{"id":55297,"date":"2025-09-10T14:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T14:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/55297\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T14:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T14:15:09","slug":"sword-ii-are-in-a-world-of-their-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/55297\/","title":{"rendered":"Sword II are in a world of their own"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI<\/strong> really don\u2019t want to let you out here, sir. Are you sure you have the right address?\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the summer of 2023, and NME\u2019s Uber driver had made it clear that we were in a part of Atlanta where even taxi drivers feared to tread. But yes, we were indeed in the right place. This street \u2013 full of boarded-up businesses and empty lots \u2013 was where Sword II<\/a>, Atlanta\u2019s steely merchants of phantasmagoric post-punk, had chosen to host their record release show for their debut album, \u2018Spirit World Tour\u2019. And now that we were so close, there was zero chance of retreat. So against the driver\u2019s advice, we hopped out of the car and scurried toward our destination \u2013 careful to avoid the couple of unaccompanied, marauding pitbulls along the way.<\/p>\n

That night, the trio of multi-instrumentalists who comprise Sword II \u2013 Travis Arnold (27), Certain Zuko (26), and Mari Gonz\u00e1lez (27) \u2013 transformed their rehearsal space into a DIY venue. They did it all themselves, from running sound to pouring drinks, and the result was less a gig than a gathering and a statement of purpose: a glimpse of Atlanta\u2019s best up-and-coming band inviting you into their inner circle.<\/p>\n

Asked to explain their thinking for that extraordinary show now\u00a0\u2013 over two years later in 2025 \u2013 Arnold doesn\u2019t hesitate: \u201cIt was important to us to be able to invite people into our world, to understand the space we had been creating in.\u201d<\/p>\n

In many ways, that idea describes the ethos of Sword II. They not only strive to inhabit a world that is uniquely theirs with their music but also to establish a much deeper and more profound connection with their fans through curated DIY experiences. Zuko knows the power of music communities firsthand, having hosted many shows at her parents\u2019 house as a teenager. \u201cAll of our lives changed so much because of the bands we saw as kids, and we hope we can be that band one day for someone else,\u201d she says, then, only slightly in jest, adds: \u201cWe want to have a psycho-cult of fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

That cult may not be as far off as they think. Much has happened since that debut album release show. They now have a manager and a booking agent and have toured far beyond Atlanta, opening for the likes of Beach Fossils<\/a> and Feeble Little Horse. Most importantly, they have a dazzling new album out on November 14 called \u2018Electric Hour\u2019, backed by a new offshoot of Partisan Records called section1.<\/p>\n

Yet despite the new infrastructure, Sword II still operate on the fringes. Like their EP from 2020, \u2018Between II Gardens\u2019, and \u2018Spirit World Tour\u2019, \u2018Electric Hour\u2019 was made entirely in a studio of their own design, this one erected in the basement of an old home they rented and lived in for the full year they spent making it. While that might suggest a certain level of comfort, Zuko claims the experience was anything but cosy: \u201cThe electrical wiring was ancient and it was so damp [in the house] that we were constantly getting shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SwordSword II credit: Press<\/p>\n

The band also wound up frying their hard drive early on, in a situation eerily reminiscent of the sessions for their first album, when Zuko accidentally dropped the hard drive containing the full record and almost lost it forever. Thankfully, this time, she didn\u2019t have sell the rights to one of her high school band\u2019s albums to come up with $2,000 to recover damaged files.<\/p>\n

I<\/strong>t turns out the biggest change for Sword II this time is the music itself. While the band\u2019s EP and first album were strongly influenced by their early days of \u201ctaking molly and going to raves\u201d in downtown Atlanta, \u2018Electric Hour\u2019 pulls back on the harder-edged aggression and horror-scapes that characterised those records to reveal a lush, radiant interior. Lead single \u2018Even If It\u2019s Just a Dream\u2019 is tender, where their past work was abrasive: acoustic strums and falling piano lines cradle Gonzalez\u2019s lullaby-like vocal.<\/p>\n

As the first song completed for the album, \u2018\u2026Dream\u2019 also served as something of a signpost for the band, giving them a new way to articulate their ideas that felt radical yet true to their present feeling. \u201cOn our earlier albums, we were so inspired by those illegal raves and the social movements like the George Floyd uprising and Stop Cop City,\u201d says Zuko.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we still are, but I think we realised that there\u2019s only so much fighting and aggression you can handle before you need something soothing. You know, flowers and butterflies \u2013 we all actually need that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not that the band has abandoned confrontation. Far from it. But \u2018Electric Hour\u2019 finds them exploring ideas \u2013 political and otherwise \u2013\u00a0with more nuance and confidence and sometimes finding that the most effective critique might be to revel in the absurdity of the situation. \u2018Passionate Nun\u2019 began from a place of anger over the trans bathroom ban bills that swept through certain states in the middle of the last decade, making it illegal for transgender individuals to use bathrooms that matched their gender identity.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAll of our lives changed so much because of the bands we saw as kids, and we hope we can be that band one day for someone else\u201d \u2013 Certain Zuko<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But rather than direct sloganeering, the band instead cloaks their outrage in the story of a steamy love affair between two lesbians who are more than OK sharing a locker room together. \u201cWhen you feel attraction at that age, there is this crazy devotion that is almost religious,\u201d says Gonzalez. The result is part sacred, part profane \u2013 provocation as both weapon and wink.<\/p>\n

Sword II thrive in that tension: deeply political but never predictable, heavy but not joyless, DIY yet ambitious. As their audience grows, they\u2019re determined to hold onto the imagination at the heart of what they do. \u201cEven if we get much bigger, we still want to do DIY shows and take risks with the types of shows we play in general,\u201d says Zuko. \u201cBut more important to us is preserving the idea of Sword II. That\u2019s something everyone can take into the world with them, no matter where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sword II\u2019s \u2018Electric Hour\u2019 is out on November 14 via section1<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI really don\u2019t want to let you out here, sir. Are you sure you have the right address?\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[18,117,19,6082,17,337],"class_list":{"0":"post-55297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-indie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-music"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}