Since their start, swim school have always shown a continuous progression over the last few years. From the launch of their debut EP Vol 1 back in 2021, the Edinburgh band have showcased a steady evolution of their sound across a consistent discography. With each release marking their style and mindsets at that time. On their new mixtape EP Seeing It Now, the band have released something that reflects back while still moving forward. Bringing with it new songs and new versions of fan favourites to really showcase how far the trio have come.
From the roaring lick of the title track, Seeing It Now wastes little time in making itself known. Complete with their trademark room-filling guitars, thunderous percussion, and the haunting nature of Alice Johnson’s vocals, this feels like the work of a band who are fully confident in their abilities to get your attention and lead us into some of their best material yet.
‘Give Me A Reason Why’ follows with arguably the most in-your-face instrumental swim school have made yet. A strong barrage of noise comes at you with unrelenting force as this breakup song of sorts tears apart the airwaves. Delivering a cathartic performance that feels like a real relinquishing of emotion from all its’ parts.
Hello swim school, how’s it going? Hello! We’re all good, we’re absolutely buzzing to be heading out on our first headline UK tour next week and releasing our new mixtape. Feels like we’ve been waiting since the start of the year for this weekend so we’re on cloud 9!
What can you tell us about your new EP, Seeing It Now? We recorded the mixtape a stone’s throw away from our rehearsal space in 456, Edinburgh with our amazing producer Iain Berrymen and our engineer Niall Sinclair. We wanted to do this mixtape locally as the songs were written between Alice’s place and our studio spot in Edinburgh and it just felt right. There’s a real variety within the mixtape that is still familiar to the swim sound but also a bit different at the same time. We’re so excited to get it out into the world.
At what point did you realise that this would be more suited as a mixtape than a traditional EP? Did that distinction relieve any pressure during the making of it? We really wanted to be experimental with this release and do something a bit different, where it revisits old songs for remakes, a cover and some new stuff we wrote in amongst touring last year. It feels more like a series, and with that we wanted to expand on what an EP can be. A mixtape to us allowed us to give a bit of everything without following a theme so much. With that, we didn’t feel the usual pressure of getting 5/6 singles worked on and from the offset we knew we wanted a cover, a live song, some new stuff in between. ‘To Grow’ is our most stripped back song to date, Alice wrote it in her bedroom and took it to us and we loved it because it’s nothing like what we’ve got and adds a new dynamic to our live show. As soon as we decided on the mixtape idea, we already had the songs ready to go.
With its acoustic tone and mellow tempo, ‘To Grow’ is a real palate cleanser from the fervent way the EP started. It’s here that Alice’s vocals are allowed the chance to breathe harmonies out into the air, filling the room with an atmospheric vibe that soothes in its heartbreak. “I had to lose a part of you to grow” rings out against the chords, really allowing the listener to sink in and connect with the emotion being heard. It’s great, and I can’t believe it’s not a style swim school haven’t explored before. They could easily explore it and build off of the groundwork laid by ‘To Grow’.
Fan favourites ‘Anyway’ and ‘See Red’ also received a revamp, which sees both tracks benefit from this new found confidence and energy to become two more storming hits that really knock us out with their power. ‘Anyway’ feels like the best of Black Honey and Wolf Alice, in its ability to reel you in on its verses and blast you back with an explosive chorus. It’s superb.
Included on the release is a live version of ‘see red’, which appeared on your making sense of it all EP in 2022, as well as a revamped version of ‘Anyway’. Both tracks certainly match the new tracks in terms of energy. How did it feel to revisit these songs years later? It’s something we’ve always wanted to do. Both songs were written and recorded in lockdown and we didn’t have the real chance to play them live during the recording process which is really important for us to gage the audience interaction. ‘See Red’ is a favourite to play live as well as a fan favourite, so it was a no-brainer when the idea to do a “live in the studio” recording came around to give this another shot! We raised the BMP, one take kinda vibe and it’s captured perfectly. Hopefully the energy comes across cause it was so much fun to play in the studio!
With ‘Anyway’, we wrote that song years ago and originally had a really basic phone recording which we kind of forgot about in between going into record it. The original studio version took a slightly direction and it wasn’t until we discovered the original demo years later, we realised how much we loved the longer, moodier and darker sound so we started to play around with it live this way and also in rehearsals. We showed the demo to our producer Iain and he instantly agreed that we can re-work it back to this version and we honestly could not be happier with the outcome. It’s emotional, raw, guitar soaked and just anthemic. Not many people have heard this version so it’s so exciting to play this on tour where people might not recognise it at first, but the lyrics will give that familiarity and we know it’s going to be a bit of a tear jerker.
You mentioned that you were feeling a lot of negative emotions during the creation of ‘Anyway’. Now that it has been refreshed, how do you feel about the song now? We just love the new structure so much, it just feels us and it shows how much we’ve grown as a band and overtime realised what works for us. I think the impact of not being able to try it live at the time perhaps put us down a more poppy route for making sense of it all, however, we’ve since found our feet a lot more with the shows we’ve played and the confidence we’ve grown and we know the song deserved to be played the way it was intended to be played, and that was down to us finding it all years later and revamping it. There’s a beautiful thing in recording everything, even if it’s just on a phone during a practice, because like we have found you can re listen to things years later and breathe new life into songs.
There’s also a mashup cover of Pixies’ ‘Where Is My Mind’ and The Wannadies’ ‘You & Me Song’ that closes out the EP. What made you decide on those two songs, and where did the idea come from to put the two together? We are so inspired by the Pixies and we had the privilege of opening for them last year which was a career milestone for us and something we’ll remember forever. We wanted a cover on the mixtape but done in a stripped back one take kind of vibe and it just seemed right to give Pixies a go. We set up a mic and amp in our rehearsal space hallway and started to record. Alice had the idea of mashing it up with something, and ‘you and me together’ for one reason or another came up in conversation and it worked so well. After a few runs we listened to it back, with the little personal touches like Alice talking at the start and end, Lewis strumming away, the click of the recording button, the stripped back electronic drums playing off an iPhone, it was just perfect for us and we didn’t do too much more to it! Just two brilliant songs that we love.
I feel like fans would enjoy Seeing It Now as it provides an insight into your influences and tastes, on top of the new music. Would these mixtapes be something you look to continue releasing throughout your discography? We loved the process of doing the mixtape and recording whatever felt right then and there. It’s a slightly different experience from doing an EP of singles or an album cause we didn’t feel massive amounts of pressure and our producer allowed us to have that complete freedom. We think there will be more similar releases as the mixtape in between future shows cause we have so much music to share with our fans.
And finally, what are your favourite fruits? Grapes are a solid in the van. Always in supply. But we always try source our avocado and toast as soon as we get to a city, so much so that we’ve asked for it on our rider. Forget the beers, just give us that. Keeps ye going!