{"id":27448,"date":"2015-08-17T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2015-08-16T22:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=27448"},"modified":"2015-09-08T21:36:34","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T11:36:34","slug":"john-%e2%80%98jd%e2%80%99-cronise-of-the-sword","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2015\/08\/john-%e2%80%98jd%e2%80%99-cronise-of-the-sword\/","title":{"rendered":"John \u2018JD\u2019 Cronise of The Sword"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>\u201c\u2026we remember that we\u2019re doing it for ourselves and not to put money in other people\u2019s pockets or to please other people. If they were paying us a lot better we might do it for the machine, but at our level it\u2019s strictly for the love of music.\u201d<\/p>\n

From release: The Sword\u2019s impact continues to expand. 2012\u2019s Apocryphon<\/em> debuted at #17 on the Billboard<\/em> Top 200, marking their highest entry on the chart. Since first emerging with 2006\u2019s Age of Winters<\/em>, the group has been extolled by everyone from Rolling Stone<\/em> and The Washington Post<\/em> to Revolver<\/em> and Decibel<\/em>. Metallica personally chose them as support for a global tour, and they\u2019ve earned high-profile syncs in movies including Jennifer’s Body<\/em>\u00a0and Jonas \u00c5kerlund\u2019s\u00a0Horsemen<\/em>.\u00a0However, High Country<\/em> is the band\u2019s biggest, boldest, and brightest frontier.<\/p>\n

While at home, we spoke to JD of The Sword about the band\u2019s new album \u2018High Country<\/a>\u2019, its concept, the vinyl resurgence, touring Australia, career highlights, and much more\u2026<\/p>\n

This will be your fifth album, with each release do go in with an idea of what you want to create or does it all come together in the studio?<\/strong>
\nWe go in with a vague idea but it always ends up a little different than you planned, so it helps not to try to over plan because it\u2019s not gonna ever go exactly according to that. So it always just ends up being its own thing. We definitely had ideas about stuff before we went in, but this one we kind of improvised and played with stuff and experimented a little bit more in the studio with this one than we have with others, so maybe it turned out even a little more differently than we had originally thought.<\/p>\n

I love the vibe of the title but what does High Country represent to you personally?<\/strong>
\nWell it\u2019s kind of a dualistic meaning of the literal meaning of mountains, high places, there\u2019s various references to mountains and things in the lyrics, then the symbolism between high country and mountains in general being places to go to seek wisdom, seek enlightenment, to be one with nature and sort of commune with the gods or whatever.<\/p>\n

In terms of the songs, was there an inspiration or concept you were aiming for?<\/strong>
\nNot really, I think they all kind of complement each other in a\u00a0 way or definitely have some themes that are present in more than one song, I think that was just cause they were all written around the same time, but there was no conscious thought in trying to make any sort of certain statement like that.<\/p>\n

Five albums in now, do you find it gets easier creating new music each time as your experience grows when making each record?<\/strong>
\nNo it definitely doesn\u2019t get any easier *laughs* if anything it gets a little more difficult because there\u2019s a lot of other external things that you have to ignore, the further along in a career that you get there\u2019s fans and people you work with and things like that, and record companies and that sort of thing. When you\u2019re starting out there\u2019s no one expecting you to make any music, no one cares if you do or not, it\u2019s up to you, you make the music because you want to make a statement or you want to express yourself in that way, so it becomes a little different when all of a sudden people are expecting you to do it. So for us it\u2019s always the challenge of that doesn\u2019t exist *laughs* and we remember that we\u2019re doing it for ourselves and not to put money in other people\u2019s pockets or to please other people. If they were paying us a lot better we might do it for the machine, but at our level it\u2019s strictly for the love of music.<\/p>\n

You’re also releasing it as a special two LP vinyl for us down here, and vinyl has had a real resurgence, and this feels like an album that should be played on vinyl, what are your thoughts on the current vinyl revolution?<\/strong>
\nI think it\u2019s pretty cool, it\u2019s something I never really expected. I thought when vinyl started to kind of decline in the late 90\u2019s that was going to be it, but it\u2019s interesting to me that it\u2019s come back, I think it speaks to some peoples need to still have a physical object in their hands rather than just having it online, on their phone or on their computer or whatever. To me it\u2019s interesting, I\u2019ve heard different things, I wonder if it\u2019s more people of my generation and older people that are kind of missing going to stores and buying records if they\u2019re the ones doing it or if there\u2019s any young people getting into records hopefully there are\u2026 but it\u2019s definitely cool because I like records. The artwork is a big thing for me, it\u2019s big, it\u2019s right in front of you, you can hold it in your hands and stare at it while you\u2019re listening to the record.<\/p>\n

I saw you quoted saying you just want to put smiles on people’s faces… My theory is for people to enjoy music the artist needs to also, so what do you enjoy the most about being in The Sword?<\/strong>
\nI just enjoy playing rock music, really when it comes down to it, it\u2019s that hour and a half on stage is what makes it worth it or at least hopefully\u2026 that\u2019s what it comes down to.<\/p>\n

You’ve been a part of The Sword since 2003, in the twelve years since beginning what for you has been the biggest realization about making music and being in a band that you didn’t think would be a part of it all when you began?<\/strong>
\nHmm that\u2019s a good question\u2026 Hmm\u2026 kind of like I was saying before just when it goes from your hobby to your career to your job, it would be easy to fall prey to those outside pressures I was talking about and especially in this day and age when it\u2019s rough out there in the music biz *laughs* and when people attract some fans and get a little bit of a buzz going they don\u2019t want to ruin that, they don\u2019t like to rock the boat a couple of times and people can be almost maybe a little more conservative these days musically with not really wanting to alienate fans, and you don\u2019t even think about that sort of thing when you\u2019re starting out that you could get to the point where you\u2019re gonna have to decide whether or not you need to make an artistic decision that might piss off these people that liked you. Just things like that and like I said, when it becomes your job and in order to make it good and make it pure you have to find a way to really dig down to that core of why you started doing it in the first place and try to push out all the other BS.<\/p>\n

You’ve been to Australia before, when do you think we can expect to see you back?<\/strong>
\nHopefully early next year sometime, we\u2019re working on putting together a tour for maybe February or March, sometime in there, don\u2019t quote me on that but sometime in early 2016 we\u2019re hoping to get down.<\/p>\n

In terms of career highlights thus far, is there one that stands out for you as your can’t be beaten moment?<\/strong>
\nHmm\u2026 can\u2019t be beaten\u2026 *laughs* that is a good question, you know there\u2019s lots of them\u2026 for me one of the coolest things is we played a festival in Spain a couple of years ago and it was this really cool festival called Azkena and The Black Crowes played and it turned it was going to be one of the last shows they played as they broke up a few months later, and they\u2019re one of my favourite bands of all time and it turns out that they had heard of us and were into The Sword and I got to meet Chris Robinson and talk to him for a little bit, I was walking by and he actually said \u201cHey man, are you the guy from The Sword, come here I want to talk to you\u2026\u201d and that\u2026 I\u2019ve met some pretty famous dudes here and there *laughs* but for me personally that was a moment that I will not soon forget, like \u2018whoa, Chris Robinson wants to talk to me\u2019 so that was pretty insane.<\/p>\n

I wanted to ask about playing with Metallica, what was that experience like?<\/strong>
\nOh it was amazing *laughs* not to slight any of those dudes, that was almost more surreal in a way, like The Black Crowes is one thing like when I was growing up I was the only one of my friends that liked The Black Crowes, no one else was into that, it was like my special thing. Metallica they\u2019re not just mine, everybody likes Metallica, not that I\u2019m the only Black Crowes fan but when I was growing up there were tonnes of kids around wearing Metallica shirts even though I dug them too, they weren\u2019t my special band. Still, meeting those dudes is surreal, even now when I see them or see pictures of them on the internet it\u2019s like yeah, I kinda know those guys, it\u2019s weird *laughs*.<\/p>\n

Lastly with the year on the downward slope, let’s get you to predict the remainder of it, so finish this sentence for me, by the end of 2015 The Sword will…<\/strong>
\nHave been on tour since our album came out pretty much, that\u2019s our plans for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> USA<\/p>\n

Band members: <\/strong>John D Cronise [vocals, guitar], Kyle Shutt [guitar], Bryan Richie [bass], and Santiago Vela III [drums]<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> \u00a0http:\/\/www.theswordofficial.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Forthcoming release: <\/strong>High Country \u2013 (August 21 \u2013 Razor & Tie \/ Cooking Vinyl Australia) – Get it HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n