The Revolution Café and Bar is an intimate venue located down an alleyway in historical Downtown Bryan. A venue I have frequented during my time at Texas A&M and a staple for any music lover in the area as it hosts all things underground and punk. Lo and behold when I discovered that this humble venue would host one of the greatest guitarists to tour this world with one of its greatest bands, Kyle Shutt of The Sword.

Kyle Shutt, along with The Sword, come from humble beginnings. They played across the many hole-in-the-wall venues in Austin during the early 2000s while Shutt and his bandmates were in their mid-twenties. The band was beginning to stand out among the Live Music Capital of the World. A city abound with many music acts including those of rock and heavy metal, The Sword stood out in a crowded scene with its slow and heavy riffs, fantasy poetry lyrics, and a thrashing sound. After playing at South by Southwest, the band was recommended to a record label by Lamb of God’s Mark Morton. The band’s debut album, Age of Winters, released in 2006.

The Sword had an early and huge gain in success thanks to tours with Metallica, Lamb of God, Clutch, and Machine Head. Word-of-mouth contributed to their success and fame as they toured all over the world with these acts. The Sword released a total of six studio albums over the course of their lifetime. It was after the tour in support of their sixth studio album Used Future, which came out in early 2018, that the band announced they would be going on hiatus later that year.

Early in 2019, Kyle Shutt announced he would be hosting crowdfunding for a solo album. Shutt ended having more than enough funds to produce the album and have a tour in support of the album. He stopped by The Revolution the night of August 31st in which I got a chance to sit down with him. I unfortunately did not know that Santiago “Jimmy” Vela, drummer for The Sword, would be touring with Shutt on his drums. As exciting as it was to find out last minute that I was meeting two members of such a legendary band, most of my questions were geared towards Shutt with his project and his time with The Sword. Luckily, Vela was able to join us and answer a few questions as well.

D-Jed (DJ):

So here we are guys, you are playing The Revolution in Bryan. How are y’all feeling?

Kyle Shutt (KS):

The Revolution! Yea, this is awesome. I’ve never played Bryan before. I’m actually named after the football field in College Station. That’s about as Texas as it gets, named after a football field.

DJ:

Are you serious? Did your folks go to A&M?

KS:

Nah, my Dad was from Divine, and my Mom was from Pleasanton, and I think she was a cheerleader, and my dad was a football player. And they met at the State Championship, Kyle Field, in like 1981 or something like that and they must have fallen in love because I came around in like 1983 or something like that.

DJ:

So Vela, where are you from exactly?

Jimmy Vela (JV):

Austin, I was born in Austin.

KS:

I was raised all over Texas, but Jimmy was born and raised in Austin.

DJ: 

So solo sound, man. How do you approach it?

KS:

I went into the studio and made the whole thing by myself because I wanted to pretend I was Prince for a day and make an album with me on everything. And when it came down to playing and you need a band, Jimmy is the best damn drummer around.

JV:

Just helping my brother Kyle.

KS:

But I did play his drums on the album.

JV:

Yea, I brought the drums over. Kyle recorded the record by himself. But he had some support from his homies.

DJ:

Can’t go wrong with brothers in arms. On that note, what were your main influences? Of course when I heard Big City, I’m thinking Big City Nights. Kind of a Scorpions kind of sound.

KS:

I love Scorps man. I love all kinds of music. And that’s kind of what I wanted the record to be, a lot of different flavors of rock and roll. I like loud guitars, and I like fast driving beats and drums. I like synthesizers and I like guitar solos. It was me trying to cover a lot of bases I guess with one album. I didn’t want to linger. I didn’t want to make some really long drawn out album, I just wanted to make some real fast and fun rock and roll album just good times, summer mix songs. A good place to start so then I could go any direction from there.

DJ:

It sounds like, so far of what I’ve heard, most of your track listing it’s very short and sweet and it’s got some nice upbeat anthems on it. I really enjoyed it so far from what I’ve heard and I look forward to listening to all of it. Is this your first time on vocals?

KS:

Lead vocals, yea. I did backups for The Sword for the last few years.

DJ:

Man, how did you approach the vocal style?

KS:

I didn’t. (Laughs) I just kind of told my engineer hit record and see what happens. You know, it’s weird when you listen to your own voice as a lead instrument for the first time. It’s kind of hard to place it, you know. I took a lot of inspiration like from John Reis from Rocket From the Crypts. I always felt like my voice had a lot in common with his. Or just any kind of raspy rock and roll. I really like Paul Westerburg from The Replacements and his stuff. You know, I can’t sing all that great, but if you put enough soul into it, it can sound convincing. So I just wanted it to sound honest and social.

DJ:

Yea man, I thought of when I first heard you, I thought of like obviously there’s Lemmy [Kilmister] and Little Richard, they’re not classically trained, but they got that soul. Even Ozzy [Osbourne] is not a great singer, but he’s got that right sound and soul.

KS:

That’s more important than hitting the right note sometimes.

DJ:

With that, not only do we have one-half of The Sword, we have one-third of Doom Side of the Moon here. What was Doom Side of the Moon like for you guys? How much did you enjoy it? What was it like picking the right songs?

KS:

It was a lot of work for me. How was it for you [Vela]?

JV:

It was great. It was a fun exercise in musicianship. We all got to really expand and play a lot of different kinds of stuff. It was fun. Great time. I got to play with my friends. We were all friends.

KS:

Yea, I really wanted it to be a collaborative, or at least a collective of like really talented, a-list Austin musicians. You know, for sure the A-Team all around because there was a visual team as well.

DJ:

Yea, I saw one your music videos. It was this… oh my God.

KS:

It’s funny, you can’t just cover Pink Floyd, you gotta really bring the visual aspect too. That was really important to them.

DJ:

So what was it like with Alex Morerro on vocals of Brown Sabbath on vocals because I didn’t know of Brown Sabbath until they were on that Ozzy show [Ozzy and Jack’s World Detour] recently, and they had a great sound to them as this like mariachi cover band of Black Sabbath.

KS:

Mariachi would be weird describing their band, because they’re still really heavy, and then Sabbath was already pretty jazzy and with their vocals. But I really enjoyed his vocals. They were a band called Brownout, and then they started playing Black Sabbath songs and they became Brown Sabbath. He was a guy who started singing for Brownout and Brownout was an instrumental band and they had like a gang vocal aspect but Alex became their lead vocalist. I really liked his vocals, but I was apprehensive about him being in another cover band. I just didn’t think he wanted to do it. Essentially it was a cover band. Even though it was a different thing. I think the idea was too fun for him to pass up and he did it. He’s just a total pro. He’s the kind of a guy to load into any situation and just drive. I didn’t realize he played guitar too, and he did percussion and stuff for Brownout. Because I was going to bring another guitar player for the band, but he was like just let me do it, so it ended up being a positive experience. It was just fun.

DJ:

So I wanted to ask what it was like to do crowdfunding? And what’s the point of your Kickstarter now? I see you’re offering to do covers now too.

KS:

Honestly, I’ve had a couple drinks, I’ll be really honest with you. I don’t recommend it. My preferred method of work is to work really hard and then reap the benefits. When you crowdfund, you’re kinda like taking the money first and then you gotta do the work and, I don’t know, it’s also kind of backwards with the way I like to do things. But it was my only option at the time, so I went in with my full passion and fervor just like I would anything else. I mean I killed my goal, it was great, I almost got thirty percent over it, and it was a lot of fun. I think it was eye opening for a lot of the fans because they don’t realize how much money it takes to just make a professional sounding album is and pressing your own records and getting out to distribute and booking your own tours. And just people, you know, are like “$30,000?!” and you can do that for free in your ----ing bedroom, and like yea, but what does it sound like doing it? It was something I wanted to do and I’m glad I did it, but I don’t know if I would do it again, but I might do it again. (Laughs)

DJ:

That’s fair, we’re all just masochists here.

KS: 

(To JV) What was it like watching it? Because you had the different perspective on it.

JV:

I’ve never done anything like that, so I can’t speak on doing it, but from watching it, it was exciting. If you’re a fan, you kind of feel a part of something. If it succeeds, you get to be stoked about it. It was cool.

KS:

It’s just like the next chapter. I had to do it.

DJ:

You had to do it. You can’t sit still too long. I wanted to ask, what’s it like now with your stage presence? With The Sword, when I saw y’all, you guys just go up and jam, not a lot of theatrics, but y’all command the stage no less. But then here’s you, now, solo, you’re the frontman now, you gotta bring the thunder, and you said part of this is like summer anthems. So what’s it like with your stage presence previously with The Sword, both of you guys, and now [Kyle Shutt Band]?

KS:

It’s a different band, sounding band. A little more lighthearted and kind of more open to having some stage banter. A little more joking.

JV:

Less mysterious, more just friends playing music together. That’s kind of what it feels like. For me, playing with it, it’s more of like a “stay-open” kind of vibe. Everyone’s trying to have a good time instead of trying perfect the performance. A fun vibe.

KS:

We didn’t have anything to prove, really. We never had this attitude of like, “We need to go out there and ----ing destroy everybody!” blah blah. We just did it. With this one, it’s just a different vibe. More crowd interactive and just lighthearted and fun. Not like this massive rock and roll, sparks coming out at you. It is, not as massive I guess.

DJ:

With The Sword, it was almost like, y’all were these guys running the world and telling us stories of Freya. Anyways, what was it like with you guys trying to break out in Austin at the time y’all started? It was you [KS], Richie, and JD. What was it like with the scene in ’04?

KS:

Trivett [Wingo] (founding member and former drummer) came in before Bryan [Richie]. It was definitely a music town back then. It’s not really a music town so much anymore. Back then there wasn’t really a lot of heavy bands that had melody to them. Every heavy band had a screamer. JD was the first guy that had the courage to just sing songs, and that really set us apart. When we hit, we hit really hard and fast because we had all been in a million bands before and knew what to do and what not to do. So The Sword was able to hit the ground running and within two years we were already touring heavily and had an album out. In hindsight, it happened really fast. You know, you go from being a bar band on Red River in 2004 to 2008 being on a world tour with Metallica, that’s a pretty steep incline, but at the time, it was very natural. And then the slow steady decline happened afterwards. (Laughs) Not like a decline, but there’s definitely plateaus in music, but the uptick was wicked fast.

DJ:

I was wondering, what was your guys’ first thoughts, especially you Vela since you came in halfway through, first thoughts on JD’s lyrical style? Especially in the beginning, it’s like A Song of Ice and Fire, Norse Mythology.

KS:

He was able to use imagery in a way that was very effective. Whereas a lot of people that try do it and it’s just totally cheesy, he was able to do it in a very poetic and convincing way that was better than anything I had ever heard from any other band. You put our music up against 

----ing like, a lot of old bands, I’m not going to name names. Put JD’s lyrics up against like some old standard, there’s no way better.

JV:

Yea, he’s always focused on writing a timeless lyric instead of something that kind of dates itself with lingo. He writes timeless lyrics.

KS:

No swearing either.

JV:

Yea, he’s never been a profane writer, but dark and profane in ways that aren’t vulgar.

DJ:

Is that what you would’ve expected that band would start writing about back in the day?

KS:

The Sword? Absolutely. He wrote most of the first album before there was even a full band. We had a front row seat for that initial wave of lyrical output.

DJ:

And then with your lyrics solo now, and we kind of touched upon it, you’re wanting to do something more upbeat, anthem style.

KS:

My lyrical style is way more autobiographical. I guess you could say, straight up me, me, I, I, you, you, we, we, kind of stuff. Literally zero imagery, very little imagery. There is some, but most of it is pretty literal.

DJ:

That’s awesome man. It was a nice taste. I could still hear your riffs from The Sword, but it was a different style, your style obviously. Speaking of lyrics and stuff, in vocals, what was it like working with Jazz Mills on Seriously Mysterious? I love that track. That’s my favorite track on that whole album [High Country] and she’s phenomenal. What was it like in the studio with her?

JV:

We didn’t really get a lot of time with her.

KS:

That’s an Adrian [Quesada] question.

JV:

Yea, she came in and did her vocals pretty quickly. She did great. Adrian [Quesada], the producer, had the idea of bringing her in and putting her on the track and adding a little element to the chorus. Yea, she did great.

KS:

We had never had a vocal element that wasn’t JD on a record before, so like having some background vocals was something we wanted to experiment. We had a good time.

DJ:

So overall you guys enjoyed the presence and touch of Jazz Mills?

KS:

It was great man. On that song, I didn’t even wanted a guitar on. JD wrote that song, but I kind of spearheaded the vibe of it. His demo was all synthesizer. So I was like, no, it needs to be a dance-pop song. But then I started hearing guitar parts in my head, and I was like, okay, I’m going to break my own rules for a little bit.

JV:

We eventually turned it into a full blown rock song with the guitar and vibe.

DJ:

So what was it like touring with Metallica and Lamb of God? I gotta ask. Especially on that first European tour.

KS:

Lamb of God helped us get a record deal, so we helped Lamb of God get on the Metallica tour. So that was a whole full circle kind of relationship. It was great. Metallica is super generous. They really took us under their wing and paid us well, made sure we had everything we needed. Like really did things they didn’t have to do. We were just their favorite band. It’s pretty surreal when one of your favorite bands told you that you’re one of their favorite bands.

DJ:

That’s amazing man. And it helped you guys really break out in Europe?

KS:

Yea, like Clutch took us out and Nebula. But the Metallica tour is a much bigger thing. It was great. We played over a hundred shows with them all over the world. They basically made us their house band for a whole album cycle. You can’t buy that kind of s---. You know what I mean?

DJ:

Easily. That was Death Magnetic they were supporting. How is it approaching the album artwork over the years? Obviously, you start with an art nouveau on the debut album [Age of Winters], and it got more abstract with Warp Riders you have a landscape, Apocryphon was amazing, then High Country and Used Future took a different approach. How do you guys approach album artwork?

JV:

We used a different person on every album. Try to keep it fresh each time.

KS:

Just eye-catchy. It’s gotta jump off the shelf, look a little different than anything else at the time. We did a lot of illustrative kind of covers and with the last two, we wanted to go a little more photographic. The Used Future album cover is a real picture. It’s a real photograph that was taken that we purchased. (Laughs)

DJ:

And do you guys pitch it, or do you let the artist listen and maybe come up with something?

KS:

It’s a different story every time. It just depends on the concept or the artist. Or sometimes you hire an artist you like because you don’t have an idea. You let them come up with a concept based on the music that they hear. Sometimes, you already got an idea and you like something. It’s different every time. There’s no formula for that.

DJ:

And then how are you approaching your solo album? I mean, obviously, it’s you. You gotta have you on your first album.

KS:

I wanted a velvet painting. Because nothing says I don’t take myself too seriously like a velvet painting [of myself].

DJ:

Oh yea. What about maybe a second album?

KS:

If it happens, it happens. No promises right now.

DJ:

Cross that bridge when you get to it?

KS:

I joined a new band called Mountain of Smoke and we did a record together. We’re trying to get that out next. It would be just one more thing in the holster.

DJ:

Of course. So I wanted to ask, y’all are on hiatus, is there anything in particular, the band as a whole is, and you guys individually, are looking to accomplish while on hiatus? I saw an interview a year ago that you were wanting the sound to resonate a little more.

KS:

Sleep, just kind of sleep. Let it hibernate, give people a break.

JV:

Hibernate, marinate, sleep. Let what we’ve done already kind of sit in with people. We’ve done a lot of music over the course of a short amount of time. And I think people just need to digest right now. At the same time, let ourselves kind of reflect.

KS:

Because it’s been almost a year since we’ve played a show, and I’ll tell ya, I’ve done some reflection brother. You know what I mean? It’s been interesting. Because we’ve taken years off before, but like one at a time. Not like, just stop loading the machine and just see what happens later. We were on for fifteen years and that’s a ----ing long time. So it didn’t seem like that long, once we took a step back, it really seemed that way. Onward and over.

DJ:

So you’d say it’s probably spiritual for you guys right now and just revisit what is The Sword down the road?

KS:

I think so. I think we were so close to each other for so long that maybe some time apart will do us some good.

I’d like to thank Kyle Shutt and Jimmy Vela for spending their evening with me and sitting down for the interview. The Kyle Shutt band has plenty of more shows coming up. I wish the best for Shutt’s and Vela’s future endeavors and the continued legacy of The Sword.

Tune into the final shows of Metal Madness on kanm.org Friday nights at 10.

-Jedidiah “D-Jed” Ullrich ’19