As one of the second stage bands on the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival, Grayslake, IL metalcore band Sworn In got to play in front of the country for the past month and a half. While the Fest wound up being a bit smaller in scope than some expected, on the first day of Mayhem, we caught up with the band’s frontman Tyler Dennen to talk about their latest album, ‘The Lovers/The Devil‘ and the Mayhem Fest. You can click here to purchase the LP on iTunes.
We’re here at the first day of Mayhem Festival in San Diego along with headliners Slayer, King Diamond, Hellyeah, and many more amazing bands. Who in this lineup do you think has had the biggest influence or affect on your band?
Personally, I would say Whitechapel because that was one of the first bands I ever would go around doing vocals to. I did a vocal cover to one of their songs once. The Devil Wears Prada too just because they were one of the bands that got me into heavier music.
You recently released your second LP, The Lovers/The Devil. Can you talk about how the writing and recording process differed from your previous album, The Death Card?
The Death Card was a lot more rushed and we didn’t book as much studio time. It was written more as a band compared to The Lovers/The Devil. Our drummer Chris wrote most of the music and I wrote most of the lyrics. On the new CD, we actually booked a more adequate amount of time in the studio so everyone got a good amount of time to do their parts and nail it. So, I’d say that would be the differentiating factors.
The album was produced by Will Putney (Thy Art is Murder, The Acacia Strain). What was his contribution on the album?
Will and I actually worked really closely together on the vocals. He had a lot of input on phrasing and words that could be taken out or replaced with a better word. We would also work on harmonies for the singing parts so it was cool.
There’s a lot of both heavy and melodic parts throughout the record. Is this indicative of different band members?
Like I said, our drummer Chris wrote like 100% of the music on the new CD. So, it was all him and his weird alien brain. That’s pretty much all I can say about it.
What’s coming up after this Mayhem tour for Sworn In?
We’re doing this til early August. We have a couple things up in the air, but nothing confirmed or anything I can talk about yet. You definitely can expect to be seeing us this year for more touring.
Who would be your ideal band to tour with right now?
I really want to tour with Bring Me The Horizon. They released an album about two years ago and I think they have more coming out soon.
Maybe it’s too soon to think about it, but any thoughts towards a follow-up to The Lovers/The Devil yet?
Oh yeah, we’re already writing new stuff. I can’t talk about it yet though, but it’s definitely being thought about.
