Luke Metcalf

Sound And Fury

The SOUND AND FURY homonymous and very good album woke some really old memories of mine and in order to get more info about them I contacted the band's singer Luke Metcalf. Luke answered to METAL TEMPLE's questions and among others proved that there are still people out there who believe in the underground scene.

By Dimitris Kontogeorgakos

• October 23, 2008

Hail from the Metal Temple magazine! Many congrats for your album; it really rocks! Please take some time to introduce the band to our readers. How did SOUND AND FURY start, anyway, and what 'critical points' did happen through the years from your early days 'till now?

Hey, thanks. We got together two years ago. Griffin, my lead guitarist, and I met in high school and started working on songs together and after awhile decided to put a band together. So we put the word out we were holding auditions and quickly found John and Chris, bass player and drummer, who had played together in a previous band. Then we were having trouble finding the right guy for rhythm guitar, so our manager put the word out to all the contacts he had all over the world and in the first day we got over two hundred emails from guys all over the world wanting the gig, we ended up getting a guy from New Zealand who was living in Australia at the time.

In my review I described your sound as an explosive blend of Punk and old-school Hard Rock, mentioning influences from bands like MISFITS, RAMONES and MOTORHEAD; Am I right? Can you give us a more precise description to your sound or another 'term', in some way?

Yeah, exactly, another big influence is AC/DC, and also the SEX PISTOLS. Basically, right from the start I wanted to create a hybrid of 70's hard rock and 70's punk. Stripped down, no bullshit, balls-to-the-wall Rock 'n' Roll to party your ass off to.

Ok, lets go to the composing process; how long did it take you to write the music? Do you all contribute parts to the making of a song or not? Did you have many songs not 'strong' enough to make it to Sound And Fury?

I always get the ball rolling. I come up with a bunch of rhythm guitar riffs, or a partially completed song, then I take it to the guys and we kick it around for awhile and try to pound it into shape.

How about the lyrics; do they come first and then the music or is the other way around?

I'm always writing out ideas for lyrics so that when the music for a song is done, I've got some rough lyrics ideas to start with.

I have to be honest; I was totally misled by the cover artwork of the album. I thought that it would be something like Melodic Death Metal! How did you end up with this cover art?

That was actually done by a wicked company in Kansas City called Liquid 9.Basically, my manager contacted them and I got on the phone and said I want it to be really cool, lots of skulls, people running wild, total rampage... and that's what they came up with, hahaha. I was blown away by it.

The music in Sound And Fury gives me the impression that it was written to be played live. Is this the case? Do you write music thinking of the fans and how would they like it?

We are definitely first and foremost a live band, so yeah we want the music to be really exciting, but while we're actually writing we're not thinking about anybody else, we're just focused on trying to make the best song we can.

Really, what's the story with the 'hidden' track I've Got Rabies that comes after Hellbound?

I was totally wasted one day hanging out in the park and I just had the idea for the song, I thought it was really funny, so that night I played it to the guys and we all decided it had to be on the album, ahaha.

What are your touring plans? Have you lined up any dates yet?

We're doing 21 shows in the UK in November opening for AIRBOURNE. After that who knows.

If you had to choose the best band to tour with who would that be? Not only as relevance to the music, but also as an experience to gain knowledge

from.

AC/DC. Definitely the best live band I've ever seen. BLACK SABBATH were also right up there, I saw them when they re-united with Ozzy and it was amazing.

Now mentioning: what are your personal music influences? Do you mix your separate influences to make it for the SOUND AND FURY sound?

I guess other than the ones I've already mentioned, I'm also a huge ZEPPELIN fan and that certainly has an influence.

What difficulties does a new band face nowadays with all this significant 'drop down' to record sales? What is your opinion/estimation?

This is the hardest time in the history of music to try to make a living.

When the whole change first came about everyone thought it would be really great because smaller bands could use the internet to go direct to the fans.

But quickly everyone realized that since there are literally millions of bands trying to be heard, it really isn't much of a help, and on top of that everyone is totally broke now, so yeah, it's a disaster, and it's very very difficult.

Sounds about right. So, what are your goals with SOUND AND FURY? Can you think when will you be able to feel satisfied with the band's achievements, really?

I will never be totally satisfied, I will always be thinking about how to make the next album more kick ass than the one before it.

What is your opinion with the current music trends in the Metal scene? I mean, only the famous bands seem to survive economically; what about the old-fashioned 'Underground' scene, is it dead?

The underground scene will always live in one form or other. I think there are going to be a lot of changes in the music scene in the next couple years and I'm very curious as to where it's going to go.

That's all from my side, I would like to thank you for your time and hope to see you some time in Greece. Please add anything you'd like to.

Thanks, if you're looking for a party, you found it. SOUND AND FURY.

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