New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Today, LA-based psych-pop group SWIMM share "You Never Fake It" featuring
Lauren Ruth Ward, an intimate ballad complete with lush synthesizers and an entrancing drum+bass. Under The Radar premiered the track, praising how the "heavy and slightly distorted intro quickly gives way to twinking keys and chiming acoustic guitar, slowly building into a heady drum and bass combo."
Detailing the backstory of the song, SWIMM says: The story of "You Never Fake It" was actually birthed out of one rainy night in Manhattan I had a few years ago but when I hear this song it brings me back to the first couple weeks of quarantine. It was actually very stormy during that time so the air outside was ripe with panic and urban drainage, while inside my warehouse... mostly panic, ganja and sweatpants. Turns out productivity can really blossom when you're not sneaking into the ballroom bathrooms of East LA snorting Cayenne pepper with strangers for a head rush. This new allotment of focus time let me dive into the production of this one...
This is gonna sound a little Indigo-child dream-catcher vibe but I kept hearing "Kim", the somewhat illusory character of the song, in my head when I was recording and wanted to somehow capture the spirit of her and have it feel analogous to the way you can kind of capture a memory in a song. So I texted my best bud and bandmate of our side project Aging Actress,
Lauren Ruth Ward and asked her to sing some words into her phone and text them back. I didn't give her the tempo or key, which was really silly of me now that I think about it but somehow what she did just worked perfectly. I guess it helps that she is the best singer on the damn planet. Eventually I asked her to sing on the bridge and kinda go for it for the end of the song.
In an odd sense, I have some weird nostalgia for those first few weeks. And I don't mean that in any disrespect to those that were sick or hurting. It's just that I really escaped to and lived in that song for that time and through the beauty of art or whatever, that place became more real to me than the terrifying state of things.
SWIMM can be categorized as psych pop that makes you think. They combine sonic elements of weightlessness and psychedelic fluidity with lyrical content grounded in social commentary and a longing for clarity. The melodic prowess of the band combined with the lyrical craft is unparalleled in the East LA scene.
"A lot of the singers in Indie bands sing cause someone in the band has to sing, but Cookie sings cause he really can and really should sing." -Desert Daze Installation Artist
Erika Mugglin
SWIMM have carved their own way into the Los Angeles scene with their DIY shows at their warehouse home 'The Cube' and now, their very own east side festival Love You Down. Three years running, the last of which sold out two nights in a row with SWIMM sharing the main stage with Echo Park legends Warpaint.
