Interview with Sculforge

Hello there, nice to have you on Volatile Weekly! What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music, what would you be doing today?

• Polly: Aye Caramba! Thanks for having us. Well, of course our dads. If we hadn’t gotten into music, we would probably be playing in a Beatles cover band today. Oh wait, that’s music too. Alright, I would probably be cleaning swimming pools - most likely my own.

• Fabz: I think i would be a real life Barney Gumble kind of dude… that would be cool :-)

What do you like to do when you are not playing music, and how does that influence your creativity?

• Polly: We purge the Galaxy - there’s no time for side hustles. It takes 100% percent absolute dedication and attention. And also a lot of willpower.

• Fabz: Damn right! But all that purging stuff is very exhausting so i like to drink beer and watch netflix documentaries and that leads to creativity. Almost all my ideas for glorious power metal songs come from “selling sunset” or “baking impossible”!

How long has your band been around?

• Polly: Actually, since 1977. We were probably the most unsuccessful country band ever for about 43 years. People simply didn’t like us because we were singing about robots, we were lacking cowboy hats and all that. But since we decided to become a metal band, it’s going upward rapidly.

• Fabz: It’s funny because it’s true!

Where are you based out of and how did that influence your music?

• Space – of course! That’s why this interview can’t happen in person.

How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean to you?

• Polly: I lied to you earlier. One of my hobbies is sculpting and it’s just a stupid way of showing my love for it.

• Fabz: Actually, I invented the name! Way earlier in my life when i was only 2 or 3 years old

• I couldn’t write properly so i wrote #SxFx on my wall. Later I refined it and so I came up with the name.

Tell me about your most memorable shows.

• Well, there was this one show in Moscow in the late 80s. We made a pyramid with our bodies - all 5 of us!

• Fabz: Dude, that wasn’t us. That was the Scorpions. And we’re not even 5 people.

• Polly: Oh…alright, then it was definitely Live Aid in Wembley.

• Fabz: …that was Queen. I guess what Polly is trying to say is that we have played one show so far, so the choice is really obvious :)

What is your favorite venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to play that you have not already?

• Polly: Wembley!

• Fabz:...not that again…

• Polly: Just kidding. Wacken, Summerbreeze, 70.000 tons of metal.

If you could play any show with any line-up, who would be on the ticket?

• Polly: Blind Guardian, Gamma Ray and Brad Paisley ��� Oh, and Fabz is probably going to say Dragonforce, Alestorm and Iron Savior.

What is some advice that you would give to someone who is just getting into playing in a band and some advice that you would give to your younger self?

• Polly: Leave your ego at the door. Nobody likes control freaks. Also: Don’t be a dick. It may be the easy thing to do, but in the long run, not being an asshole really pays off.

• Fabz: Practice! And don’t go into guitar shops and stress the staff with badly played riffs from shitty bands!

If you could go back in time and give yourselves advice, what would it be?

• Polly: You don’t need CDs to apply for a record deal in 2023.

• Fabz: Really!? But why did we… errr…

Of your songs which one means the most to you and why?

• Polly: For me, it’s actually “A New Hope”. It’s the longest track on the record and it has everything we do: Very fast double bass, furious guitar solos and pitiful attempts of singing from myself. Also, the song is a little bit autobiographic, and I only realized that after we recorded it. When we started Sculforge, we were stuck in lockdown and bored out of our minds. And step by step (oooh baby!)

• Fabz: For me it’s always the one i’m currently working on. Once a song is recorded i rarely listen to it anymore. Sure, I have to revisit them from time to time to find out what the heck i was playing when i recorded it, but that’s about it…

Which songs are your favorite to play and which get requested the most?

• Polly: Oh wow, we don’t get any requests. Is that a thing? Well people, now you know - but please at least make it a song from Sculforge, ok?

• Fabz: Always the one we didn’t rehearse properly.

What is the creative process for the band, and what inspires you to write your music?

• Polly: Fabz and I write most of the stuff. Since we are a remote band, we can’t jam in a band practice - which is good, because I hate it. Usually, either of us comes up with an idea that we pre-record. Then we build a song out of it together. We have after all very meticulously analyzed what hard core fans like about Power Metal. So we always try to do the absolute opposite, be it soundwise or vocals. And when we have a structured demo, the other guys get into the game. It’s all really harmonic which happens when you can leave your ego at the door.

What kinds of messages do you like to get across in your music?

• Polly: I like that question. So I’m gonna answer seriously at least once.

• The world is not black and white. It is all shades of gray or rainbow, and it is fine that way! Metal shouldn't be about telling people what to do, how this or that band isn’t power metal or how bands get shit because they developed in a direction someone doesn’t like.

• Also, and I’d like to point this out, we are singing about a grimdark future filled with nothing but war. But we don’t actually glorify war, quite the opposite. War sucks! It brings so much misery and that’s why our merry band of adventurers sets out to find a way to end all wars.

Do you ever have disagreements in your band, and how do you get past them?

• Polly: Look, we’re old fucks. We don’t have time for that petty “oh but I want MY part to be in the song”. We’re old and tired all day and we have kids. So there’s just no energy left to argue about stupid things. If we disagree, we make a plan and execute it. And then we carry on.

What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that is coming up?

• Polly: Well, the second album is almost done, so we will have to see what we do after we have finalized it. And of course, the first album is coming out on June 23rd!

• Fabz: I’m gonna go on vacation next week! And I plan to buy a new couch soon.

How can your fans best keep up to date with you, any socials you want people to check out?

• Fabz: There's this super fancy brand new all knowing machine. It's a place on the interwebz where you can type in all kinds of questions and stuff. It's called "Google" try it yourself! Type in SCULFORGE and it shows you everything. It's crazy! But it's true!

• Fabz: Thank you for the interview Bro! Was good fun! But now we gotta go! The bar is opening in a couple minutes and we gotta purge the galaxy and whatnot.

  Take care!