Sworn Enemy Interview

The Gauntlet: Tonight is the last night of the tour with Anthrax and God Forbid. Looking back, how did it go?

Lorenzo: Everything's been great. The crowd and fans have been just great. The crowd has definitely been getting into us. They love our new songs. Things are looking up and up.

The Gauntlet: Sworn Enemy is no stranger to big crowds having done the Ozzfest tour along with some other national supports. Do you feel this tour is putting you in front of a whole new fanbase?

Lorenzo: I think Anthrax have their own old school fanbase on top of the kids of the new generation that are listening to them that probably never would have seen us before. They come out and it's probably the first time they hear us. I think a lot of people from the Ozzfest crowd or Slayer crowd got into us and come out also.

The Gauntlet: Both Sworn Enemy and Anthrax hail from the same parts of New York, did that have any effect on getting on this tour?

Lorenzo: Getting on this tour wasn't easy. They understand and respect what we do. Even if we are from the same town, I don't think that's what got us here. We are goofy like they used to be. We like to just have fun, that's how it is with us.

The Gauntlet: Going from the older material to the new material, you seem to be loosing a bit of the hardcore sound and opting for more metallic breakdowns. Is this the direction the band is going?

Lorenzo: It's all part of the Evolution.

Sal: I don't think we've changed much. It gets me nervous when I hear that. We are still Sworn Enemy.

The Gauntlet: I wasn't a fan of 'As Real as it Gets', but the new material is great.

Lorenzo: We just want to play music, add a little more double-bass, and we are just growing as a band. We just want to make each album better than the last.

The Gauntlet: Has the lyrical content changed?

Lorenzo: No, we sing about real things. We sing about what's going on today. Nothing is set in a fantasy place, you know real stuff. Lyrics about struggling; we have struggled hard and we just make it by the skin of our teeth.

The Gauntlet: You have an album out on Jan 24th titled 'The Beginning of The End' and it's produced by Tim, the lead vocalist of As I Lay Dying.

Lorenzo: We have toured with them and Tim has been fans of ours since 2003. We got really close with those guys. A while back Tim approached us and wanted to produce us, but we had no label and were down-and-out. Tim wanted to help us get signed to Metal Blade, but nothing really grew from there. Then we signed to Abacus and Tim still really wanted to produce us. We were kinda sketchy as because we didn't know what he had ever done production wise. We didn't know what his last album sounded like as it wasn't out yet. When they were touring in Long Island, he stopped by our house and brought 'Frail Words Collapse' and played it. We were like 'Wow!, I want my drums to sound like that, I want my guitar to sound like that, this sound is great!' and it ended up working out.

The Gauntlet: What was it like working with Zeuss?

Lorenzo: Zeuss did the mixing. He produced our last album. He and Tim were going back and forth with the guitar tones. Zeuss wanted an old school sound like Anthrax and Tim wanted more of a newer sound like As I Lay Dying. They were just going back and forth and met in the middle. Tim is a very picky guy and has his ways. I think the record came out ten times better than we expected and I'm stoked.

The Gauntlet: Is there anything you wish was done differently?

Lorenzo: No�no.

The Gauntlet: What are your plans after the Anthrax tour?

Lorenzo: We head home, head across through Oregon, up to Winnipeg, through Detroit and then we are home. We will do some MTV, do some hosting. Then we are on the Six Feet Under tour in March as their direct support.

The Gauntlet: Anything else?

Sworn Enemy: 'Beginning of the End', Sworn Enemy, go get it. You think you know us, but you don't.

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Tags:  Sworn Enemy  , Lorenzo, interviews

Jason Fisher    January 20, 2006