Interviews: The Devil Wants Her Swagger Back

In this new occassion we have had the opportunity to interview the Nu-Metal/Groove Metal/Metalcore band The Devil Wants Her Swagger Back, from Ireland. Check out this band and give them a like on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1.Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or came out just like that?   

The idea from the name came from a Tyler the Creator lyric 'Tell Satan I want my fuckin swag back'. It started to mean more than that coupled with our style of music though. We always loved the nineties metal, Korn, Slipknot, etc, the nineties and two thousands were a time that, although a lot of metal heads dismiss, metal had a lot of power in the mainstream. We want to bring metal back to that time, when music had anger, it had balls, and of course, a little bit of swagger.     

2.Why did you want to play this genre? 

Dylan (Bass): I love music that makes me move, whether that be to dance or headbang, but nothin makes me move like a chunky, stompy riff.    

Stephen (Vocals): Grew up listening to it and although I've played other styles as well.. metal has just been the most fun and rewarding.    

Mick (Guitar): The darker side of things always fascinated me so I guess that's why I became interested in metal. Along with the high energy of the music.     

Ryan (Drums):  The energy and emotion drew me in, there's absolutely nothing as powerful as it.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?  

Mick and I (Dylan) have known each other since we were 14, and talked about playing together for years till we eventually found Ryan and played in a band together for a year or two which didn't work out, we then found Stephen and the rest is yet to come      

4. Each band member favourite band?  

Dylan: Korn    

Mick: Slipknot    

Ryan: Slipknot    

Stephen: Bring Me The Horizon probably, seriously digging While She Sleeps and Cane Hill at the minute though.

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?   

Dylan: Everything, sometimes it'll just be a phrase I hear, something that's pissing me off, or just a drive to do what I dream of for a living.     

Stephen: Lyrically it can be anything from the news hearing about fucked up shit and generally just stuff that pisses me off.    

Mick: Everything from life to death and from love to hate.

Ryan: It can be from shit that happened that day or another time, or one of the lads can come up in practice with something cool and that'll get me pumped up to fuck then.

6. Where was your last gig?   

Our last gig was at Agressive Music Fest in Czech Republic, that was so much fun, we drove two and a half thousand kilometres across Europe to play it and the response was amazing, we were totally unknown there, and people came running up afterwards to buy t-shirts, CDs, get autographs, it was absolutely unbelievable to us. We met some amazing bands there as well, especially Bloodphemy and Emma-O, we had class craic with them!   

7. Where would you like to act?   

Dylan: I think Download Festival might be the ultimate dream for me, but really I want to play everywhere in the world, we didn't get a chance to play in Europe on the way to Agressive, so Germany, France, Belgium, they're all on my hit list right now.   

Stephen: We wanna play everywhere we can possibly play, as much as we can!  
Mick: Download, obviously.  

Ryan:  Everywhere and anywhere, download festival has always been a dream. 

8. Whom would you like to feature with? 

Dylan: While She Sleeps, definitely, I wanna go on tour with those guys just for the craic that they have. As well as to get to watch that show every night   

Stephen:  I'd love to feature on a While She Sleeps album.

Mick: I would love to tour with Slipknot and also While She Sleeps and Whitechapel.   

Ryan: Always wanted to have Loz from While She Sleeps feature on a certain song of ours (hope you're reading mate). Corey Taylor of course but that's shooting for the stars.

9. Whom not? 

Dylan: I don't think there's anyone I wouldn't play with really...there's a lot of music I don't like, but at the very least I'd like to show them how it's done   

Stephen: There's no one really I can think of that I wouldn't want to work with, I'm always open to trying new things.

Mick: I would not like to play with Kanye West cause he is a gee bag! (Bag of vaginas Irish insult) he's a spoon!   Ryan - Can't think of anyone   

10. Any of you has ever suffered from stage fright? Any tip for beginners on how to beat that?   

Dylan: I used to when I started playing live, my advice would be to just remember to have fun. When I'm watching a band I need to know they're having fun, cause if they're not having fun, the crowd's not having fun, and when you're playing live, they're the only thing that matters.

Stephen: Yup, used to have terrible stage fright, my advice would be to just go nuts for one or two gigs just to realise how much more people react to it.

Mick: I get nervous before most gigs. The only way to beat it is face it head on and just go for it.

Ryan: I think everyone suffers this at some point, for me it turns into excitement, I reverse it into working for me rather than against me, if you're a musician hitting the stage and you're not nervous, you're missing out one of the best feelings ever, if that makes sense haha    

11. What bands have inspired you the most?  

Dylan: While She Sleeps and Dead Label. Dead Label are friends of ours from Ireland, and honestly some of the hardest working people we know, we've known them since they started and watched them grow into the machine they are today.

Stephen: Bring Me The Horizon, Linkin Park, Periphery, Slipknot to name a few.  
Mick:  Metallica, Slipknot, Machine Head, and surprisingly, Limp Bizkit because the guitar work is phenomenal. And they all are masters of song writing.  

Ryan: Slipknot, stone sour, While She Sleeps, Whitechapel, Dead Label.   

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?  

Dylan: I still find it weird that someone wanted my autograph or a picture with me to be honest hahah.  

Stephen: Someone once asked for 'fun in car'.   

Mick: They haven't really ever asked me anything. I suppose the autograph was pretty cool. Was a weird experience.  

Ryan: An autograph, may just seem like black and white to some people but to me it was surreal, and awesome as shit.    

13. What do you think of your fans?  

Dylan: Our fans are some of the most bat shit crazy motherfuckers I've ever met, stage dives, crowd surfing, at one gig we had the power cut cause too many of them climbed on the stage.

Stephen: Couldn't thank them enough for coming to shows and singing the lyrics back to us and buying our merch and all that stuff.  

Mick: I think they're all idiots cause we suck and they shouldn't like us.

Ryan: The fact that we actually have fans who buy our merch, listen to our music, come to our shows and know lyrics to our songs is beyond insane They're the key to all of this, they feed the machine, and this machine is hungry.  

14. What do you think of our site?  

We only found the site cause of the interview you did with our fellow Irishmen BAILER. I love the coverage you give young bands, especially with in depth interviews like this, it's not something a lot of websites are willing to do.   

15. Something to add?  

Just thanks for havin' a chat with us and if there's anyone reading that hasn't heard us before check us out, we can use all the help we can get spreadin the heaviness. And for our Dublin fans, we will be launching our new EP 'Malice' on September 24th at The Hangar with Sick Inc, Call To Arms, and one more band to be confirmed. Also to keep an eye peeled for a music video for the first single 'Casualties' coming in September.