Ancient Web: Eklectique Interviewed Switchblade Symphony in 1997

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

Before a concert in Salt Lake City on December 13, 1997, members of Switchblade Symphony sat down for an impromptu interview. The resulting webpage preserves both the questions and the awkward realities of a band being told what genre it belonged to.

Read the Eklectique interview.

Alicia Porter conducted the conversation alongside KRCL radio personalities Alan Moss and Alan Chow, who used the name Avant Bone. Jeff Carlisle supplied photographs. Their guests were singer Tina Root and musician Susan Wallace, then touring with material from Bread and Jam for Frances.

The interview does not follow a publicist's neat script. Wallace talks about an independently produced Scrapbook CD drawn from the group's early demos. Root says 1,500 copies were made for fans. There is also a tour comic illustrated by an artist associated with The Crow, and a forthcoming video the musicians hope to produce for 'Soldiers.'

A band caught between categories

The sharpest exchange concerns the industry. Wallace and Root reject the assumption that their music must remain narrowly gothic. They describe experimenting with DJs, different instruments, and hip-hop-influenced production. They also worry that other bands cannot easily imagine Switchblade Symphony as a suitable opening act because its sound does not fit one category.

These are contemporary accounts from the musicians, not retrospective claims reconstructed after the group's later history became familiar. Wallace even describes retreating into a room with videotapes, photographs, and a computer to work out new songs.

The page's old-web construction reinforces that immediacy. Photographs appear between the speakers' answers; the writer's name and image credits sit at the top. There is no embedded streaming player or algorithmic playlist trying to decide what the reader should hear next.

Its historical importance is not a claim of mass readership. It is the survival of an independently recorded conversation that captures a specific touring moment, a local radio community, and musicians arguing about how they wanted their work understood.

Read the full December 1997 discussion.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.