There's something unsettling about Swords. Perhaps it's the thoughtful ambience in the music, or maybe it's that they ride nonchalantly just under the radar of mainstream music with no desire to cross over. But whatever it is, the fact remains that this Portland-based sextet is talented. And they're not ready to give that talent up to whoever wants it. After a highly successful tour supporting their newest album Metropolis (released September 20), Frontman Corey Ficken sat down with recess to talk about musical evolution, the mainstream and coffee from exotic lands.
recess: The name of your band used to be "The Swords Project." Why and when did you cease being a project and start just being Swords?
Corey Ficken: "Swords" was the name we chose when we first started making music. We became "The Swords Project" for our first LP (Entertainment is Over if You Want It). When we change our name, it usually means that our music is changing. For Metropolis, because the record has a cleaner sound, we just decided to go back to Swords because name sounded clean.
Metropolis is still certainly more accessible than Entertainment is Over. How did that change come about?
It took us about a year to figure out what we wanted to do with Metropolis. We had recorded quite a few songs-any of those were similar to our older stuff, meaning they were really long and mostly instrumental. But when we were deciding what was going to go on the album, for some reason we were attracted to the more concise and accessible songs. It sounds too simple to be true, but we just liked the flow of the album with those songs. But don't worry-we're going to eventually release the longer, more instrumental songs on an EP.
What are your inspirations when writing songs?
We create music as a collective, rather than six separate people coming together to write songs. And we've been making music for many years now, so we all know each other so well that we don't have to necessarily discuss it. If there's something that we see is missing in music, we just get together and try to write songs that either we specifically want to hear, or that we aren't getting to hear in mainstream music.
Speaking of the mainstream, have you ever considered becoming a part of it? There are certainly some songs on Metropolis that could be radio-friendly.
The short answer is that we're probably never going to enter the mainstream. However, it's definitely a weird time for the mainstream. I've been friends with the folks in Death Cab for Cutie since we were kids, but never thought that they would make such a meteoric rise. But while that's great for them, I don't necessarily know that that is a comfort zone that I would like to be in. It's always frustrating to me when people tell me that I'm a great pop music writer, because the shorter and more accessible songs are actually harder for me to write. I guess writing really long, meandering songs just comes easier to me, and I don't ever want to be so limited by the mainstream's demand for three-minute songs. I want to be able to keep that freedom that we have right now. I don't like the thought of being subject to the whims of the mainstream's opinion. It's dangerous because it shifts so often, and I'd rather just think about writing songs instead of stressing out about what's popular.
What would you like to see in the future for Swords?
I've always lived by the principle that if you really love music, you'll have a day job, and then you can do music on the side. Because when that is the case, you can go to the music as a refuge, and you're not feeling compelled to support yourself with music, to cater so somebody else's whims or the marketplace. I've worked for a coffee roasting company for quite some time now, and I put a lot of energy into that. It's actually a pretty nice gig; I get to travel to exotic lands and try their coffee and then play in a band when I'm not doing that. It's kind of the best of both worlds for me. So I don't play music to get paid; I do it because I love it. However, ideally, if I was going to make money from music, I would love to make it from writing soundtracks for films. We've done some soundtracks for documentaries, and I've been really pleased with the result. For right now, though, assuming Swords doesn't move into the business of writing soundtracks, I would like to have a day job and make music until I die."
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