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Recent discussions
Interviews
Sparrows - Bryan Nicholas
21/12/12 || Averatu
Global Domination: So whats your story?
Ben: We are a 4 piece deathened black metal band from Dallas, Texas. Sometimes more death. Sometimes more black. We have been together since January of 2010. We’ve release 3 EPs and one full length. We record all of the music in our studio/rehearsal space, The Sparrows Lair. I play drums as well as do all the recordings. We pride ourselves on every member equally contributing to everything. If one guy in the band didn’t speak up or put something into the creative process, or opinions on the recording/mixing process, Sparrows would be something completely different. We have all grown a lot in the past 3 years, musically and personally.
Deathened blackmetal? I did not see that one coming.
We didn’t feel that “blackened death metal” really fit our sound, or what we were going for in the future. Plenty of bands add black metal to the death metal. We add death metal to black metal. Honestly, we could be playing different styles in the future, but when we looked down the road at our future, we decided that would be our legacy at this point.
In our e-mail correspondence, you made some comment about farmer and Texas. Do you find it difficult to headbag with the Stetson on?
I can’t begin to tell you how much I hate the cowboy aesthetic. That being said, there are worse ways to dress, I suppose. Texas gets a weird look from people out of state, and especially out of country. But Texas is a very diverse and modern place.
But seriously, you’re in the Buckle of the bible belt, and yawl spewing blasphemy like rabid psychos. You must be a popular guys.
I really feel that being in the Bible Belt shaped the purpose of the band. I had Christianity being shoved down my throat at school from an early age. My question was always, why? Why does this guy in heaven want to make everything so difficult? Being questionable when I was younger led to my total hatred of Christianity when I got older. Christians like to live in a little box. A little box where they feel safe. We like to smash that box and show them how much better life can be when you live without borders.
That reminds me how I grew up, I kinda identify with that sentiment. Do you get groups like the Westboro Baptist Kiddy Fiddlers giving you much grief? I saw the BBC documentry “Louis Theroux’, The Most Hated Family in America”. What a fucking blinkered existence those retards lead.
I’m not sure how it is in South Africa., but in the U.S. there are people who actually believe our founding fathers wanted this to be a Christian nation. It is documented MANY times in our Constitution that they believed the opposite. Having said that, anything that turns people against Christianity is welcome to me. Those idiots continue to prove the point about Christianity. It is beyond fucking ignorant. I am there cheering from the sidelines as more people turn against Christ.
There are people who believe they are the lost tribe of Abraham here, religion is a boom industry in Africa.
To get back to my earlier point before you so rudely interrupted
me, I was thinking djented blackmetal. Although you list the usual BM
suspects as influences, you have a different angle, not quite a tr00,
purist sound.
I can say that there are a few influences that are outside black and death metal. I’ve always found black metal to be a bit of an untouchable genre. The forefathers intentionally made the music hard to listen to. This eliminates anyone without a discerning ear. Are we taking Satan to a broader audience? Yes. We enjoy when people who listen to our music discover that element. It is a bit alienating, but we have our own methods of weeding out the idiots. I find that we style our music around the types of friends we want to hang with us. You won’t hear pop punk in our music because we despise that horseshit. We bring exactly what we want in a band to the table. Our favorite elements of each.
Have you had any issues with the run of the mill purist BM nerds?
Nah,not really. There are only a few black metal bands in Dallas. None of them have reached out to us. I kind of like it like that. Do your own thing and concentrate on your own music. It took us 2 years to even start getting to know the other bands that practice in our building. I can foresee that it will be a problem, though. It’s something that we have talked about that will most likely happen one day. Our goal with the music kind of goes against one of the main rules of the music. We want to bring our sound and influences to a large audience. Larger than the typical blackmetal audience. Watain just signed to Century Media and the BM underground is very splintered right now. Which goes back to my previous point of doing your own thing and not worrying about what others think. So I guess it’s a double edged sword.
You record your own albums I see. Rather impressive as the sound and production is not too shabby there mate.
I appreciate that. I have been immersed in recording for four years. Just really concentrating on getting each recording better and better. This is the 4th Sparrows record we’ve done so I think we are getting better as musicians and I am getting better as a producer. The other guys are getting a lot more comfortable with that red light. The first couple EPs we did, the guys recording confidence wasn’t very high. It is pretty good now. Everyone was really excited to do our new record.
Have you had a stable lineup, or is it the usual metal band revolving door?
We had two previous guitarists but other than that, everyone is original. Mike (bass) and I have been playing together for a very long time. Jason got on board through a guy that used to play in the band. Ryan was recommended to us and worked out very well. We have tried a few guys out for second guitar, but we have grown together so much that it’s hard for anyone else to come in and feel comfortable.
Rather uncommon. Would you say it affects how you do things, and
how things work between you in a musical sense, you’ve mentioned the
recording confidence, does it become easier composing and gigging,
choosing Xmas gifts etc..?
Since recording is such a systematic process, experience makes things a lot easier. That red recording light can be a killer. It brings out the nerves of any musician. However, as far as creativity and writing new music, it is always a challenge. As we write more music we become more proficient on our instruments. As we become more proficient, the ceiling for the songwriting goes up and so on. We have only been playing live in Sparrows for just over a year. Practice makes perfect, but live shows are tough. The physical strain and the mental strain can be pretty exhausting, especially playing extreme metal drums. I’ve had to discover warm up techniques, stretching exercises. Even concentrating on breathing on stage. But I feel I always do better with a few drinks in my system.
When I started giging in 98, I used to get so nervous I’d almost vomit. These days I itch to gig. Being on stage with competent musos helps a shitload, if you fuck up they march on and no one knows the difference.
Oh definitely. Playing a show with bad musicians is the worst. I’ve played in bands where I was embarrassed to be on stage with some people. This band doesn’t have that problem. Everyone is so eager to rehearse and get better on their instruments. But it’s one thing to play on your own. Playing together and learning the intricacies of each other’s playing style is another. Ryan (guitar) and I have even begun switching instruments to get a wider perspective on music. I see it from his point of view, and he sees it from mine. He actually is a great drummer. We’ve been working on a project together like this. A lot of fun to break the norm.
Give me a weird gig story man, drunk Texan getting his nose broken in the mosh kinda stuff.
It seems like every band we play with is practically begging the crowd to mosh. Yelling at them. Calling them pussies. Telling the crowd to entertain the band. That’s not how we work. I feel like our music is best taken in with full attention. While we don’t tell people to mosh, they sure the fuck do. Mostly dipshit rednecks. I don’t find idiots running into each other entertaining on any level. Well, maybe when someone spills their beer on the floor and everyone busts their ass. Do you have the kids that do karate and stuff over there? These kids get in the middle of the floor and spin around and punch and kick and stuff. Really stupid bullshit. I didn’t really have an opinion on moshing until people started doing that. Now, I wouldn’t care if everyone just stood there and watched my band. I don’t need them to pump me up or give me an ego boost. When I’m on stage, I’m on a mission.
Down here the windmill kids stick to the hard/metalcore gigs and raves, and the headbangers stay at home and play games, the rift is pretty big. There has not been decent gig in Johannesburg in months. The most interesting thing to happen was “In Flames” and “Fleshgod Apocalypse”, and I missed both as I was working in another country. I where sad. Have you seen the videos of the core kids dancing lessons , its a hoot.
Ah that stuff pisses me off almost as much as the music they make. There was time when ”metalcore” was riff based. Now it’s all “breakdowns”. These kids spend hours doing their hair to get on stage and look like jackasses. I guess there is really no reason to hate on them. I do find it fun to watch. In the way that a car wreck is fun to watch. Every once in awhile one of these bands gets on a show with us. We try to steer clear of that.
What’s the plan from here?
Just to keep making music. We just released our new record “Mark of the Beast: Indoctrination” so we will be playing shows around Dallas and possibly regionally until the summer. We have grown SO much the last 3 years and we feel that the best is yet to come. It might take a few more years to develop a solid sound, and we know that. We didn’t start the band to get famous or get rich. We want to be the band that has put out 30 records and has a legion of followers that have followed us through the years. When I see a band like Slayer, it is truly inspiring. The sheer length of the band’s tenure is amazing. Nearly 30 years and still going harder than ever. We are already writing music for our next record and it is the best we have done yet. You can keep track of us by checking us out on the Sparrows faceook
That’s groovy.
