Feel So Real

Swervedriver

Brash Oxford guitar four-piece Swervedriver had already unleashed a cunning strategic plan to boost their profile before their debut album Raise hit the shelves in late-1991. Instead of singles they'd released a string of strong EPs in the lead-up to the album's release, meaning that when their debut dropped there were a lot of eager ears keen to revel in the scorching guitars, pummelling rhythms and evocative (albeit downcast) lyricism. The album was a stunning continuation of the UK 'shoegaze' sound pioneered by bands like Ride and My Bloody Valentine, even though the Swervedriver aesthetic was rooted more in the tuneful racket produced by US precursors and contemporaries like Hüsker Dü, The Stooges, Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr.

Now decades after the fact the recently-reformed outfit are touring Raise in its entirety for the first time, and frontman and chief songwriter Adam Franklin is clearly excited to be revisiting this fruitful creative era from his youth.

“I think over time you realise that people don't really change that much, so people generally have the same overall mindset,” he reflects. “I think there was a mixture of youthful aspirations and enthusiasm, and it was exciting because we were just starting out as a band, and getting to travel to places that we'd never been to before to play shows was the dream come true. I think also alongside that youthful thing, there's also a lot less confidence – probably paranoia, although the paranoia wouldn't properly kick in until a few years later. Sometimes you imagine going back to these things and you think you'd probably do it better – you'd probably operate in a much more logical manner – but at the same time, the music wouldn't have been what it was without that youthful mindset. And we certainly never thought of it as being a career, that was like an anathema to us – 'This is just what we're doing now, we'll be doing something else in five year's time blah blah blah' – so on that level it's amazing to be asked back to play this album twenty-two years later.”

From a lyrical perspective Raise was concerned primarily with youthful notions of escape – all fast cars, open roads and evading the drudgery of everyday life.

“You know, the first car that I ever drove was a Ford – it wasn't a Ford Mustang, it was my Mum's Ford Escort and I used to take that out,” Franklin smiles, referencing Raise single, Son Of Mustang Ford. “I remember one time taking it to one-hundred miles-an-hour on the Oxford Ring Road, almost like a mythical rite of passage – 'I've got to do this!' – something that I'd never dream of doing now. But all of those driving analogies were almost like a wanderlust in a way, the car imagery was like a vehicle itself for the lyrics. Rave Down is about small-town boredom and wanting to have something to do – have gigs to go to or shows to go to – and even though a song like the b-side Afterglow had lyrics about driving across the desert, it was really about a relationship. I think lyrically there was just a lot of 'boys' stuff' in there – cars and space travel and stuff like that – but at the same time it's also grounded in reality, there's songs about young relationships and break-ups that mean the end of the world until you meet another girl  the next week. I think there's a balance there.

“Someone who saw one of the original Swervedriver reformations in London said to me that there was always a certain world-weariness to Swervedriver so it suited us being older – we might've had more hair back then, but we weren't just singing about teenage lust, so it still works as older guys. I think it's an interesting balance between youthful enthusiasm for the world and wanderlust, and there's that world-weariness as well.”

Musically, Raise has stood the test of time impressively. “In some ways you think we were sixth down the list or something, but people are still talking about it today. I think the most rewarding that was that people definitely got the Swervedriver 'thing' – there was definitely imagery involved and a certain individualistic style – and I think that people really grasped that. I think that all bands are an amalgam of their favourite things, and people sort of got what we were about from the outset.”