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Swim School
Scottish indie rock band From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Swim School (stylised in lowercase) are a Scottish indie rock band. Formed in late 2018 in Edinburgh, the band initially comprised Alice Johnson, Lewis Bunting, Matt Mitchell, and Nairn Milne; Mitchell and Milne later left the band, while Billy McMahon joined in June 2020. They have released the EPs Volume 1, Making Sense of It All, and Duality and the mixtape Seeing It Now and have supported Inhaler on their Cuts & Bruises tour. The band have frequently cited Wolf Alice and Slowdive as influences and their works are generally categorised as indie.
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Swim School were formed in late 2018 in Edinburgh.[1] Initially comprising Alice Johnson, Lewis Bunting, Matt Mitchell, and Nairn Milne,[2] they released their debut single, "Sway", in February 2019.[3] Their debut performance was in Galashiels,[4] took place in March 2019, and was a support slot for Indigo Velvet, another Edinburgh-based band.[1] In October 2020, Johnson stated that their set had been marred by a "40-something stranger" heckling sexist abuse at Johnson before and during the performance, prompting her to struggle to hold back tears while performing and to break down after leaving.[4] They released their second single, "Take You There", the following June.[2] Swim School spent around a year gigging until the COVID-19 lockdown caused the band to concentrate on writing. Indigo Velvet's guitarist Billy McMahon was invited to join the band in June 2020 after a period of him assisting with live streams.[5]
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The band released an EP, Volume 1, in 2021,[6] and then the single "Let Me Inside Your Head" that March.[7] By May, Milne had left the band. That month, they released the single "Outside", their first without Milne[a] and performed a cover version of Taylor Swift's "Love Story"[10] for a BBC live session.[5] "Outside" was written about cutting toxic people out of their lives,[8][11] while "Love Story" was added after the band decided to incorporate a cover into the set and rummaged through some Spotify playlists.[5] The following month, they released "Anyway" and announced their second EP, Making Sense of It All, which comprised tracks about Johnson's mental state over lockdown[12] and was released in August 2021.[13][11]
After releasing Making Sense of It All, Swim School spent a period gigging.[14] By June 2022, the band were signed to LAB Records;[15] by that November, the band comprised Johnson, Bunting, and McMahon.[16] That month, they released the single "Kill You",[17] which Johnson had written the previous February[14] about being comfortable enough in a relationship to show quirks.[17] In February 2023, they announced their second EP Duality[14] and released the single "Delirious".[18] Duality, which had been recorded at Narcissus Studios in London and produced by Iain Berryman, took its title from the fact that it comprised love songs and angry songs,[14] while Johnson wrote "Delirious" in a fit of rage after suffering from constant misogyny from sound engineers during festival season.[18] A further single, "Don't Leave Me Behind", was released in April 2023,[19] with Duality released in June 2023.[20]
Two weeks after Duality was released, the band re-released that album's track "Bored", a more positive derivative of "Delirious", in an attempt to surprise their fans.[21] The band supported Inhaler on their Cuts & Bruises tour in November 2023[22] and were featured on Dork's "Hype List 2024"[23] the month after.[24] In January 2024, the band released "Give Me A Reason Why",[25] announced their "Seeing It Now" tour for April and May 2024,[26] and released their debut mixtape, Seeing It Now. The last of these featured a cover of Pixies' "Where Is My Mind" and a new version of their earlier track "See Red",[27] with physical copies also sporting a cover of their earlier track "Anyway".[28]
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Artistry
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The band have frequently cited Wolf Alice and Slowdive as influences[b] and have described themselves as a "Tesco Value" version of the former.[32] Johnson has stated that Wolf Alice's lead singer Ellie Rowsell was her inspiration for being in a band[32] and idolised Taylor Swift and Beyoncé growing up,[31] while Bunting has stated that he was a big Metallica fan growing up and wanted to be the band's James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett.[33] For their cover of Swift's "Love Story", Johnson was inspired by a grungy take on Bon Iver she had seen on Triple J.[5] The band have also cited as influences Jaws, Pale Waves, Palace,[29] Foals, The Cure, Ben Howard, Boards of Canada, Paolo Nutini,[30] My Bloody Valentine, and the Smashing Pumpkins.[31] Writing in July 2021, Sophie Williams of NME described the band's works as indie pop,[34] while Johnson's vocals were described by Skiddle in January 2024 as having a "Hayley Williams-esque delivery".[35] Finlay Holden of Dork described Making Sense of It All as a mix of indie rock, grunge, and dream pop,[36] while Mala Mortensa of Alternative Press described "Let Me Inside Your Head"'s vibe as "expect[able] from a Halsey-fronted version of Nirvana"[7] and Andy Von Pip of Under the Radar noted that their rendition of "Love Story" "turned a sweet, romantic optimistic pop song into a heavy dystopian doom rocker".[5]
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Discography
Studio albums
Mixtapes
Extended plays
Singles
Tours
Headlining
- Seeing It Now Tour (2024)[26]
Supporting
Notes
References
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