Black Svan formed in 2009 in Drogheda. They are a five piece heavy metal band whose sound is heavily influenced by American rock and metal bands like Pantera, Alice in Chains, Soil and Disturbed. In 2010 they toured Europe with Fozzy and Stuck Mojo and their debut album, 16 Minutes was released in 2014. That went straight to No. 2 in the Irish Metal Charts. It was only beaten to the top spot by Slipknot. Lead singer Keith Caffrey spoke to Musos’ Guide before their Main Stage show at Vantastival last Friday.
MG: What's brings you to Vantastival?
KC: We've played at pretty much every Vantastival that there’s been. Ever since it started out we’ve been on the bill.
MG: Are you local to the area?
KC: We're Drogheda based. We used to travel out to Dundalk. We grew up playing The Spirit Store in Dundalk and places like that. We have a lot of connections there. Our guitar player, Jagger, lives in Dundalk at the moment. The Vantastival gig was always one that we did and it’s great to have it here in Drogheda close to home.
MG: Your album came out in October '14 and it's really good.
KC: Yeah, 16 Minutes. It took a long time to do. It was hard work. We're self funded, like every metal band on the planet. A lot of hard graft went into it and we're happy with the finished product. We had a good team working with us. The producer was Jacob Hansen, who produced Volbeat's albums. He has a really good sound. We like the Volbeat sound. It good and clean but still aggressive. We really like the sound.
MG: How did you end up touring with Fozzy and Stuck Mojo?
KC: So the European tour, the way it came about, Jagger and myself growing up were massive wrestling fans. Jericho, The Rock, Stone Cold, anyone who was a teenager during those years was a wrestling fan. That continued on into our early twenties. Fozzy was coming over and Jagger was a member of, or in fact was, the Irish street team for Fozzy. He got in contact with Anne in the UK street team. One thing lead to another. They heard our music and they really liked it.
Originally the bill for Belfast was filled but they liked us and stuck us on the bill for Belfast and Dublin. We thought that this was awesome. So we did Belfast, we did Dublin, and we got a call a few days later saying a slot has become available on the European tour and we were like “Absolutely!”. Next thing you know we were flying into Paris and doing the tour and we did the whole tour. And as soon as that one finished up we got the Mojo one. Some of the guys in Fozzy cross over to Mojo. They were starting another one so they said “You might as well come with us as well”. We ended up doing both tours.
MG: This was long before you had an album out or anything.
KC: We were only together since 2009 so this was a year into our existence. We've supported the likes of Diamond Head as well which was a big honour, in The Spirit Store. We did the Academy with Kerbdog. Kerbdog are awesome, really sound as well. We've had some cool things happen.
The blurb for Jericho’s autobiography says “One of the top ten WWE wrestlers, Fozzy gets praise from Kerrang, and his church bake sales are second to none'.
He just never stops. To get an acknowledgement on one of their albums was awesome as well, in the “Thank you” part, we get credited there, that was cool. A nice homage to the tour we did together.
MG: You've said before that you learned so much from that tour.
KC: Yeah, you learn the keys to setting up and getting offstage quickly. That comes from knowing you have your slot and you can’t fuck around. You have to be on point. Like any support band you get a line check and that line check is crucial. You want to sound your best and you're not going to get a soundcheck like Fozzy are going to get. You have to get on, get set up, and be as professional as you can and get off as quick as you can. Metal For The Masses is quite good for that as well. You have half an hour to really shine.
MG: What are you up to at the moment?
KC: We're writing at the moment. We have three or four songs that we've nailed down. We are deciding what to do. A lot of bands seem to be going the EP route at the moment. So we'll see. We’re open to it. It's a bit secretive right now.
MG: So you won't be playing them tonight?
KC: We've got one new song for tonight.
MG: You're off to Kerry tomorrow.
KC: Yeah, K-Fest. In Killorglin somewhere. About half an hour from Kerry in the wrong direction. We've got the Unleashed Festival in Dublin as well, in On The Rox. Serious line up there. We've got The Spirit Store with Words That Burn. We team up and play a lot of shows together. They're from Dundalk. Their album is coming out this week so look out for that. We're going to Hellfest. We've got an interview set up with our label because they’re French. They have a stand set up, M & O Records. We’re going to have an interview there and our merch will be available there.
MG: Any other craic?
KC: The album is there, it's on Spotify and we just put in on Reverbnation too, so it's free to listen to. We'd like people to listen to it and if they like it, come see us, buy the album. We've a full 12 page booklet. We like the old school, physical thing as well. We'd like to do a new video. That's something we're working on.
MG: I'm surprised you aren't more well known. It's a very accessible sound.
KC: Yeah, it’s a niche market anywhere you go. Maybe more so in Ireland. It's hard to get that extra lift to get you where you need to go. You need money behind you when it comes to touring and that. We all work full time and this is our passion. We just give 100 percent. And keep moving forward.
16 Minutes is available from amazon & iTunes.
