Black Swan (band)

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Black Swan
General information
Genre (s) Hard rock , heavy metal
founding 2019
Founding members
Robin McAuley
Reb Beach
Jeff Pilson
Matt Starr

Black Swan is a so-called supergroup founded in 2019 that is under contract with the Frontiers Music label . Three-quarters of the group consists of American musicians, singer Robin McAuley is from Ireland .

background

Black Swan consists of singer Robin McAuley ( Far Corporation , McAuley Schenker Group ), guitarist Reb Beach ( Winger , Whitesnake ), bassist Jeff Pilson ( Dokken , Dio , Foreigner ) and drummer Matt Starr ( Burning Rain ). The idea to found the band arose during a conversation between Jeff Pilson and Frontiers Records boss Serafino Perugino, who was looking for musicians who not only support McAuley's vocal abilities, but could also form a strong band for him. Pilson took up the idea.

Pilson had played for Dokken in 1999 and 2000 with Reb Beach, who had taken over the role of lead guitarist in the band after the departure of George Lynch . On a joint tour of their two current bands, Whitesnake and Foreigner, Beach and Pilson met again and again for small jam sessions and used a ten-day tour break to work on song ideas. When Pilson asked if a band was an option for him, Beach said yes.

What Beach and McAuley have in common is that from their past they had a reputation for lack of hardness in their playing and singing. McAuley was not well received by many old fans of the Michael Schenker Group because Schenker's music took on a "more melodic and American" direction with McAuley's entry, while Beach, as a founding member of Winger, had a long reputation for being the guitarist of a poser band.

When looking for a drummer, Paul Gilbert Pilson recommended contacting Matt Starr . Starr had replaced the sick Pat Torpey at Mr. Big 's. Although Starr joined Black Swan late and a large part of the songs were already finished, he gave himself a lot and, in Pilson's opinion, gave the songs a "completely new dimension".

Their first album, entitled Shake the World received, the band recorded in Pilson Pilsound - Studio in Santa Clarita ( Los Angeles County on), Pilson produced it. The title track was released as a single on December 10, 2019 , followed by Big Disaster on January 13, 2020 . The album received positive reviews even before its release scheduled for February 14, 2020.

Daniel Böhm wrote in his review for Rocks , "Nothing since the end of the McAuley Schenker Group in the early 90s has only hinted at hearing his former singer again in such good hard rock condition as it is now on Shake the World". With the album, “one of the strongest and most vital genre productions of the last few years” emerged, which one had to admit “sovereign band character”. The album is "outstanding". Markus Baro writes in the same issue that Shake the World benefits from “a remarkably vital group dynamic”, while Amir Shaheen , also in Rocks, stated that McAuley sang “almost unleashed”.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Shake the world
  DE 72 02/21/2020 (1 week)
  CH 24 02/23/2020 (2 weeks)

Studio albums

Singles

  • 2019: Shake the World
  • 2020: Big Disaster
  • 2020: Make It There

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BLACK SWAN - New band with Matt Starr, Robin McAuley, Reb Beach and Jeff Pilson , RockHard Online, accessed January 15, 2020
  2. ↑ Information about the band at discogs.com , accessed on January 15, 2020
  3. ↑ a b c d e The band of misunderstood geniuses in: Rocks - The magazine for Classic Rock, issue 02/2020, pages 34–37
  4. ↑ Reviews in Rocks - Das Magazin für Classic Rock, issue 02.2020, page 95
  5. ↑ Chart sources: Germany Switzerland