Video Interview: Eric Calvert of Switchblade Jesus on Death Hymns and More
Corpus Christi, Texas, three-piece Switchblade Jesus released their second album, Death Hymns (discussed here), last Fall through Cursed Tongue Records. There’s a cassette release coming up, but really the thing to talk about here is the record itself, and that’s plenty. While it clocks in at a utterly-consumable 27 minutes, Death Hymns does so in the form of a high-order ripper, a broad departure from the Southern grooves proffered on their self-titled debut (review here). That record, which was first self-released in 2013, then picked up by Kozmik Artifactz in 2014 before Ripple Music snagged it for a release in 2015 as well, was nothing if not well received and well composed, but Death Hymns takes the expectation born of that outing and even the band’s 2017 appearance on Ripple‘s The Second Coming of Heavy split series (review here), and sets it alight in a fury of prog-noise riffs and sharp rhythmic turns.
Founding guitarist/vocalist Eric Calvert — joined in the band by drummer Jon Elizondo and bassist/vocalist Chris Black — cites the latter coming into the fold circa 2017 as a source for the uptick in aggression, and part of it might stem from paring down the lineup from a five-piece, a move that brought Calvert to more of a frontman role than he’d been in previously, despite actually sharing more writing duties now. Whatever did it, Death Hymns turned in a monstrous torrent of energy, still riff-based enough to catch on with heavy heads, but moved beyond the more blues/Southern heavy-derived fare that, as Calvert notes, there’s plenty of around these days.
I know you’ve heard Death Hymns and you don’t need me to tell you any of this and you probably interviewed Calvert last week and talked about all the changes the band went through in the seven-year divide between their first album and their second. You guys talk on the regular. I know that. For me, however, the turn of sound was all the more fascinating because it continued to be underscored by a quality of songwriting that made the tracks memorable as well as forceful. You can see it in the interview. Calvert mentions “Red Plains” and I’m like, “Oh yeah dude.” It’s the kind of LP that might garner that response spontaneously with its tracks.
And this is a pretty broad-reaching conversation, from hopes for future work to the best band ever to come out of Texas — I’m not spoiling it — all the way down to gear-nerding and learning home recording in the midst of the pandemic, thereby delaying recording by, say, a year or more. Calvert, who also makes pedals under the banner of Frost Giant Electronics, had plenty to say. Best kind of interview.
As always, I hope you enjoy.
Switchblade Jesus Interview with Eric Calvert, May 5, 2021
Death Hymns is out now on LP and CD and available through Cursed Tongue Records and Switchblade Jesus. Tapes coming soon, streaming below.
Switchblade Jesus, Death Hymns (2020)
Switchblade Jesus on Instagram
Cursed Tongue Records on Facebook
Cursed Tongue Records on Instagram
Tags: Corpus Christi, Cursed Tongue Records, Death Hymns, Switchblade Jesus, Switchblade Jesus Death Hymns, Texas
