UK's Svalbard is an act we've reported on many times here at Metal Injection, and champion their work found on the latest album, It's Hard To Have Hope. Not having seen these post-core darlings for a couple years, I ran to see them perform at this year's Roadburn Fest where they lit up the room with one of the most fun, mosh-worthy performances at the festival, proving they're still a force to be reckoned with.
I caught up with all four members, Serena, Liam, Mark, and new bassist Alex, to discuss their latest album, their message, their feelings on stage and more. Read the full interview below and be sure to pick up their new album, available from Holy Roar records.
Frank: Guys, I am so proud. You killed it at Roadburn yesterday and your new album, It's Hard To Have Hope, is a tremendous step forward in terms of melody, music writing, and mood. What do you feel you did differently with this album that you haven't done before?
Serena: Lyrically, I was a lot more direct. I picked very specific topics, such as revenge porn, animal shelters, just general equal rights for women. And I made the songs very, very unpoetic, so a six-year-old could read the words and know exactly what I'm talking about and where I stand on these issues. Because I think there's a clarity when you're just cutting straight to the point.
Frank: Musically it's the same record, right?
Liam: [laugher]Just the same songs with different lyrics. We do have a bass player, we didn't have on the first records, so…
Frank: Yeah, who is this young lad?
Alex: Yeah, I didn't contribute to this record at all. So, I'll take credit if you want me to but… the bass lines are better now.
Frank: The word on the street is that you wrote the entire record, and you're just the ghostwriter.
Alex: I'm a ghostwriter. I've been a ghostwriter since the beginning.
Serena: I'd just like to take this moment to introduce bass player number 342, Alex Heffernan.
Frank: Obviously, a really big part of your music is a direct message, which takes flavor from genres like hardcore, I'm guessing. Do you usually come up with what you wanna say before the song is done? Or is that after the fact?
Serena: Yeah, I always have a little list of things that really piss me off, and topics that are really sort of churning over in my brain. I think about those, and I write my thoughts down first. Then we've got the song, and once it is musically structured, I'll fit the little thoughts into place around the music. So it's always something that I'll be thinking about, writing about first, before we put it into a song.
Frank: Of course, your style of music is really hard to define. I have a hard time even explaining you guys. Do you feel that your mix and how you put music together is a response for the world's need for continuous subgenrification?
Serena: That's a very hard question haha
Liam: It's all very natural, isn't it?
Serena: I think it's because we all listen to different things and we come to the practice room with four different influences from all over the place. And the only way that everyone can be happy in the band is if we compromise and blend those things together. I wouldn't say it was a conscious decision to go: "Ooo, we're gonna have a bit of black metal, and a bit of DB", and stuff like that. It's more that everyone is taking influence from different places, and then it's all meeting in a very strange, middle point.
Frank: And I know a secret power of the band is really Liam's dad jokes. What's your personal favorite that you've heard?
Serena: He told one yesterday that was… "You know when tennis players make a lot of grunts when they play. Why are they making such a racket?"
Liam: My personal favorite is the bird joke. I can drag it out for about half an hour. It's truly terrible.
Serena: It's the worst. It's not even a joke, it's just stupid.
Frank: I, unfortunately, experienced this myself. [laugher]
Frank: Serena, you have the benefit of actually working in the industry as well, as a writer. Do you feel that one makes you better at the other, and why?
Serena: Oh definitely! When I'm interviewing bands, this is one of the things that directly contributed to the way I started writing lyrics, directly. I would be interviewing bands and talking about what the songs are about. I think it's really important to see what the actual message of the song is. And a lot of the time, bands can be quite vague about those sort of things. That directly influenced me to then go "Right.. well, I'm not gonna be like the bands I interview", and be very specific on the topics I'm singing about, and not dress things up in long words. I find that metal tends to get bogged down with a lot of fancy long words in the lyrics, and a lot of mythology, and symbolism rather than just direct anger about something.
Serena: I think in terms of how you present yourself as well. When you're working with bands and writing about them, like you say, you want to present the best side of them, and all the things that makes that band special. You then think about that when you're presenting yourself. So, it's like: how can we make Svalbard as interesting and as powerful, and as worthy of our space in the press as it can be.
Frank: That said, what do you guys think is the most special or unique thing, or maybe something that people at home wouldn't know know about Svalbard?
Serena: We don't listen to cool music in the van at all. They're gonna cringe at me saying this but we basically solely listen to pop, and Phil Collins, and Scooter haha. Just cheese, ultimate cheese in the van, all the time. We're not cool, we don't sit there listening to Tragedy haha
Liam: I think Mark sometimes puts his headphones in to listen to cool music.
Serena: Yeah, Mark's listening to cool music but we don't listen to cool music.
Liam: But yeah… Otherwise, it's just pure sing-along.
Frank: And Svalbard live is just amazing. As I mentioned earlier, I think you guys really brought the most fun show at Roadburn this year. Where do you guys go mentally when you're on stage?
Liam: Oh Jesus, I wish I worked out more, this is so painful. [laughter]
Liam: No, it's just really cathartic. I find it really cathartic, just a place where you can lose yourself entirely, become completely "unself" aware, and just let the music take you over. That's the best gigs for me, when I'm feeling like I'm not myself, and I'm just channeling music.
Serena: Yeah, that's my favorite thing about playing live. It's the one point in time where you're not thinking about anything, you're just doing. It's such a visceral kind of experience, and it's so draining physically, and mentally, and emotionally. Just to be able to have that outpouring. Yeah, it's my favorite place to be. I wish I could just play every day because you feel so chilled out afterwards, it's amazing. But it's those 30 minutes you're not worried, you're not stressed, you're not down, you're just in this really powerful, creative moment.
Frank: [Looking at Mark] I know you're thinking about munchies all the time. [laughter]
Mark: That's why we come here! haha
Liam: That's all Mark thinks about when he's in the Netherlands is, as soon as we got here, he's like: "Liam, can you look up the nearest coffee shop for me?"
Frank: Of course! So we are here in the Netherlands at Roadburn, and this fest is really all about music discovery. I know many people were probably turned on to you guys this weekend. What is an act that you have recently found and fell in love with?
Serena: The black metal band Cor Scorpii. They did an album called Ruin last year and the melodies are just stunning, it's beautiful. It's one of those black metal albums that, for me, just defines the beauty and the grace that black metal can have. And just every song on it is perfect. So I love that album, I love that band. You don't really see much about them anywhere, but they're really, really cool, so everyone should check them out.
Liam: So is a band called LeBrock from Peterborough in the UK, and they're just pure cheese goodness hahaha. You shouldn't put that in, Frank [laughter]
Frank: What about you guys?
Alex: At Roadburn I didn't get to see a lot, but I've always wanted to see Soft Kill, and they were awesome. Then just to name-drop a few friends, like Pijn who are on our label. They just seem to be going strength to strength. Our friend Justine from Holy Roar and Employed To Serve was actually just crying while watching them. She had such a reaction, it was just very emotional and kind of heart-hitting. It's mostly instrumental. I kinda think of them as being like Godspeed… but a bit more metal, mixed a bit with Cult Of Luna. It was really nice to see them hitting the road.
Mark: I've just been listening to old stuff a lot recently haha
Liam: [mocking Mark] They aren't making any good music anymore [laughter]
Frank: Finally, there's what I consider a UK-scene that you guys are part of. Holy Roar has really developed a lot of that, I think. But it all seems to stem from hardcore and go outward to other genres and stuff like that. Why do you feel that it's grass-rooted in hardcore?
Liam: I guess there's a lot of people in kind of their late twenties, early thirties, hearing the bands that are part of the scene at the moment in the UK, and I think a lot of them started off from a hardcore background, like most of us. They then diversified their tastes as they got a bit older, and started incorporating more, pulling from different genres and making your own thing. I think everyone's doing it very naturally, so it's this loosely grouped set of bands who have the same approach to writing music but are sonically quite different.
Serena: I don't think it's necessarily the hardcore music scene that is the backbone of where we are now with labels like Holy Roar, I think it's the ethos of the hardcore scene. Everyone going to each others shows, DYI shows, DYI gig spaces. That is what's imprinted the most in the Holy Roar bands; we all came from small local bands, we all came from doing DYI tours and things like that. So it's more of the hardcore ethos. I wouldn't say I was a particularly a hardcore kid growing up. It's not power metal, so I'm not interested. But the ethos is something I've always really appreciated, and I think that's something that sticks with the bands as they then go on to do other musical things.
Frank: Well, I definitely love what you guys have done with it. It's Hard To Have Hope if you don't have it, buy it right now! It's an amazing record, one of my favorite of last year. And catch these guys as often as you can. Hopefully, in America someday soon!
Serena: Fingers crossed!
