ALBUM OF THE WEEK: A Swayze & The Ghosts Pull No Punches With Debut Record

Over the past few years, A Swayze & The Ghosts have certainly built themselves a solid fanbase based on their live shows and some catchy as hell singles. 

There's been rave reviews from BIGSOUND and The Great Escape, and they've also earned themselves the attention of some big names, like director Edgar Wright, Ivy League and Rough Trade Records, and of course, there's the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater soundtrack.

Now, five years after forming, it's finally time for the group's debut album. 

Dubbed Paid Salvation - by frontman Andrew Swayze, guitarist Hendrik Wipprecht, bass player Ben Simms and drummer Zackary Blain - the album tackles everything from ecocide to social media addiction to religion, with no punches pulled. 

Expect to see it high on the 'Best Of 2020' lists come December.

What they're saying... 

The Music's Jessica Dale caught up with Swayze recently to chat about the album. Check out excerpts below and check the full feature here.  

TAKE TWO

“Funnily enough, we’d actually recorded a record - a full length - when we first started playing together, back when we were a three-piece. And it was really bad. We were just super high and drunk the entire time, and it turned out to be rubbish. We ended up toughing it out, and then re-evaluating what it meant to be in a band I think, and we took things seriously from then on.”

TACKLING SENSITIVE SUBJECTS

“When you’re talking about sensitive subjects in a subjective manner, you’ve got to be sensitive to people and, you know, I respect the people’s opinion - I don’t just hold my opinion above everybody else’s - and I like to know what I’m talking about if I’m going to talk about it, so all of that is taken into account while writing tracks, like, ‘Ok, this line may come across offensive to the wrong person,’ or like, ‘You know, this might not be what I’m trying to say.’ I never really get nervous about releasing a track because I’ve definitely thought about it a lot.”

THE IMPORTANCE OF LYRICS

“For me, music and lyrics are equally important and I think giving attention to what you’re actually saying within your lyrics is ultra important, not just using throwaway lyrics. I’ve done that before, don’t get me wrong. There are earlier songs where I’ve sort of just used basic filler really, but I’ve been given this platform to explore and share my thoughts, and just speak up for people who maybe don’t have the same platform and also challenge people.”

CAPTURING THEIR LIVE ENERGY

“We’re a live band and we thought that we’ve got to try and capture that energy and conviction on our record so we did that, and then I did my vocals separately. Pretty much everything was tracked within those few days, but it just took about another six months for me to finish my vocals because we tracked it all in Melbourne, and we all live in Tassie. We all worked full-time at that point, we had to sneak in whenever we could to get my vocals done. I’d just go up for a couple days at a time and then come home and go back the next weekend. It was a slow process, but a quality process, and I think we kind of discovered ourselves as a band, even more so. I think we sort of just reaffirmed who we want to be as a band and how we want to sound recorded.”

Listen to Paid Salvation below.

Looking for more new tunes? The Green Room podcast host Neil Griffiths and The Music's Jessica Dale have you covered with their This Week's Releases series. Check out this week's edition below.