interview with Ironbird
Have any of you played in other bands? Yes, all of us have played in other bands and different constellations during the years before Ironbird.
We feel that it`s not necessary to namedrop the other past projects. Now all of our focus is upon Ironbird.
What are your names? / Who plays what?
Ironbird is....
Rasmus Jansson: Vocals
Magnus Jernström: Guitars
Fredrik Schönbeck: Bass
Magnus Arndtzen: Drums and percussion
Have you had other previous members? No not yet. But we always use to say that our producer ,engineer and spiritmaster Jonas Edler is our fifth member.
Where are you from? We all live in Stockholm these days but Magnus Arndtzens roots are from the huge deep forests of Vilhelmina and Rasmus has his origin
from the beautiful Strängnäs.
What year did the band form? It all started out in 2013, when the first songs were written and the band was put together.
What`s your style of genre? We all like old school music and especially the early 70s bluesy hard rock. We try to find our own sound and style in that.
We like grunge as well, so maybe you can hear some notes from the 90s.
What inspires you? Quite difficult question but here is some huge inspiration for us...
Life, music, good people, peace and of course spontanity....
Are you looking for a booking agency? And what are your thoughts around that?
Not for the moment. We have entered the studio for the recording of our third LP, so all of our focus is to make it right in the studio.
A booking agency is a must have for bands who wants to get on tour and and to reach out with their stuff.
Are you looking for a label? And what are your thoughts around that?
Actually we have a label(Transubstans Records) were our two first albums is released. Black Mountain 2014 and our self-titled Ironbird 2017.
But from now on we are free to do whatever we want with our new album. We still have a very good and friendly contact with Transubstans Records.
So we will see where the future lead us...
What are your songs about? Life,dreams,nightmares,sad and funny or weird stuff that happening around us,problems in the world etc.
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics?
Actually you never know when a song or a new idea comes to you! It can happen when you are on toilet, working, cleaning etc. Thats a little bit weird.
Most of the times Magnus Jernström came up with some riffs and arrangement ideas for the song.Then we put it all together in the rehearsal room.
In an easy explanation...
Our vocalist Rasmus Jansson writes both the lyrics and the melodies for the song. He often record the different parts of the song in the rearsal room and bring it home so he can continue his work with the lyrics for example.
Do you compose in a certain environment? Magnus(the riffmaker) often does the riffs and ideas at his countryside and record it there. Its a very peaceful and stimulating environment
to be creative in.
Have you done any covers live? Yes, we have played some different songs from our favourite groups from the 70s. Space Child with UFO is a tune that we have performed many times.
Black Sabbaths anthem Snowblind from the Vol4 album is a great song that we also had performed many times. We have recorded it as well and released as a b-side on our "Who Do You Love" single back in 2015.
What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? We don't know exactly but say between 20-600 people. Thats a fair guess we think.
What ages are most of your concert attendants?
Say between 20-60 years. Sometimes younger,sometimes older...
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? After an album release we play almost the same songs on every show. But after a while we start to vary our set-lists a lot.
Do you have a regular place you play live often?
Yes, we have played the fantastic club Sweet Leaf many times during the last years! One of the best places to perform at.
But unfortunately Copperfields(the place where Sweet Leaf used to be) changed their direction so Sweet Leaf doesn't exist there anymore!
Really really sad story around the circumstances in our opinion.
What was your first gig like?
Our first gig were awesome and a little bit nervous of course. It was at a sold-out club Sweet Leaf, our releaseparty for our first album
Black Mountain in September 2014. We played like nothing else exists and the audience were fantastic and crazy.
What was your latest gig?
Our latast gig were at club Sweet Leaf at their last show ever at Copperfields in June this summer.
We don't recommend anyone to visit Copperfields after their closing of Sweet Leaf and live music...
Where have you played live this year? We haven't played live this year so many times because of our work with the new album. No date or working title set yet.
But we have played club Sweet Leaf two times and Melodybox..
When did you start to sell merchandise,and what do you have for sale?
Everything was well prepared with the merch for our first show with vinyls,CDs,T-shirts,stickers and pins.
We have made some different T-shirts and we still have more vinyls,CDs,singles,T-shirts,stickers and pins for sale.
Where can people buy your merch? People and fans of Ironbird can buy our albums at Record Heaven, Bengans Sthlm and Gbg, Sound Pollution, Ginza, Cdon and many more.
The easiest way is to send a message to our FB mail and get in contact with us. We sell all of our mercy there too.
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days?
We don't like or support that at all.
But of course Spotify and Apple music for instead is great platforms for new listeners to explore new music.
We collect vinyls by ourselves and think thats the best way to listen to music!!
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this?
A lot of course! There is not so many record stores left...
Or is it???
What do you think of my work? Great work indeed, and important. We need more people like you!
How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business?
This interview is a great way to get to know more about Ironbird etc.
And of course we are going to post this on all of our platforms! Awesome PR indeed.
Do you have any role models or idols?
We all listening and inspires of different music, but the heavy,early hard rock from the 70s we have in common.
Bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Rush and many more inspires us a lot.
Why do you think they exist?
They were damn good, thats the reason they still exist and give inspiration to people. Playing instrumentsand starting bands for example.
Its timeless music...
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today?
For us Its easier to find inspiration from older bands!
Yesyesyes....
What have been your biggest obstacles? Unfortunately we don't have any obstacles...
What advice would you give other bands or artists?
Quality often takes time is something we talk about a lot!
Feel free to do what ever you want to, don't listen to what other people think!
Believe in yourself...
Do you have any new material?
Oh yes!!!! We are in the studio for the moment for the recording of our third full length album. No release date yet, so work in progress!
There is no stress about this studiosession.The new songs takes shape in a very pleasant way! And there is a lot of good vibes around it!
So stay tuned and keep your eyes open...
What are your websites? We have an Facebook account(Facebook.com/Ironbird) and Instagram(Ironbirdsweden)
