December 10, 2006
Hailing from Indianapolis, the essence of Raise the Shield has been quietly germinating in guitarist, vocalist, producer and principal songwriter Dave Cardwell’s mind, blossoming into two excellent new releases, the EP Shocked Awake, and the full-length demo Play With Fire. Going on the offensive with an arsenal of traditional thrash and power metal rockers with a modern, slick edge, it was one of the most rounded and creative offerings on debut that I’ve had the pleasure to listen to. After some correspondence I was able to get his thoughts about his influences, aspirations and the state of metal in his home state (and country) and of course, the making of his new album.
Eyeless Sentry: G’day Dave. First up, tell us a little about the inspiration for your latest album, Play with Fire. I really dug the old sounds mixed with the new. Are you personally inspired more with the traditional elements of metal or the recent trends and styles? Or even other genres?
Dave Cardwell: I am definitely inspired by old-school thrash artists like Megadeth, Metallica, Flotsam and Jetsam and Testament. I dig extreme guitar work from the likes of Racer X, Cacophony, and Yngwie Malmsteen. I’m also into newer groups like Outworld, Strapping Young Lad, and Opeth. I don’t go for any specific sound; I just let inspiration and creativity take their course.
I was personally impressed with the slender gap between Shocked Awake and Play with Fire, being about two or three months between innings! Are you a musician by trade?
Shocked Awake was finished in early August and is a collection of earlier songs that were written a while back. So all the songs on that CD were already rehearsed and totally fleshed out long before the release of Shocked Awake in September.
Play With Fire was written much later. The oldest song on the new CD besides Deathwish is Play With Fire, which was written around June 2006. So I had a good amount of time to work on the follow up even before the first CD came out! I typically have a large backlog of new songs so I rarely start totally from scratch with a CD.
How much planning and effort is involved in the writing and recording of these releases? Doing everything by yourself can’t be easy.
I don’t do much planning in the beginning of a CD. I want the inspiration for the music to come spontaneously. Once I have that initial inspiration, then I rewrite and rework each song quite a bit.
Like to add anything for your fans?
Big thanks to everyone who is listening to Raise The Shield, and to all those who are helping me get my music out there. I’m amazed by the support I’m getting.
Thanks for the interview!
No problem, thanks for having me.
- Harm.us, Eyeless Sentry
