Swim Deep talk second album: “This was the music we wanted to be making”

In the August 2015 issue of DIY (out Friday 7th August), Swim Deep give an insight into the deep, crazy experiments that define second album ‘Mothers’.

“Straight after the first album came out,” says keyboardist James Balmont, “we went away to a cottage and did loads of writing there. The roots of ‘To My Brother’ and ‘Hotel California’ were written there. We wrote loads more, but we left all of them.

“We ended up writing more and more, and we found a new place. This was the music we wanted to be making. It was building and building on top of things. We could have easily gone from those sessions and recorded some good songs, but it wouldn’t sound like it does now. It’s taken us time to develop this musicianship. We’ve got way more wider influences, we’ve been buying instruments we never knew existed.” And thus, their minds have opened to veering in new directions, and approaching things with fresh ideas.

“It was more verse-chorus on the first record,” he goes on, touching upon another difference between this and their debut. “But we’re trying different approaches now, rather than standard pop songs. That’s why it feels like such a good album - there’s a real variation in the songs. We’ve got pop singles, spacey Pink Floyd shit, big climaxes, singalong round the fire songs.”

Swim Deep’s new album ‘Mothers’ will be released on 18th September via Chess Club / RCA.

Read the full interview in the August 2015 issue of DIY, out 7th August. Pre-order a copy below.