Their persistence paid off, and soon Switchblade Symphony were a mainstay on the San Francisco industrial scene. Industrial music, macho as heavy metal in the early part of its reign, welcomed Tina and Susan enthusiastically. "We always played with the boy industrial bands- it seems to have gotten bigger. There are more women around." Switchblade's first gigs were at an Italian restaurant. and ardent word of mouth ensued, followed by a compilation appearance (the song Mine Eyes) and the re-release of their first single "Mine Eyes". Songs from Switchblade Symphony's incubation stage were featured on a special fan club only CD called "Scrapbook" (only 2,000 were initially pressed) , but we've been getting a lot of response from people wanting it, and including the song after which the band is named, just for the nostalgia of it since its the first thing we created." Signing with industrial stalwart Cleopatra in 1995, Tina and Susan solidified their line-up with guitarist George Earth and drummer Eric Gerbow and their first CD, Serpentine Gallery was released, consisting mostly of older material. The second CD, 1997's "Bread and Jam for Francis" (named after the children's book) expounded on playfully Gothic imagery and melodies, exploring a feminine terrain with a sense of humor that is rarely examined in any electronic based music. The studio experience of making that CD was a bit more structured and "hands-on". "It seemed a little rushed to us," says Susan, "We had recently gotten new equipment and were learning things and I started to tackle the technical side and when you first start its very mathematical and robs the live acoustic feel from it. It's kind of hard to mesh the two together and that coupled with the short amount of time we had (in the studio) where we didn't get to flower the songs with the pretty little things to season it with - with the newer ones (the songs on "Three Calamities") we're trying to put both of those together. For mixing down, we like to use old vintage analog which really manipulates and changes the sound and gives it a warmer feel - we put live drums over the drums to give (it) a more three dimensional feel, " notes Susan. Three Calamities was recorded in Daniel Lanois' El Teatro Studios and mixed by Grammy award winning producer Mark Howard.
