The origin story of Swapmeet is almost as charmingly circuitous as one of their songs.
The Adelaide quartet were initially known as Soursob, with singer/guitarist Venus O’Broin often bringing partially finished songs to guitarist/drummer Maxwell Elphick for him to play on.
But it quickly became more democratic, with guitarist/drummer Jack Medlyn singing alongside O’Broin and Elphick and bassist Joshua Doherty contributing to the band’s communal songwriting and recording process.
Since the band rechristened themselves Swapmeet and self-released an EP in 2024, the buzz around them has snowballed.
They picked up two South Australian Music Awards for Ceiling Fan, the slow yet spiky opener of that EP, and made the rounds at BIGSOUND as well as at SXSW in both Sydney and Austin.
The final piece of the puzzle was signing to Los Angeles indie label Winspear, which is releasing their debut album Mount Zero.
Adelaide Represent
Named for a symbolic halfway point on their painfully familiar drive from Adelaide to Melbourne, the album is dropping just before Swapmeet tour Australia, North America, and Europe over the next few months.
That’s not bad for a band who cut their teeth playing small shows to spotty crowds in one of Australia’s smaller capital cities.
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“There’s not much music industry in Adelaide to impress,” explains Elphick over Zoom. “So people make music that they like or think their friends are going to like.
“You can put on really cool shows here: we’ve done a New Year’s festival at a house two years in a row, and it’s pretty much all our friends’ bands. It’s the best time ever.”
So people aren’t as beholden to ticket or drink sales as they might be in Melbourne or Sydney? Not at all, according to O’Broin, who’s also chatting over Zoom from home. “If that was the case,” she says, “no one would be playing.”
Asked about kindred spirits in Adelaide, O’Broin cites DIY solo artist Jackulson, who has helped the band creatively in the past, and Twine, with whom she has played in their more stripped-back live incarnations. Elphick then recommends the mathy instrumental trio Awnings and emo-adjacent indie rockers Perfect 50.
Musical Trap Doors
Amongst the defining features of Mount Zero are trap doors that drop us into a totally different section (and often vibe) without warning. That happens in opener I Know!, a poppy earworm that answers O’Broin’s coolly delivered vocals with an ambush of noisy guitars.
Halfway and 2 C U similarly swing between fuzzy and delicate, while the title track adds chirping synths and a baggy programmed beat to the band’s layer cake approach to arrangements.
Adding to that prismatic quality is the possibility of three unique singing voices showing up in a song. Again, that’s a result of the band growing more democratic with time, until all four members were writing and recording within that self-contained ecosystem.
“It never felt like this was one person’s band, and then everyone else fills in [the rest],” Elphick confirms. “We were all wanting to contribute, in whatever way possible.”
That creates a natural sense of surprise in the finished product, with Swapmeet songs prone to almost suite-like processions of contrasting sections. “We definitely don’t have a linear approach to songwriting,” O’Broin admits.
“We can spend an entire day on the third quarter of a song, when we’re in the writing/mix phase. We like to narrow in on the different parts of a thing.”
Mount Zero came together 30km south of Adelaide at a beach house in Port Noarlunga, with band members simultaneously tinkering on different songs in different rooms. So with four hands in the creative process and so much overlap between duties, how could they tell when a song was finished?
“When the time was up, I guess,” answers Elphick with a laugh. Even though the members recorded the album themselves, they still had a self-imposed deadline to meet.
“We only had a certain amount of days before we went to Melbourne to mix it,” Elphick elaborates. “But all the songs got to a point pretty fast where they were pretty much done; it was more just taking stuff away.
“There are two levels to when a song is done: there’s the [phase] where we’ve recorded everything and the phase where [we ask] ‘What should we get rid of?’.”
“That takes a really long time for us,” O’Broin quips about the latter.
Mixing Process
After mixing their Oxalis EP themselves, Swapmeet trekked to Melbourne – cruising past Mount Zero once again – to mix the album with Hamish Mitchell from the like-minded duo Armlock. That proved to be a perfect match, since both Swapmeet and Armlock draw considerable inspiration from poignant strains of slowcore and Midwest emo.
“We trusted his judgement because we like his music a lot, and he’s got really good taste,” says Elphick. “It was good to have someone we could trust with all the work we [had] put into it.”
Given the amount of recordings that the individual band members bring to the table – and then generate during group collaborations – it’s no surprise that there was plenty left on the cutting room floor after recording and mixing Mount Zero.
While it’s too early to know whether those scraps will spark proper songs, that’s definitely something Swapmeet have done in the past. In fact, album closer My Heart Breaks II sounds so gloriously splintered because it came together from multiple directions.
“We have a bazillion half-finished songs that will maybe one day grow into something else,” says O’Broin. “My Heart Breaks II came from exactly that. It was during [our] writing week, and I started going through some old GarageBand demos and voice memos.
“We pieced that song together from like five different times of jamming or writing.”
The World Tour
Signing to Winspear – the home of other rising bands like Winter, Teethe, and Wishy – confirmed Swapmeet’s sense of self-confidence, despite being tucked away in Adelaide. But then, coming from that city is exactly what taught them to do things themselves.
“You can’t wait for the right moment,” Elphick declares. “You have to make the moment happen yourself. That’s a big part of recording the album [so soon after the first EP].”
The band’s world tour will cover multiple continents, including slots at Pitchfork Festival in both Paris and London. And while Elphick and Medlyn still swap between guitar and drums once per set, Swapmeet’s live show has become fairly streamlined.
“We all used to do everything,” recounts Elphick. “Josh would play drums for a bit and Venus would play bass. But it felt like there was a lot of time spent swapping instruments instead of playing them. So one swap works. I kind of forget that it’s not something most bands do.”
After running the gauntlet of SXSW in Austin last March – cramming 13 shows into five days – the band feel adequately prepped for their busy tour schedule.
Again, it’s hard to feel too intimidated when you’ve come from a sleepy city in which even your friends might not show up for every gig. So how scary can a foreign country really be?
“That comes from playing shows here to no one,” says Elphick, displaying his characteristic resilience. “Getting to play wherever we can is the aim.”
Swapmeet’s Mount Zero is out now via Winspear. Tickets to their upcoming Australian tour are on sale now, with a batch of instore performances launching from July 17th.
Swapmeet – Instores
Friday, July 17th – SoundMerch, Melbourne, VIC
Saturday, 1uly 18th – Music Farmers, Wollongong, NSW
Sunday, July 19th – HUM On King, Sydney, NSW
Monday, July 20th – Abicus, Newcastle, NSW
Tuesday, July 21st – IMA x Glitter Records x Somersault Magazine, Brisbane, QLD
Swapmeet – 2026 Australian Tour Dates
Friday, September 4th – Rhino Room, Adelaide, SA
Saturday, September 5th – The Lansdowne, Sydney, NSW
Friday, September 11th – Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane, QLD
Friday, September 18th – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne, VIC
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
