Despite having just recorded their EP in 2012, London/Guildford chaps Swim Good decided to call it quits. Here we are in 2014, the band is back at it again and said EP (check it out here) has now seen the light of day. Basically, in a short year, Swim Good have signed onto Failure By Design Records, released their debut EP and gone on a short tour across the UK. We were lucky enough to have a chat with guitarist Dan Twining, who shed light on the reformation, the success of the recent EP release and everything in between. Read our interview below:
HTF: Can you please introduce yourself with a fun fact for our readers?
DT: Some would say I have a slightly… curious dress-sense at best. I once decided it would be a genius idea to dress up as a sexy schoolgirl for a Halloween gig, complete with a penis themed tie – I think I made some memories for the honeys that night.
HTF: For our readers who are unfamiliar with you, could you briefly explain the history of Swim Good? We understand you actually took a break back in 2012?
DT: Yeah, we sort of screwed ourselves over by trying to do everything in such a short space of time, but also being really precious about what material we were going to release and ended up in a nasty kind of financial oblivion; where we had all these big, ambitious ideas but no money to pull any of them off. It got to a point where it all went a bit sour for us and we started to doubt whether this was what we really wanted to do.
HTF: How did the decision come about to reform?
DT: Two of our mates from the Guildford scene (Ben P and Connor, FBD Records) somewhat manipulated us into the decision! I wouldn’t have it any other way though. They called us up for a casual pub meeting, told us how into the music they were and that they wanted to release our EP and give us one big final send-off. For the fans man! Then they propped three options upon us, one of them was to reform, release the EP and do the whole thing again! I don’t think we appreciated that there were actually people out there who loved our band as much as we did, so that gave us the extra nudge we needed.
HTF: Having taken the time off from music, has this brought in a new outlook into things when you got back to playing?
DT: For me personally, it gave me the perspective I needed to realise this is what I really want to be doing. I felt like a different, boring person without it – and for me there is nothing sadder than seeing potential going to waste. It’s cliché but, you never really know how much you miss it ’til it’s gone!
HTF: The self-titled EP you recently released was actually written before your break. What led to the decision to release this instead of working on completely new material?
DT: Mostly financial – and the fact that we hadn’t released it officially before. We had all these tracks sitting around but had only used two of them on promo CDs we gave out for free at shows, because we initially wanted to release an EP with the absolute cream of the Swim Good crop! Recording is an expensive business though! Realistically, although we had/have a great and supportive fanbase, there are still so many people that hadn’t heard of us, and we felt like an EP release was the best and most sensible move. We started working on new material straight away, but it would have been such a waste to neglect these assets we already had and paid a heckload of money to record!
HTF: Kerrang! Radio’s Alex Baker has expressed his love for the band, do you still remember the reaction upon finding out that your track was being played on the radio?
DT: It’s an amazing feeling, and it doesn’t get old. Coupled with the fact that Alex Baker is just about one of the nicest god damn guys you’ll ever meet – it’s brilliant to have that kind of vocal support from someone, and is vital for a DIY band such as ourselves. When he made us his featured artist and played two of our tracks, I couldn’t contain myself and sent him a really lame ass tweet about emotions. Pretty sure my Mum cried too, bless her.
HTF: Now your video for ‘Yeah Yeah, Great, Yeah’ has also entered the Scuzz TV playlist. What’s it like to see yourselves on TV, knowing that it’s being viewed nationwide?
DT: The funny thing is that… none of us even have Scuzz TV! We’ve had some fans tweeting us, and one of Ryan’s friends filmed it for us. It’s just a truly vindicating moment, you start to see some results from the work you’ve put in, and it gives you that extra little push of motivation to work a bit harder. Plus, I think we look damn sexy in that vid. Call me.
HTF: You’ve just completed a tour with MassMatiks. Can we expect you to be back on the road anytime soon?
DT: We’re in the process of planning another tour before the end of the year. Nothing is confirmed yet, but we’re working hard behind the scenes to see if we can secure something awesome!
HTF: What can fans expect from Swim Good live?
DT: A really, really bad band that loves to pull off epic stage moves. I think we all have our own silly little personalities. Ryan comes alive, and is some sort of Max Bemis/Adam Lazzara hybrid with some of the sassiest moves known to man. I’m all about the Busted jumps and being a little bit emo. Curtis is the athlete, big into scissor kicks and getting big air, and Joe just bloody loves drums! TL;DR – we love our music, and we enjoy what we do, you will see that passion on stage.
HTF: Let’s end with a fun one, if you could sit for a chat with anyone dead or alive, who would it be?
DT: Aziz Ansari or James Franco! I am a huge fan of quirky, weird TV characters. Mostly because I think I’m a bit of a crazy dude myself. I would love to bounce off those guys and just chat absolute nonsense for a few hours. And maybe give them a demo on the way out… (if it goes well
