Dan Swano, Swedish musician for Metal band Witherscape.
Dan Swano Interview
1. Could you tell us a bit about the idea behind Witherscape?
I always wanted to get back into writing and recording new material but I never found the perfect reason to drag my ass out of the song-writing retirement…Then I heard some riffs from Ragnar and realized that he’d be the perfect co-pilot for a brand new project. And once we got stuff going, I was inspired to write for my other bands as well :)
2. Where did most of the ideas behind writing the material for The Inheritance album come from?
There was a “pool” of ideas that I’d been collecting as far back as 2005 and I never really knew what to do with most of the riffs. Ragnar had a similar situation. He wrote far too much ideas than he could “sell” to the people he co-wrote with. And a lot of those unused idea became the bottom for the Witherscape sound and then I started writing “fresh” material once we had the direction set.
3. Will there be any touring soon for this album?
Nope. Sorry.
4. What do you think of promo videos nowadays with everything going on YouTube?
I think it’s cool. But for Witherscape I’d like to see a “non band” cast telling the story, like a little movie, and those are hard to make for the limited budgets you can allow for “YouTube” only stuff
5. What equipment are you currently endorsing, etc.
I have a “deal” with TwoNotes for their WallOfSound plug-in, and we get really good prices from 4Sound, that’s about it..
6. Without Social Media could bands today manage to survive?
I think so. It worked in the previous decades, so why not now? But I think the internet will continue to grow, so there is no worry ;)
7. What were your earliest influences in life?
The earliest bands I can remember loving were Kiss, Judas Priest, Dust, Moxy, Uriah Heep, The Ramones. I have 2 older brothers (10 and 17 years older) an they made sure I didn’t stand a chance to be anything but a rocker from day 1 ;)
8. What would be some of your main influences today?
For Death Metal it’s myself actually :) May sound “cocky” but the process of “finding” the right ingredients for a Death Metal song I will enjoy was finished 20 years ago. A bit of Death, Pestilence, Voivod, Celtic Frost, Candlemass all melted into one always worked back then, and still does. For Infestdead there was of course Deicide as a big influence.
9. What could we find interesting in your music collection at home?
A lot of soft rock, pop and even some country :) Most true metal heads would throw up and pass out if they got a hold of my iPod ;)
10. Could you describe what goes on in a day in your life as a musician on tour?
Not really, since I don’t tour :)
11. Where do you see Music in 100 years from now?
AC/DC and Motörhead will still be touring and hopefully they have banned AutoTune and rap all together :)
Extra questions for Dan Swano
Life without music would be: unthinkable
Favorite movie: at the moment “Django”
Favorite sport: Really wellplayed football when there’s much at stake
Favorite food: My girlfriends Köfte
Favorite drink: Dolce Gusto Crema Coffee
Favorite saying: “Could be”
Favorite car: Audi A5 Black 3 doors
Favorite book: At the moment: “ABBA The story”
Favorite band: Marillion 83-95
Star Wars or Star Trek: Star wars
PC or Mac: PC although I was a die hard Apple junkie from 1998 until OSX came out ;)