Album Focus: Going Swimming

Answered by: Callan Trewenack, bass/vocals

Album Title: Sultans Of Swim

Label: Independent

What's your sound like? Surfy, fun, scuzzy garage punk.

Give us a brief history of the band to this point. We formed in late 2012, released our debut The Shark Attack EP in 2013 and debut album Deadtime Stories in 2015, with some standalone singles here and there. In that time we've toured nationally a couple of times and played with loads of great bands. 

Where did you record the album and why? Who did you work with recording it? The album was recorded at Head Gap Studios in Preston. All of our previous recordings were DIY and we figured a couple of extra sets of ears would be beneficial. The album was recorded by Rohan Sforcina, and produced and mixed by Ash Briody.

Is there an overall theme to the songs on the album, or did you just use whatever songs you had to make up the tracklisting? Basically, we wanted to return to our more surfy roots, straying away from the heavier more aggressive sound of our previous album. Our songs have always been a bit tongue-in-cheek and that's definitely not something we plan on changing anytime soon.

Did you manage to roadtest any of the songs live before recording? Did that have an effect on them at all? In what way? A few songs from the album have found their way into some of our live sets, but these tracks have usually been pretty heavily workshopped before we dare play them in public and by this point we're already pretty certain how we want them to sound.

Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? In what way? The excitement of going into a studio for the first time definitely had an impact on the writing for the album, there was more pressure than our usual DIY process. This made us focus on making sure everything was the best it could be. We had no second chances.

Do you aim for perfection in the studio, or more feeling or vibe when deciding to use a take? When we used to record things ourselves, we definitely made decisions based on vibe, but when we were working with Rohan, he encouraged us to lean more towards getting things as tight as possible before settling on a take. We think this shows in the record.

What's your favourite track on the album and why? Collectively, I think we'd all have a different answer, which in my mind is a great thing. Personally, I'd have to say Dainty Dolores. The track features some of my favourite vocal melodies and guitar sounds, plus it's great fun to play live.

Were there any challenges you faced during recording and if so, how did you overcome them? We recorded the album over two sessions that were about three months apart, so making sure everything sounded consistent was a little tricky. Fortunately we had Rohan and Ash behind the mixing desk, which made things a hell of a lot easier.

How will you recreate the tracks live? Stay true to them or is there room to mix it up? Our songs don't differ a whole lot between studio and live, maybe an extra guitar track here or vocal track there, but it's pretty honest music and I don't think we'd be happy with ourselves if we couldn't pull off a song live because of production values.

Did you only record recent tracks, or are there some older tracks to have made the cut on the album? All of the songs on Sultans Of Swim were written after we had finished touring our previous album. I think we started writing around mid-2016, so it feels like it has been a long time coming.

Are you launching it with a gig? If so, what are the details? 3 Mar, Yah Yah's.

Website link for more info? goingswimming.bandcamp.com