New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Jeremy Swift is a prolific actor best known for his role as 'Spratt' in Downton Abbey, the butler of Violet Crawley, played by Dame Maggie Smith. His loveable and sly character ruffled many feathers, but his dry humour and underhand ways of getting things done in order to please the Countess won him countless fans with the general public and thanks to the amazing cast and work of Julian Fellowes, Downton Abbey is now a cult hit drama series and being made into a film, which Jeremy is confirmed to have a part in.
It other exciting developments he has just been cast to appear in the new Disney movie, 'Mary Poppins Returns' alongside Colin Firth and with a stellar cast to boot. Jeremy starts filming his scenes early next year. 2017 will be a busy year filming two blockbuster movies as well as tapping into his musical passion with the release of his debut album 'Everything's A Joke'.
Jeremy has worked on countless TV shows, theatre and movies from Gosford Park to
Oliver Twist to The Railway Children.
Music has been a life long passion but as his acting career took off in such a big way, he had to put this to one side. Jeremy has fronted bands, is a self taught musician playing keyboards, guitar and violin and piano. He also has a huge passion for recording and producing music and has self produced his debut album from his house using GarageBand and Pro Tools. Evident from the tracks on his album are his eclectic influences; although taken with the world of classical music and jazz by his parents, he inevitably rebelled and was a huge fan of Roxy Music, Brian Eno,
David Bowie and Scott Walker and also, like many of his generation, German bands like Can and Kraftwerk.
Songs on the album include 'Part of Something' a song of frustration directed at Jeremy Corbyn to 'Star Song', written eight months before
David Bowie died, which focuses on the effect Bowie had on a generation of tough boys and girls who started dying their hair and wearing crazy make up!
To 'Shrunken Heads' about the effect that screen time is having on families. All songs tell a story - some of love, some of sorrow and frustrations, some of politics or family. All are wonderfully experimental and offering a conceptional approach to modern day issues through different musical styles.
Though Jeremy had always cowritten songs in the past, possibly pushed by a sense of mortality, he suddenly found himself able to do it on his own. It has become for him a delightful obsession to create songs of different styles, both political and characterful. To sing passionately and to write music of style and texture and to juxtapose genres with a sense of theatricality. It's taken almost a lifetime to do it but it looks like it's been worth it.
2017 will see Jeremy explore all of his creative outlets through not only his acting but now introduce the public to his (up till now) hidden music passion. The album 'Everything's A Joke' will be released on the 10th March 2017 - A collection of 11 glorious track of unconventional, expressive and progressive musical styles.
