Guitariste-Metal

Dag Swanö speak about his projects, his influence, gears and future of NIGHTINGALE.

Hi Dag !  How are you and what about Nightingale and your projects ?

I´m fine. Nightingale is rocking hard at the moment. My only other stuff is my soloband “Dag Swanö´s Äventyr”

How can you describe your music to someone who doesn’t know it ?

Nightingale is progressive hardrock, not metal. My own stuff is progressive pop with a touch of the bizarre

How do you write a song ? In Nightingale or other projects ?

Nightingale songs usually start with a riff or something like that. With my other stuff I sometimes write the music after the lyric.

Many of my Nightingale songs were written a long time ago on acoustic guitar or piano.

Now let’s speak about the guitar. Tell us more about the discovering of that instrument and your beginner’s times ?

I started playing the guitar in 1975, at 12. Our dad showed me the first chords, C and G7. I was a dreadful player for many years but i had a pretty good feeling for rythm. It wasn´t so easy back then. No videos or YouTube clips about “how to do it”.

What were your influences or musical heroes at that time ? And now, are they still the same ?

I wanted to be Ritchie Blackmore in Queen. He is still a hero. I´m more into bands than guitarplayers. I really like Uli Roth

My influences is mainly 70’s stuff: Led Zeppelin, Queen, 10cc, Steely Dan, Styx, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Purple, Kansas ( not much metal there)/

Talking about gear, can you talk about the evolution of it ? From the beginning until now : guitars, pedals, picks, strings, preamps, effects, brand, etc…

I started out on cheap guitars/copies. I have played my Ibanez Blazer “stratcopy” for 20 years. Got my first real strat in 2008 !

I used the Blazer ( with a Humbucker ) on all Nightingale albums except “Retribution“. On that I used my Strat with Seymour Duncan pickups and a Fender Tele Deluxe.

My first amp was a Peavy 50 watts. Then an awful Swedish one called “Halkan”.

I would borrow amps most of the time. I got the POD when I first came out. A small blessing but it sounds pretty bad when you hear it now.

Right now I use a Vox AC 30 with lots of stompboxes. Most of them MXR.

With Nightingale I use 10-52 strings of different brands. My other guitars are 009-42.

I use Dunlop Tortex picks 1,14 mm

Is it the same gear in studio than live ?

With Nightingale, live, i use a my Les Paul Studio Delux with coiltap. Would love to use my strat but it doesn´t like being tuned down to Eb ( not to mention the “C# Drop” on some songs )

I use a POD HD 300 and plug it into whatever amp there is in the backline. With that I use a Dunlop 95Q wha-wha ( because I can´t stand the digital ones ) and a BOSS tuner.

I use the Bogner emulation in the POD for heavysound and Fender Deluxe for Softies.

In my homestudio I use Softube Vintage Amp Room and Amplitube ( Fender/Hendrix ). I don´t know about the amp gear. On the latest Nightingale album Ler On earlier albums I used MesaBoogie, Marshall and other stuff

Dag, how is it to work between brothers ? Is it easy to be lead by your younger brother in studio for example ?

I could be a problem being in a band with a much more famous brother but it´s not. Nightingale have always been about the songs.

We are mature enough not to let the egos disturb the quality of the music. I don´t think we ever had an argument over whose songs should go on the album/setlist or who´s playing what. It´s nice !

What advice can you give to a young/beginner metal guitarist ?

Find your own style. Like in the Far West there is always someone “slightly faster”. If you´re planning to play the same 3 solos for 30 years as I have done, be sure to change musical environment from time to time.

Any tips for the warm up before recording/live/rehearsal ?

I just play.

What is the future with Nightingale / your differents projects ?

Some more live gigs with Nightingale would be nice. Then we´ll see. We´re gettin´old.

Now it’s time to end this interview, if I forgot something, it’s time for you to tell what you want.

Rock hard in the fire of night.

Thanks for Geoffroy Lagrange !

Site web : http://www.nightingale.at/
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/nightingalesweden?fref=ts