonnaroo or playing Ozzfest?
TW: I would say Metallica. All three of those shows are with Metallica, but I think the European thing will be more exciting because we'll get to go to some more exotic places and I think they will be the biggest shows.
MR: What music have you really been digging lately?
TW: What have I been digging on lately? Man, I don't even know what I listen to. This tour I've been listening to a lot of Man Is The Bastard. It's one of my favorite bands. And then Torche. I've been listening to Torche every day because they play the shows and they're super loud and you can't not listen to them. Just kidding. I like this John Coltrane record called A Love Supreme. It's really good. The first Cheap Trick album - I've been digging on that pretty hard. But next week it will be totally different. I'm always listening to the Melvins and Led Zeppelin in alternating rotation.
MR: Thanks a lot, man, and good luck on the rest of the tour.
TW: Cool, alright. Take care of yourself.