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01. Aeon Sable - Aether
02. Amorphis - Queen Of Time
03. Atrium Carceri - Codex
04. Dimmu Borgir - Eonian
05. Behemoth - I Loved You At Your Darkest
06. The Eternal - Waiting For The Endless Dawn
07. MGT - Gemini Nyte
08. Primordial - Exile Amongst The Ruins
09. Khôrada - Salt
10. Immortal - Northern Chaos Gods
Interview with: Jack Sobel
Conducted by: Miguel
Black Swan Lane, an USA/UK based band was founded in 2007 by Jack Sobel and John Kolbeck (both formerly of The Messengers), and and Mark Burgess (formerly of The Chameleons, The Sun And The Moon, and Bird). The first Black Swan Lane album, A Long Way From Home (2007), was really more of an experiment and collaboration of different artists with no definite direction and nobody had ever imagined the band would take on it’s own unique sound and keep going years later. It really wasn’t until the third album and Mark’s last with the band that Black Swan Lane would find it’s niche. Since the formation Black Swan Lane already released six full-lenght albums and are now busy on working on a successor to the amazing A Moment Of Happiness which was released in 2014 by Eden Records. Their music is often labeled as alternative/indie rock but with a dark note that brings them close also to fans of post-punk, dark wave and gothic rock. Miguel did an interesting interview with Black Swan Lane founder Jack, who is also the main man at Wanderland Music Publishing, Inc. and its sub-label Eden Records. The talk is mostly about the upcoming album, about general things concerning the band, their influences and future plans.
Miguel: What were your expectations when all began?
Jack: None. When Mark Burgess and I hooked up to record some music together, it was really just anexploratory session to see what happened. When we started recording, I was still involved with The Messengers. Mark was involved in the very last Messengers album, Abundant Sunshine, which is only available now online at Wanderland Music. The Black Swan Lane experiment started when we got together for additional sessions and included some of Mark's backup musicians - Kwasi Asante, Achim Faerber and Yves Altana. Anna-Lynn Williams, from Trespassers William joined in a song as well. We then decided to bring the original members of The Sun And The Moon to the states for the first time to play a one off show in Atlanta and do additional recordings. The Sun And The Moon sessions was another project album that included myself, John Kolbeck, Mark Burgess, Andy Whitaker and Andy Clegg. During these recordings, the song, "In The Ether", off of our first album made it into the major motion picture, 'Adventureland', which gave us an international audience. The royalties that started streaming in helped us take album number 3, Things You Know And Love, a lot more seriously. Tykal shaped who we were exactly and defined the Black Swan Lane sound for years to come. There are some great songs on the first two albums, however, there is a dramatic difference in sound quality and production on albums 3,4,5 and 6. In addition to dollars, we spent a lot more time on the later albums perfecting the Black Swan Lane sound.
Miguel: Why the name Black Swan Lane? What does it mean?
Jack: During The Messengers years, Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots produced one of our albums, Queen Today, and wanted us to change the name to Big Time Alysa. BTA. Like STP. He said he liked band names with three words. I rejected the idea, not because he was wasted out of his mind at the time, but simply because I didn't want to do it. Years later when we knew it was time to change the name and concept, we wrote down about 70 ideas. None of them really stuck. Here's the story of the name, Black Swan Lane. I moved out of Atlanta to the outskirts of town to find less expensive real estate that had a large basement to convert into a music studio and offices. The first house I fell in love with was on a beautiful street named Black Swan Lane. Our realtor screwed up our offer and we lost the house. I then found a home in an area called The Aviary. When I searched the term Aviary onthe web, the first thing that appeared on the screen was a magnificent black swan. It hit me immediately that Black Swan Lane fit all the necessary criteria.
Black Swan Lane links: Official website, Facebook