Interview: Murderbird
Tell us about your latest release: the main concept; what fans should expect; what were/are your goals with it:
Pillars of creation is our 12 song debut album. It’s honest, raw and true “modern old school metal” that mixes big melodic hooks with thrash-riffs and stomping grooves. Murderbird spawned from the ashes of another band that had been going for quite some time so we had a lot of material to choose from for our first album. “Pillars” is a compilation of songs that we feel captures our vibe and shows the different sides we have. It’s a set of songs we’re proud to introduce Murdebird to the world with.
Lyrically the songs vary as much as the music. Each song has its own story, meaning and message, but the album has a fitting through line of new beginnings. A lot of it is about leaving something negative behind and entering something new and positive. That’s exactly what we’ve done as a band and that’s what this album means to us. This is the beginning, this is the birth of Murderbird.
Did you have a specific sound in mind when you formed the band, or did that grow and evolve as you played together?
Our band simply sounds like the sum of its parts; a wailing singer, two riff-machine lead guitarists and a pounding rhythm section. We write what we enjoy playing and listening to. If we dig it, we’ll play it!The only conscious decision we made when forming this band was to deliberately try and avoid being a carbon copy of another band or get stuck writing in one single emotion. That doesn’t mean we have to invent a new genre, it just means we want to allow ourselves the freedom to let all of our different influences shine through and mix them as we please. We definitely don’t consider ourselves breaking any new ground, but we still find it difficult to slot ourselves into any particular sub genre of rock/metal.
We’ve always had a general idea of what kind of music we want to make that’s pretty simple; big catchy metal tunes with ripping riffs that groove and are played with passion. The best way we can describe our sound is that we try to write songs that captures the breathing dynamics and grandness of older rock/metal that makes for awesome live shows and at the same time incorporate some heavy, blood pumping grooves and raw honesty of some of the more modern heavy music.
How does your writing process normally work out?
We write all of our songs together. Being a guitar-oriented metal band it typically starts off with a skeleton of riffs written by our two lead guitar players Patrik and Markus. Then we all jam on it and together find the song within the riffs to then shape it into something cohesive. When the music for a song is more or less complete Tobias writes melodies and lyrics that go on top of the music.
We don’t really care who has the initial idea or who wrote what. Sometimes someone might be the driving force behind a song or have a specific vision, but it doesn’t sound like Murderbird until all of us have added our flavor to the songs.
What are your ambitions and how far do you want to push your band?
The type of music we play is meant for big stadium shows where thousands of people can sing along to the words. That’s where it really belongs.
Right now though we are just happy to have released our first full length album and are super proud of the positive response that it’s getting. We’re excited for whatever comes next. The best answer we can give to this question is “as far as we can”.
What are your influences/musical references and the impact those same influences had in your sound?
Our roots are deeply planted in the early days of the band we had prior to Murderbird that was heavily influenced by older bands like Iron Maiden. That’s still pretty prevalent in how we love giant choruses, Tobias vibrato singing or the occasional double guitar solo. On the other side of the spectrum our blood gets pumping when playing heavy grooves and intricate riffs inspired by Pantera or Lamb of God. Somewhere in between comes our Swedish heroes In Flames and The Haunted with their melodic death and all the bands inspired by that like Killswitch Engage who also have cool riffs and strong hooks. And then sometimes we surprise even ourselves when we stumble into some grunge, stoner or even classic rock.
What’s next for you?
Next up for us is to hit the stage and play this album live as much as possible. After writing and recording for quite some time we’re pumped to finally have a solid set to play in front of some headbangers!