“We’re Just Weirdo Kids Who Play Rock Songs.”
It’s no secret that we love the Swellers here at the Assault offices – their latest record, 2009′s Ups & Downsizing, provided us with plenty of inspiration during long coffee-fueled nights of writing reviews and hammering out tutorials. So it was a real honor when lead Sweller Nick Diener graciously consented to answering a few questions for us via e-mail while taking a much-deserved break from the road.
AssaultBLOG: What’s the typical journey for a Swellers song from conception to actualization?
Nick Diener: Jonathan and I are the songwriters. We’ll have a riff, a chorus, sometimes a whole song’s music just happening in our heads. We bring it to each other, and if we like it, we keep it. If we sorta like it, we trash it. That’s probably why it takes us like a year to write 6 songs. We rarely have “extra” songs to play around with. Sometimes it’ll take 9 months to get a song right, sometimes it’ll take 9 minutes. Either way, usually lyrics come last, to make sure they’re exactly presented how we want them.
Being on an indie label, do you have to meet certain expectations, or do you get free reign? For instance, is there any pressure to deliver a song that “sounds” like a single?
FBR [Fueled By Ramen] has been great and believes in us 100%. We recorded our album and paid for it ourselves before we even got signed. I’m sure they’d like us to do well and get huge and have a big radio jam some day, but they know we’re a punk band and not to tell us what to do!
How important do you consider traditional measures of success, such as sales and radio play?
Sales are very important because the numbers are what get good things for bands. The higher the numbers you have, the better the tours, the more money to make touring easier, etc. Sales are down like 99% from what they used to be, though. If you’ve sold 100,000 records, it means probably 2 million have already downloaded it for free. Only weirdos listen to the radio, but hey, it helps.
How do you keep the equation of “career” and “calling” properly balanced? How has the work-to-fun ratio changed as the band has become more popular?
Good question. I think it just kind of happened. As more people started coming to shows and we got on bigger tours, there was more money going around. We went from breaking even, to making enough to “get by” and keep touring. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. I can live, just from playing in this band. But I don’t live very extravagantly. I try not to buy expensive things. Just food! It’s a lot more fun, now, actually, than it used to be, because we don’t have to worry about so many things, like will we eat today? Will we have enough gas money to get home? It’s a lot more relaxed. We’re working even harder though now too!
Being on the road so much, are you able to balance your personal life with band business? Is it hard to normalize when you finally get home?
Very hard to normalize when I get home. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do when I’m home. I’m made to play songs and tour. It’s good to see friends, girlfriends, family, and everyone else for awhile though.
What lessons have you learned from being on the road with heavy-hitters like Paramore and Less Than Jake? And is that level of popularity scary or inspiring?
The Paramore and Less Than Jake tours were both two of the biggest tours we’ve done, but they were also very different tours. Paramore plays to mostly “concert-goers” and Less Than Jake plays to “punk rock fans”. Very different people, very different staff and crews on the tour, but both did great things for our band and we loved hanging out with everybody on both. Definitely makes us want to keep working up to that point.
At your shows you talk about playing in real bands with real instruments. Any idea why kids nowadays are more likely to pick up a video game controller than a guitar? What got you started playing music?
Video games are easier than real life, in every aspect. A video game costs less than a real guitar, too. My bro and I started playing music together when we were 9 and 10, so it’s all i’ve known for 13 years. Never went with the trends of what was popular.. just played rock music from day one. Still am, just in front of more people than just my parents. I picked up a guitar so I could play Nirvana songs.
It’s no secret that you and your brother are straight-edge vegans. What made you decide to be straight edge and vegan?
I don’t like the idea of not being able to drive. I don’t like the idea of spending money on drinks that taste like shit. I don’t like the idea of my breath smelling like white trash. I don’t like the idea of contributing to animals being killed for selfish reasons. Hence, the vegan straight edge. Makes me feel good.
You’ve opened for Paramore, Less Than Jake, and pretty soon you’ll be opening for Motion City Soundtrack, is there one band that you haven’t opened up for that you’d like to?
Weezer, Green Day, Jimmy Eat world, Foo Fighters, NOFX, Get Up Kids. I’d like to be with those guys.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given by another band or person in the music industry?
It was from Bill Stevenson when we toured with Only Crime. He was in Black Flag and the Descendants. He said that no matter how many kids are in the crowd that night, even if it’s two, they still could have done ANYTHING they wanted that night, and they came to see your band. So give them a hell of a show.
When you guys start headlining, who are the bands you’d like to have opening up?
A band called Heartsounds from California. Living With Lions, A Wilhelm Scream, Broadway Calls, Cheap Girls from Michigan, just to name a few!
Besides getting boners to stop from having to pee while driving, what are some other crazy/weird/funny things that have happened to you and the guys while on the road?
I just think its crazy, weird, and funny that anyone would like us or our music enough to put a poster of us on their wall. We’re just weirdo kids who play rock songs. Makes me really happy, though. There are too many random and weird moments to really pick just one.. but I think it’s nuts how much we actually drive. Brutal.
I know you guys just came out with a new CD, but are you planning on coming out with anything else in the near future?
Not really the near future, but hopefully early to mid 2011 will be our next record release. Can’t wait. Already writing it.
What’s the end game for The Swellers? At what point can you say, “yup, we’ve done it all now.”
I think the second we stop growing is the second I’ll start thinking of wrapping things up. Don’t wanna beat a dead horse.
(Additional reporting by Third World Timmy.)
Like this post? Bookmark it!
Email to a friend
Your message has been sent!
Please enter a valid email.
Your email failed. Try again later.
Related Posts
Most Popular3
About the Author
Oswald Hobbes is an amateur music appreciationist from the wilds of the Midwest.
Follow me on twitter Email this Author | All posts by Oswald Hobbes
[...] nuts and make poo poo jokes at the office. And lead Swelldog Nick Diener was kind enough to let us interview him earlier this year, in probably the coolest thing that’s happened to us since we got into [...]