Interview with Sovereign (PA hardcore/d-beat)

Lansdale, PA's Sovereign have been on a tear in recent months. Gaining steam from the

autumn 2014 release of their debut album "The World Takes" and a recent split with

Syracuse's Bleak, their newest release is a two-song EP titled "Heretic". Sovereign's music is

gritty and ferocious d-beat hardcore in the vein of Perth Express, Tragedy, Cursed and

Momentum. Every riff hits like a freight train (protip: Sovereign love trains) and takes no

prisoners. I  sat down (behind a computer) and sent nine questions their way. Here's what

vocalist/lyricist Danny had to say:

Since this may end up being the band's first official interview, let's start from the beginning.

How did Sovereign get started?

I had been playing guitar for a metal band for a while, but really wanted to play music that was

aggressive and more to the point. Add to that the fact that I have done some pretty heinous shit to my

hands doing jiu jitsu, and singing just seemed like the best option. I put up a facebook status, and

Trevor (drums), Ross (bass), and our dink original guitarist replied.  We didn't really play out much,

but that ended quickly after we had our first lineup change.

Bring us up to speed on the current members and your new second, but by no 

means secondary, guitarist Shane Madden.

Well, you summed it up. We've had two other guitarists that aren't part of the band any more.

Brian, our first guitarist, quit in a pretty shitty way, and Taylor just wasn't a good fit for the band.

After Brian quit, Jeremy got in touch with me and learned our whole Mouthbreather EP in all of a

day, and then we wrote a song with him the very next practice. He pretty much saved the band. With

Jeremy we built up a lot of momentum, and he is responsible for 98 percent of our songwriting so far.

Shane got in touch with me when he heard we were looking for a second guitarist, and worked really

hard with Jeremy to get up to speed. I’d always been a huge fan of the bands Shane was in, so it was

really cool that he wanted to take part in Sovereign. I was all about him joining the second the idea

was proposed.

How much has the direction of the band changed since its inception?

Well, I actually wrote a fair amount of the early riffs that became Mouthbreather, and when we

started, we really didn't have a unified sound. We kinda just threw shit against the wall, and whatever

stuck, stuck. I knew I wanted to do a hardcore band, but I don’t really like a lot of what falls under

that umbrella, so we kind of wrote stuff that was on the fringes of that with Mouthbreather. Now,

we've definitely moved in a more d-beat/crust direction, which is really what I was hoping for from

the beginning. We still have some hardcore cliches like moshy parts or whatever, but I don’t really

see us as very similar to most hardcore bands going now, if for no other reason but I really enjoy the

kind of stuff we play. Trevor and Jeremy really steer the ship musically and they trust me enough to

handle the lyrics and vocal patterns. So far, I haven’t let them down. I have used some ideas Jeremy

had for lyrics, and that Trevor had for vocal patterns. It just doesn't happen very often. As a band,

we’re really great at our “assigned jobs”. Jeremy drives literally everywhere and writes most of the

riffs, Ross promotes and books like a motherfucker, Trevor does a lot of our graphic design and is the

glue for song writing so to speak, Shane’s job is being new for right now, and mine is all contract

related nonsense, and yelling at people.

Name some of your influences and inspirations, musical or otherwise.

In Sovereign, I definitely take a lot of influence musically from Chris Colohan of Cursed/The

Swarm/Left For Dead/a million other bands, Todd Burdette of Tragedy/His Hero is Gone, Alex TC

from Fall of Efrafa/Light Bearer/Momentum, and lately, Primitive Man has definitely influenced my

vocals.  I listen to a wide variety of shit from weirdo Black Metal to Katy Perry, almost obsessively,

so I definitely have ideas that come from a wide variety of places. However, we aren't an

experimental band or whatever, so all of my ideas are built within the “parameters” of Sovereign. I

enjoy a lot of books, comics, television and movies, but from those I take the sense of mood if

anything. Specifically, True Detective and Black Mirror are two things I watched that really drew me

in. If I can create a sonic embodiment of the shitty feelings you get from watching that stuff, that’d be

awesome.  Themes of alienation and true horror (not some cheese-dick zombie shit) seem to really

appeal to me, and I've always loved Kafka, so I can see that a bit in my own writing. I’m just not even

close to as talented. Maybe one day, I’ll be in a different place mentally and start spouting Vonnegut-

like whimsical lyrics, but for now, not happening. I can’t really say anyone’s lyrics are a big

influence on me. I think I've spent so much time listening to foreign bands, that lyrics go in one ear

and out the other for the most part anymore. Aesthetically, I really love how Blut aus Nord has a lot

of esoteric imagery coupled with their music. The 777 trilogy is indicative of such great care and

thought put behind it, and they’re one of my favorite bands ever too. Lyrically, I find that most of my

inspiration comes from my daily interactions with people, as well as my career. I’m not the most

optimistic person and it shows. I’ll leave it at that. I don’t really have any strong political stances to

sing about, so perhaps my lyrics seem a bit unsophisticated and inwardly focused, but they’re honest.

I don’t write a thing for its impact on anyone else.

How did your recent Converse Rubber Tracks studio session come about and what was the

experience like?

Jeremy made that whole thing happen. He applied, sent in the Bleak split, and we got accepted

pretty quickly. It was an amazing experience, and the closest I've ever felt to a “professional”

musician. I highly recommend it to anyone. The staff we dealt with were all really cool, and we got

free shoes. Who doesn't love free shoes?

If you could play a show with any five band lineup, who would make up the other four bands and who would close out the show?

Cult of Luna would headline, preceded by Blut aus Nord, His Hero is Gone, Fall of Efrafa/

Light Bearer split set, then us. I’d probably want to play like 3 songs and then just sit there in

amazement the whole time.

The digital release date for your new EP "Heretic" was yesterday (March 10th). Is there a

basic theme tying the songs together?

No, not really. 'Mictlan' is actually about the Aztec ritual of eating the heart of their fallen

enemies in combat. I just like the imagery attached to that. 'Kvlt Story Bro', while making fun of

black metal a bit in the title, is really just me being a bummer the whole time over some really cool

noise rock sounding riffs. I chose the title "Heretic" more for how it ties into my philosophy as a

human being as opposed to these specific songs. A heretic is a label that gets thrown on people who

don't follow or believe in established religious conventions, and that’s definitely one thread

running through a lot of Sovereign’s lyrics. I’m not so into those things myself, so I talk about

that from time to time.

Syracuse's Bleak have joined you on several weekend tours and shows. How did that relationship come about?

In my precious little spare time, one of the things I do is run Dullest Records. We had the

pleasure of working with a black metal band from Syracuse called Ebony Sorrow, whose front man

John Bukowski bridged that connection. John is seriously one of the nicest and best people in the

world, so when he said he had friends who wanted to trade shows with us, I was all about it before

even meeting Bleak. Now that we've played a billion shows together, I fucking love those dudes.

Hell, I love the dudes those dudes get to fill in for them when they can’t play an out of town show.

Bleak are the hardest working and heaviest fucking band around right now, and I could spend a

whole interview plugging them honestly. Playing with them pushes me to step my game up, and I

love that.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thanks to you, Zach, for this interview, and your support on numerous occasions. Thanks to Jon

Moran and Downgrade Records, John Bowes for a million merch related favors, and to him and Dave

Heck also for giving us a place to practice, thanks to every band we've played with, especially

Dysphoria, Bleak, Pillars of Villainy, Oldbones, and LRS records for putting the Bleak split out on

pretty vinyl for us. Thanks to anyone who has supported us in any way.

Thanks to Danny for his time. Keep an eye out for new Sovereign material and shows in your vicinity.