One of the staples of the Chicago rock scene the past 25 years has been Jerry Bryant’s JBTV and this past week they featured one of my favorite bands, The Swellers (from Flint, MI) on the show. @kirkland_sarah tweeted it out and I’m posted in. That’s how this party’s starting.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMxPbxsluNk

More from The Swellers

• The Swellers Myspace
• The Swellers Twitter
• Nick Diener’s Twitter
• The Swellers on iTunes

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.)

Pop-punk is one of the easiest genres to get wrong; the ingredients are simple enough that anyone can give it a shot, and fan expectations are famously low. That’s what makes the new Swellers record, Ups And Downsizing, so refreshing: these guys absolutely nail it. The songs are catchy, the riffs are chunky, and there’s enough wit present in the lyrics to satisfy the discriminating pop-punk fan. After undergoing numerous lineup changes and the usual amount of toil and trouble, The Swellers seem to be on the cusp of breaking out and getting the recognition they deserve.

The Swellers – Fire Away Video

Ups and Downsizing in Flint, Michigan

The Swellers prove they have the essential down pat right away; opener “2009″ finds singer/guitarist Nick Diener wallowing in the kind of new year’s misery that’s fueled great tracks in the past from Alkaline Trio and Motion City Soundtrack, although the tone here never slips into negativity or ugliness. And, though the riffs may be familiar enough, they keep circling around in interesting ways, dropping out and then coming back harder. This is the formula for most of Ups And Downsizing, and when it works, The Swellers make a case for themselves as a more masculine Paramore; this is friendly mall punk you can blast in your car without feeling like a teenage girl.

The Swellers consistently go deeper than the average pop-punk concerns; the title track features smart lyrics about the recession (the band is from Flint, Michigan, so they know a thing or two about economic downturn) and closer “Dirt” is an enjoyably vinegary missive aimed at anyone attending Dienen’s funeral. “Feet First” and “Stars” switch up the tempo; the former is a pretty standard ballad entry, but the latter runs six minutes and features a Slash-worthy guitar solo as it reaches its super-cathartic climax.

Ups And Downsizing is a big step forward for the Swellers; their previous full-length, My Everest, traffics in much of the same thematic and musical territory, but the delivery is more pungent and forceful this time around. The rest of the band is almost impossibly tight . Think Fall Out Boy’s Take This To Your Grave: Standard elements recombined in an interesting way, with some studio sheen to help the medicine go down but enough rawness to keep the energy popping. And the flawless rhythmic interplay on these songs showcases a precision that probably is only possible when it’s your brother on drums (Jonathan Diener handles the skins).

If you’re a fan of the typical pop-punk sound, Ups And Downsizing is worth more than just a listen. It’s worth memorizing as a textbook example of exactly how this stuff sounds when it’s done right. I’d place it in the mighty pantheon right alongside Alkaline Trio’s Goddamnit and Green Day’s Kerplunk, and that’s about as high of praise as you’re likely to hear around these parts. And, just like those records, telling your friends about Ups And Downsizing amounts to sharing a wonderful gift. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in twenty years, up-and-coming punk bands instructed their producers to “make it sound like the Swellers.” That’s how fine their command of pop-punk principles truly is.

The Swellers are opening for Less Than Jake at Metro on Tuesday, November 24; if you’re in the Chicago area, I highly advise you check these guys out. (Both myself and “Third World” Timmy will be at the show.) This is real, no-bullshit rock ‘n’ roll, and that’s a rare commodity these days. Buy tickets now!

More from the Swellers

• The Swellers Myspace
• The Swellers Twitter
• Nick Diener’s Twitter
• The Swellers on iTunes