Swim Deep

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It’s a busy time for Birmingham-based foursome Swim Deep. This fall they signed to Sony, released their second single ‘Honey’ through the Chess Club Records imprint, and toured around the UK with Spector and Splashh.

Swim Deep’s music would probably best be categorized as ‘beach grunge’ – it’s ultimately sunny but there’s also a undeniably dark edge to it. They’re currently recording an album in Belgium, and are set to tour the UK again (this time as headliners) in February. Austin – the band’s lead singer – took some time out to speak to Best Fit about Swim Deep, their music, and their off-stage antics.

How did you all meet each other?

Austin: Me (Austin) and Higgy met at Morrisons, it was a meeting on the ready meal aisle. We both worked there, we hated it, we loved it, it was love/hate, we wanted to start a band and get out.

In what ways does being from Birmingham shape your identity as a band and your music?

A: Birmingham isn’t great but the people there have made it great in spite of that. We’re all one big family I guess, the music that’s come out has been an accurate reflection of how much we all party.

Who’s the most responsible one out of the four of you?

A: Higgy’s responsible actually, our photographer even trusted him with his real expensive camera for this night out when he got too wasted. The footage was far from responsible though.

Charlie Hugall worked with you on your latest single ‘Honey’. What was it like to work with him? Are you working on any other songs with him?

A: We’re going to record an album with the legend, he’s our boy now. He’s one of us, he gets it we get him there’s a lot of getting being got.

Besides Hugall, are there any other excellent people involved in mixing and producing your music that we might know?

A: Dreamtrak who recorded our first single king city is a great producer, he’s really great, think he’s working with jaws at the moment – their records are sounding great. There’s some dude called Good Vibes that comes with us wherever we go for recording. He’s really hazy.

Where did the idea for the ‘Honey’ music video come from?

A: A few peoples’ minds, we wanted to create something fun to watch and the performance aspect was so that we could re create what we do live, obviously, the lyrics are pretty self explanatory so we didn’t wanna patronise people with a video explaining the meaning, we wanted colour to recreate the colour in the song, love it.

Recently, ‘Honey’ has been getting a lot of play on BBC Radio, courtesy of Huw Stephens and Fearne Cotton. Where were you when you first heard your song on the radio?

A: We were in this weird house where we were picking up some weed! It was so funny everyone there was really happy for us, he was almost proud. True story.

You recently completed a UK tour with Spector and Splashh. What was the funniest or the most memorable moment of the tour?

A: It’s all been really really funny, I mean really funny, I guess a really funny moment was when we were all at a shots bar for a few hours and Tom Beal just threw up on the bar, so casually, it was like it didn’t phase him, like a cough, really fucking funny.

Besides the opportunity to play music, what do you like best about being in a band?

A: The love in the air, there’s a lot of love, I don’t mean like girls in dressing rooms love I mean there’s just a lot of laughing everywhere from all of us and everyone’s who’s involved in this band.

The video for ‘King City’ suggests that you might dabble in skateboarding.

A: We used to in the summer, nothing serious we can’t skate it’s more of like hanging out in the sun thing. It’s better than throwing rocks in a bin. Actually that’s really fun. We like to party in our time off, I’ve started really appreciating peace though, like, quiet things – sounds lame but it’s real nice when you can appreciate it.

What’s the one city in the world where you’d most like to play a show?

A: Well I dunno, we wouldn’t really know until we’ve been there and played but right now put us playing on that stage that the Rolling Stones played a free gig at in Brazil and there were around 15 million people? Amazing.

‘Honey’ is available now through Chess Club Records. Swim Deep will be supporting Two Door Cinema Club on their 2013 tour, so make sure to catch the band at the following dates:

January
24 Newcastle O2 Academy
25 Manchester O2 Apollo
26 Manchester O2 Apollo
28 Southampton Guildhall
29 Nottingham Rock City
31 Cardiff University

February
01 Birmingham O2 Academy
02 Birmingham O2 Academy
04 Aberdeen Music Hall
05 Glasgow Barrowlands
07 Leeds O2 Academy
08 London Brixton Academy