After four EP’s, garnering over 90 thousand monthly listeners on Spotify and playing festival slots all over the world, Edinburgh indie outfit Swim School are on the track to releasing their debut full-length album. The band have been releasing music since 2021’s Vol. 1 EP. The band have recently added a new bassist into the fold, Lee Brown, he joins the band’s three original members, singer Alice Johnson, guitarist Lewis Bunting and drummer Billy McMahon.
McMahon spoke about the process of completing their album: “everyone says you can prepare your lifetime for your debut album, which is true. We’ve been through a lot as a band over the last four years, but we were told about the album about a year ago, and it didn’t settle in until probably a week ago.”
When playing live shows before the addition of new bassist Lee, the band used playback to mimic a bassist being present on the stage with them. With the addition of an actual bassist however, it gives the live shows a new feel.
Bassist Lee Brown added: “I think having live bass is essential, I feel like it gives the live shows a lift, it locks in so well with Billy’s drums and just gives it a new feel.”
McMahon talked about the reasons for bringing in Lee for the album campaign and upcoming tour:
“That kind of came about just from starting this album and realising it’s very guitar heavy. We’ve toured, the three of us with playback for a while now, and we had the opportunity to basically re-look at the set and get the bass in.”
Despite being a relatively new band, Swim School have an air of confidence around them, diving head first into challenges and they like when there is pressure on them. Take TRNSMT Festival 2023 for example, a last-minute cancellation threw them straight into the deep-end, opening the main stage on the Saturday.
“If that hadn’t been recorded and that wasn’t available to watch on iPlayer, I would not remember that day, genuinely.” Said McMahon. He then added that playing festivals as a band is a “blessing” and he feels very fortunate that they are able to be in those spaces.
This summer they are playing a multitude of different festivals all over Europe, including Rock For People in Czech Republic and they have most recently played Sniester festival in The Netherlands. “We learned that Europeans just absolutely love guitar music. It’s been a big eye-opener for us. It’s such a cool opportunity to start dropping these album songs into the set, especially abroad, where a lot of people might not know us as opposed to the UK. To them, everything that we play is new. It takes a bit of pressure off us.”
McMahon revealed that when playing festivals, they consistently seek advice from fellow musicians, and he said that some of the best advice he has received was from James Stelfox, the bassist of Starsailor. “Keep doing what you want to do, you’re making the music you want to make, everything’s authentic, then no one can tell you’re doing wrong otherwise.”
After festival season is over, the band will turn their focus to their upcoming headline tour across the UK and Europe, with a keen eye on their Glasgow show at the QMU in November.
“Everytime we play Glasgow, it does so well. We played St Luke’s last, which was amazing, a beautiful room, one of my favourite gigs we’ve ever done. QMU feels like a similar kind of vibe in terms of the intimacy, but it’s just a little bit bigger so we can get more fans in.”
The group have a highly dedicated fanbase and believe that a strong sense of community is vital to their success. The engagement from the band to the fans helps with this, having their own discord server where they communicate with their fans on a regular basis. They have a sign-up pass available for free in which they post pre-sale links to tours and snippets of upcoming singles. McMahon said:
“The fans are unbelievable. Absolutely amazing. All we can do is make music and put it out. But you need the fans to spread the word. It’s the most important thing in the world. I love the idea of getting to a venue, especially when we do Glasgow and stuff, the fans are outside, and just having that conversation pick up from where it left off maybe six months ago.”
The band’s following has grown with each EP release: “This core fan base that we’ve got is so vital to the band, I’d love it to get obviously bigger, but still have that sense of community. It’s really important to us.” They attempt to continue to grow in places all over the world, with McMahon expressing a desire to return to Europe to play in as many different countries and cities as they possibly can.
With one eye on the future McMahon talked about some bucket list moments and ambitions for Swim School, which included festival slots and headline shows alike. “I’d love to do the Barrowlands. That’d be sick. Glastonbury and all that as well. We just want to be part of it. I hope next year with the album, it just keeps going in the trajectory of more people listen to it, more people consume it, more people like it.”
On October 3rd, Swim School will release their self-titled debut album, featuring the singles, Heaven and Alone With You. With the backing of their legions of devoted fans, the band will throw themselves at any challenge and will continue to strive for greatness. Tickets to their show at QMU can be purchased here.