After their final festival show of the season at Edinburgh’s CONNECT Festival, we catch up with the city’s rising indie stars Swim School.
Alice Johnson (vocals/guitar), Lewis Bunting (guitar), Matt Mitchell (bass) and Billy McMahon (drums) are buzzing after their shimmering set which melds a grungy angst with the hazy hues of shoegaze, chatting to us about upcoming EP and the highs and lows of a hectic festival season, revealing that roughing it in a van has inspired them to dream big with a major record label deal and tour bus on the wish list.
Ending the festival trail with a homecoming show at CONNECT is the icing on the cake for the band who’ve been hotly tipped by the music press as one to watch. Alice tells us they were blown away by the response at CONNECT, and with familiar faces in the crowd adding momentum, feelings are mixed about this year’s festival season coming to a close. “It’s been a long summer but amazing at the same time,” says Alice, talking about the exposure it’s given them with 12 festivals in England and two in Scotland now under their belts. But she admits that they’re now excited to play a gig in an actual venue “and to get a good soundcheck and mosh pit!” Lewis agrees, saying he can’t wait to get back into the full sweaty glory of venues like Edinburgh’s legendary Sneaky Pete’s.
With a last minute slot at Glasgow’s TRNSMT festival back in July, Alice says CONNECT has a different vibe, going on to say “it’s quite family friendly which we like as we don’t get heckled as much!” Lewis agrees, seeing CONNECT as a similar offering to Lattitude, which they played last summer, and reckons it’s here to stay. “I think it’s only going to get bigger and better…and it’s nice to be 15 minutes away from our studio!”
Moving on to their music, and with the band’s lyrics heavily rooted in mental health, this has in turn helped fans navigate their own issues, Alison explaining, “a podcast interview I did went out after we’d picked up a lot of new fans over the festival season, and afterwards they were posting on instagram about how they couldn’t believe how much they related to our music, and how it helped them.”
That’s basically what it’s like for us. We depend on music to help us mentally get through hard times, and just to think that our music and lyrics have done that to someone else feels amazing.”
With that in mind, do they then feel an increased sense of responsibility? Alice says “yes, massive responsibility, it’s quite scary.” Matt explains, “lyrically you write about something not too specific, rather something quite general anyone can relate to so people can interpret it in their own way.” Alice goes on, “you want to be vague enough so people can add their own ideas, handing the song over to the listener…as soon as the song’s released, its theirs, it doesn’t really belong to us anymore so it needs to be vague enough to be relatable.”
They’re about to finish recording their next EP, Alice revealing that it’s a split of “two very happy, lovey songs and two really angry songs.” Lewis loves the fact that they’re literally the “polar opposites of each other, the heavier ones are like the heaviest songs we’ve ever written and the mellow ones are probably the mellowest songs we’ve ever written, so the ups and downs are big.” Billy laughs, “if you listen to it back to front it sounds like a break-up EP, if you listen to it the other way round it sounds like someone fighting!”
One of Swim School’s main influences are Wolf Alice, whose style can be found echoing through both their music and image. But older bands have had a role to play in the development of their sound too, Alice explaining that over lockdown they really got into shoegaze bands like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and Ride, the latter of whom they’re excited to see playing later in the day “especially with them playing Nowhere” adds Matt, the album that for many is the definitive shoegaze album.
Alice tells us, “when we wrote Let Me Inside Your Head (from latest EP Making Sense Of It All), it was seven minutes long and half the tempo it is now. We didn’t have a name for it so called it Shoegaze Song, but then it turned into what it is now.” She adds that “a lot of people loved it in its first incarnation.”
“We also rejigged our song Anyway. After making a demo of it, we went into the studio and came back with a more polished, poppy version. Then mid festival season we found the original demo and wondered why we’d done the another version!” Lewis agrees, “I remember listening back to the demo and it actually gave me goosebumps, that’s when I realised this was the best version of the song so we played it today and a couple of people including our manager have said ‘that’s the one, you’ve got to re-do it!’” Matt admits that although they’ve experimented with poppier sounds, the darker, heavier vibes of older influences won out in the end.
I think it shows that the old band influences eventually prevail. They’ve been around for a long time and new bands take inspiration from them for a very good reason. When we try something new and poppy it doesn’t have that same longevity so the old band influences eventually surface.”
The good news is that that the original version of Anyway is going to be on their debut album when that happens, “we’ll have it as a track, just because we love it, the heaviness of it” says Alice. “We love the Anyway we released as well (also on EP Making Sense Of It All), but I feel like the old version fits a lot better now than the re-recorded version.” Meanwhile, Lewis has another reason for loving it in its original incarnation, confessing that “it’s so much fun to play live, the most enjoyable song for me because I only play two chords! You can properly get into it because you’re not worrying.”
Well it looks like we’ll have to wait a little longer for a Swim School album but they’re optimistic about the future and a major label signing to enable that to happen, the familiar cry of so many young bands we chat to. They’re certainly heading in the right direction, recently signing to independent label LAB Records, which they’re really exited about, Alice telling us “They’re amazing. We played Tramlines Festival and Mark from LAB saw us. It was a massive tent and we didn’t think we’d fill it but we did, and Mark thought it was amazing. He’s super supportive too and we’re doing the EP with them. We’re currently recording it in London and go down next week to finish it off.”
With no release date for the EP or new single, it’s a matter of watch this space. As for tours, this is also “manifesting” according to Alice, saying they’re looking for a “big tour support slot”, adding “there’s nothing more we want to do than travel up and down the country playing shows to amazing audiences.” They’re clearly an ambitious lot, with Lewis laughing, “yes, in a bus”, dreaming beyond the poor van. But it needn’t roll off into the garage yet, as he knows a tour bus won’t be all it’s cracked up to be and before long they’ll be wanting to stay in hotels. Ah the slippery slope, which continues as he mentions that someone in the Swim School camp’s getting their flight licence soon so “he can fly us in his private jet.” Their enthusiasm and desire to succeed is unmistakable, and in the meantime they’ve got a show coming up in London for DIY Magazine, another in Brighton and a slot at Twisterella in October. So plenty the on cards, but Alice admits it’s also nice to get time off to write in the rehearsal space…and dream about hogging the big double bed at the back of the bus!
Making Sense Of It All EP is out out now on LAB Records: https://weareswimschool.bandcamp.com/.
Watch this space for news on the new release!
Words and interview: Shirley Mack @musingsbymarie
Pictures: Calum Mackintosh @ayecandyphotography