Framed by the silver shadows of phone flashlights and lamps, the band begins soundcheck. Streetlights glint through the window. Soon, the music pulsates above the band with dizzying momentum, as the crowd moshes in the dark on the checkered floor. Everyone’s striving to lose control, reaching fervently for that moment of split-second catharsis. As the drums and clattering instrumentals grow louder, the vocals hum in the background — a tether for the storm spinning outward.
Sword II formed in 2018, and is made up of Atlanta locals Mari (bass and vocals), Corey Zuko (guitar and vocals), Travis Arnold (guitar and vocals) and Frio (drums and vocals). Their first EP, “Between II Gardens,” which they self-released in 2020, features four experimental tracks. The layered instrumentals, lo-fi and vocal samples hold indie-rock, post-punk, shoegaze and noise pop influences. Their next release, “Spirit World Tour,” a full length album, is set to come out in March.
Performed live, the songs from the EP sound more distorted, leaning into their shoegaze and noise-rock influences. Sword II played one of the six sets at “Rock against Repression!” on Jan. 12. The show was hosted at South Bend Commons, a space in Lakewood Heights that describes itself as “a real-life gathering place for urban experiments in community, autonomy and resilience in Atlanta.” It’s an ideal venue for a band committed to a similar mission — experimentation free from existing constraints.
The show was a benefit for “Defend the Atlanta Forest,” an autonomous social movement resisting the destruction of 381-acres of the South River Forest, also known as the Weelaunee Forest, to build a police militarization training facility, termed “Cop City'' by activists. The movement works toward fighting a range of interconnected issues including environmental concerns, the climate crisis, racial justice and policing and abolition.
“People, come out to Weelaunee people’s park on Saturday and rearrange the rubble into something beautiful,” one of the organizers called out to the crowd.
Someone began to chant “defend the forest,” and cheers filled the room, building up excitement as audience members huddled in closer. The collective voices against the background of soft sounds of instruments stirring and powering up made it feel like something hopeful was in the making.
Sword II has participated in other cause-driven projects. Their single “First Rule of the Bug,” appeared in “Through the Soil,” a no-label compilation album project supporting nonprofits like The Trevor Project and the National Network of Abortion Funds. Other artists featured in the project include Faye Webster, Julien Baker and MJ Lenderman. Sword II also performed at the “Defend the Forest Music Festival'' in July 2022, which featured more than 30 local artists.
A couple of weeks after the Jan. 12 show, I sat down with Sword II at Zuko’s residence to discuss the band’s upcoming album and “Between II Gardens.” The patio we are seated on is filled with artwork and potted plants. Frio tosses a banana to Zuko. Birds chirp in the surrounding trees outside as the band reflects on their relationship with nature. In a painting hung above the wall, blue pixie lights peek out between tree trunks in a dense forest.
Sitting in the space, I’m reminded of the band’s music video for “First Rule of the Bug,” which features the band tumbling through fields, holding jars up to blinking sunlight and watching bugs scuttle around in homemade montage style clips.
“Now I’m picking you up again / Don’t try to run,” Mari sings as the camera pans to close-ups of insects — evoking a sense of tenderness in the visual parallel between bug and human.
Arnold commented on the inspiration behind the song.
“We would see so many epic-ass insect battles,” they said.
Frio and Zuko recounted attentively observing a praying mantis eating a cockroach in one go one night after a studio session.
While the band finds wonder in the mundane and tangible, their music simultaneously meditates on more abstract ideas.
Part of what makes “Between II Gardens” so compelling is the sudden transitions within tracks. “Shower” opens with a dream bubble sound effect and Mari on vocals, singing, “My interest is to have nice things.” About a minute and a half in, a shift occurs with “Take a shower / Wash my hair,” springing the listener out of the hazy reverie and into action. The track then begins its search: a sense of longing captured through “So sick of it / Waiting my turn.”
As the tempo rises gradually, the many sounds are in clashing conversation; visualizing it brings to mind a frenzy of foot-stomping, kicking and urgent dancing. And then it ends in a full circle, with a singsong note dropping the listener back into that dream state. Listening to “Between II Gardens” feels like dreaming only to wake up to find yourself in yet another dream.
Frio said that the concept for the new album, “Spirit World Tour,” which has been in the works for three years, began with something more physical: one of Zuko’s drawings depicting something exploding out of a box.
“The meaning behind ‘Spirit World Tour’ is we always wanted to be rockstars and go on world tour, but then we were kind of stuck in the pandemic and also we were kind of limited by our own resources as a DIY band,” Zuko said. “And so we were going on an exploration of the spiritual, I guess.”
Frio added that the tracks hold expansive stadium vision, like the kinds of shows they hope to play one day.
The tracks tread genres and are experimental; some are hardcore punk or rock, while others lean into pop, taking inspiration from Madonna and Lady Gaga. Zuko said that tracks are heavily edited, making it hard to identify the original instruments.
“One of the questions we’re asking with the lyrics is, what is natural?” Zuko said. “What is the line between natural and artificial?”
Frio described the album’s tone as a “spiritual emanation that’s … separate from us.”
Arnold expanded on this feeling, saying, “With the spirituality thing, it’s less about us knowing exactly what’s happening and more just like trying to accept things as they happen.”
The struggle between control and surrender can be seen in their song “Master Plan.” These lyrics reflect a similar sense of questioning: “What’s the point of it all? / Can’t you see? / How would I change the world if I can’t change myself?” You won’t find the answer in the distant vocals, which fade in and out of the instrumentation.
Arnold, whose vocals feature on the track, said they took inspiration from Sonic Youth’s practice of taking an assortment of phrases and improvising with them in real time. Images like “Feed the wasp right to the spider / Save the spider for myself / Ooze your tongue and swallow it dry” reflect a collage-like quality. After Arnold added vocals onto beats, Zuko worked with layering instrumentals on top. The track pulls you in slowly, alternating between wrapping you under blankets of urgent drums and then suddenly pulling them off for some sun. The track transitions from bubbling fervor to softer instrumentation. About three minutes into the song, there is an explosion: the crashing drums and bassline weave a swirling, concentric floating mass of something vividly unknown.
This meditative quality is reflected in their rehearsals, too. Under the dim glow in the room, the members of Sword II are deeply zoned into their parts. Their rehearsal space for the day is cozy: handmade art hangs on the walls and shelves overflow with CDs and cassettes. Books and papers, including James B. Nelson’s “Between Two Gardens: Reflections on Sexuality and Religious Experience,” from which the EP takes its name, surround the band.
After playing songs from “Between II Gardens” they practice “Silver,” a song from their upcoming album that they will play on tour in March. It bursts with their typical energetic transitions scattered throughout the track. Mari and Zuko go back and forth, practicing taking over the vocals from each other. Mari pauses, laughing midline. “I can’t hear myself,” they motion, and Zuko moves the amplifier around until it sounds about right. Coordinated like parts of a whole, they play the song thrice, each time with renewed focus.
Sword II hopes to engage in and encourage reinvention, both in their music and in themselves.
Zuko said that the band has wrestled with themes like religion, spirituality and sexuality — and their navigation of those constructs involves the constant assessment of their changing beliefs. It encouraged them to work on deciding “what is even worthy to relearn,” Arnold added.
Each coming from bands that held distinctive intentions, the members view Sword II as a space where they can experiment freely. While inspired by other artists in the Atlanta music scene and beyond, they said they do not feel the need to fit into a genre. They are not afraid to switch it up through multilingual lyrics, dynamic sounds on the sampler or spontaneous swells and tides in instrumentals. Their process is a reminder to constantly embrace shifting form, and to make the most of the resources you can access. And, it is this spirit of freedom that seems to be paving their way forward. Their vision is big — arena sized — but it is their very own.
These days, Zuko is thinking a lot about one example of reinvention: the culture of the anti-war movement in the ’70s and said they are inspired by the “kids deleting themselves from society to create their own culture.”
Sword II emulates this, too, in the projects they choose to support through their shows and on their social media, forming a part of the fabric of instinctive activism that accompanies the creative fervor of young artists.
“In the context of the band, one of the things we’ve talked about is that creating music or art gives you opportunity or the space to go beyond even what is real — or what other people think of as real,” Zuko said. “It’s just this kind of wild space where we’re renegotiating what it means to be a person or mythologizing ourselves in a new way.”
Sword II approaches their lyricism and production with the same fluidity their sound embodies — a willingness to relearn beliefs. And they leave listeners with the same spirit: to have their own beliefs lead their navigation of this wild space.
“That’s kind of what I hope people can really get from our music … that feeling … that meditation on being free to create yourself as you want,” Zuko said.
