THE SWORD's J.D. CRONISE Talks New Album

Matt Staggs of Suvudu recently conducted an interview with guitarist/singer J.D. Cronise of Austin, Texas' THE SWORD. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Suvudu: Do you like other kinds of fantastic media? Do any of you — or did any of you — play Dungeons & Dragons or games like that? Do you like video games? What are you playing right now? Like any particular movies? What are some favorites?

J.D. Cronise: I used to play Dungeons & Dragons in middle and high school, and I've always played video games and read comics. Being a longtime H.P. Lovecraft fan, I also played Call of Cthulhu. Kyle [Shutt, guitar] and Bryan [Richie] were more video game and comic book oriented nerds, but not so much with the role-playing games. Kyle has been known to spend almost entire days with his PS3 when we have off-time. He was all about Demon's Souls, but now he's into Just Cause 2. Since we finished recording, I've been playing Dragon Age: Origins. I just saw "Repo Men", which I thought was pretty good. I'm a fan of dystopian, not-too-distant-future sci-fi, and that movie is a good example with a classic 'cyberpunk' feel. I have too many favorite movies to name, though, I don't seem to find much time to watch them these days. My last real job before THE SWORD was working at the biggest independent video store in Austin.

Suvudu: Can you tell us anything about the next album?

J.D. Cronise: It's going to be titled "Warp Riders". All the songs concern various aspects of a single science fiction story about a primitive hunter on a strange tidally locked planet, who discovers an ancient scrying device once owned by a great scientist/sorcerer of a bygone age from when the planet still rotated normally. This person uses the object to communicate with the hunter through time, in a complex attempt to escape the cataclysm by fleeing into the future. This involves witches, androids, space pirates, hallucinogenic plants, and intergalactic armadas among other things. There are also some semi-conscious comparisons to life in a touring band with life on the crew of a spaceship, because I've often felt the two had certain similarities. Time doesn't seem to pass at the same rate. You crawl into your sleep chamber in one place and wake up somewhere else very far away. Themes of light and darkness also run throughout the songs. Both musically and lyrically this record shows some different sides of us as a band, but it all still very much sounds like THE SWORD. Personally, I've always been just as into THIN LIZZY and "Star Wars" as BLACK SABBATH and "Lord of the Rings". That may just not have been as apparent in the past as it is on the new record. Luckily, I don't believe I'm alone in my appreciation of all those things.

Read the entire interview from Suvudu.