How to Swim (band)

Infobox musical artist
Name = How to Swim


Img_capt =
Background = group_or_band
Years_active = 2000—present
URL = http://www.howtoswim.net
Origin = Glasgow, Scotland

How to Swim are an orchestral rock band from Glasgow, United Kingdom, currently working on their fourth independent release, the album ‘My Favourite Retina’.

History

How to Swim were formed in late 2000 by Ink Wilson (Vocals/Guitar) and began as a five piece. Initial influences included Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground and Pavement. The band would alter line-up many times over the coming years, adapting influences and styles with Wilson, principle songwriter, to this day, the single continuous member throughout all incarnations.

How to Swim Start Life in 2D

Deciding they had more than enough material ready, the band used recording dates arranged in the city's Stow College to embark upon releasing a self-funded first album 'How to Swim Start Life in 2D'. Recordings made by the music production class would form a large portion of the album, as well as other student contributions from the local SAE Institute, adding to two previous home demos.

The ten-track album was released in limited supply in August 2003, through the band's own 'Personal Hygiene' label, sold in local independent music stores.

Track Listing

# “A Texan Suicide”
# “I Wish I Was Sixteen”
# “City Boy”
# “Serenade Me”
# “My Summer Girl”
# “She Don’t Like Cities”
# “Mona, I’m Not Myself Today”
# “Laura Named Her Children After Things That She Liked”
# “The Greatest Handstander”
# “I Can’t Speak Chinese”

The release gave the band a wider audience and resulted in their being interviewed on XFM Scotland (then ‘Beat 106’) as part of Jim Gellatly's ‘Beatbreakers’ programme, highlighting Scotland's best new music.

It Stings When I E.P

Recordings for another self-funded record, 'It Stings When I E.P', began in August 2004, with friend Gav 'Grnr' Thomson, then of local band 'Flying Matchstick Men', as producer. The record was to be ambitious; for the first time the band used a string quartet, and composed parts for brass, timpani and clarinet. For one track 'Bones', up to fifty people were squeezed inside Wilson's home to perform backing vocals. The aim was to make 'It Stings…' the best release from an unsigned band that year.

The E.P was launched in Glasgow in December 2004, with a free show in the West End's Oxfam Music store, giving away promo copies of the record and performing to a packed audience which even spread onto the street outside.

Track Listing

# “Bones”
# “(I am a) Logical Man”
# “There’s A Building There”
# “Feeling Guilty (No, Really)”

The record received a good response over the coming months, from publications including ‘ Is This Music?’ and ‘The List’, with Channel 4’s Teletext service ‘Planet Sound’ making it their ‘Demo Of The Week’, stating that “Of the released CDs we receive, 98% are nowhere near this imaginative.”

Looking to both improve the band’s compositional repertoire and perform the E.P tracks live, additional players were brought in over this period. The band would play at King Tut’s in July 2005 for the first time as an eleven-piece; a number and a line-up that would remain the same for another year.

till Unravished: A Tribute to The June Brides

In 2005, the band were invited to contribute a track for a record in tribute of The June Brides, a cult eighties band from England. The band chose to cover the song ‘On The Rocks’ and used their newly acquired orchestral section to drastically alter the track from it’s stripped back origins. The record also featured contributions from ‘Manic Street Preachers’ and ‘Television Personalities’, and was finally released in 2006 on the Irish label ‘Yesboyicecream Records’.

The Littlest Orgasm

Having planned a full album (to be titled ‘A Little Orgasm Of Disappointment’) since 2003, the band decided to release an E.P, with the intention of releasing four songs from the future fifteen track album; a taster for what was to come. They recorded, again with Gav Thomson, at Berkeley 2, Glasgow, in September 2005, choosing late-on to add two new non-album tracks, and therefore expand the E.P into a ‘mini-album’. Additional overdubs would be added as the year ended, with the release coming in March the following year, distributed by Stow College’s Electric Honey label.

Track Listing

# “A Little Orgasm Of Disappointment”
# “This Is The Way (That It Was Mean To Feel)”
# “When The Rain Comes”
# “Liquorice Kiss”
# “Pak Choi”
# “Cherry Moon”

Critical reaction was again strong, with the addition of Electric Honey’s promotion allowing the record to reach a broader audience. Eventually, recording for the full album would be shelved in light of better material, and ‘The Littlest Orgasm’ remains as the only evidence of the record’s original planned oeuvre.

Live

Over the years the band have shared bills with several established acts including ‘Sons and Daughters’, ‘Dawn Of The Replicants’, ‘ Misty's Big Adventure’, ‘Kimya Dawson’, ‘Amusement Parks On Fire’, ‘Fire Engines’, ‘The Bluebells’ and ‘Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players’.

In 2006, the band took part in TBreak, an annual event sponsored by Tennents, giving bands the opportunity to appear at Scotland’s T In The Park festival; one of the largest festivals within the UK. The band were chosen to appear live at one of several live showcase events in May, viewed by a panel of judges. Ultimately, they were one of a final twelve acts selected, and performed at the festival on the Sunday evening.

Following the festival, How to Swim were then selected for the show ‘Best of TBreak’; one of the events of Edinburgh's The Edge Festival. The band played at The Liquid Rooms, along with ‘3-Style’, ‘The Acute’ and ‘Found’.

Electric Honey and Creeping Bent

In October 2005, the band signed to Electric Honey; a music label run by the Students of Stow College’s HNC Music Industry Management, famous for uncovering local acts such as Snow Patrol, Belle and Sebastian and Biffy Clyro. As ever with Electric Honey, the deal would last until the end of the academic year, with the label agreeing to release and help promote the already recorded ‘Littlest Orgasm’ mini-album.

Around the same time the band agreed representation with The Creeping Bent Organisation, with management provided by Bent’s Paul Turnbull.

A promotional single featuring ‘(I am a) Logical Man’ and ‘Bones’, released by Electric Honey would be released in 2006, gaining considerable radio airplay, including broadcasts on BBC Radio Scotland, Phil Jupitus’ BBC6 Music show and BBC Radio 1 by DJ Rob Da Bank.

Further compilations were released in 2007, the first of which; a Creeping Bent split 45-inch single with fellow Scottish act ‘Found’. Later in 2007, Electric Honey chose How to Swim to represent them on ‘Thank You For Being You’; a record highlighting some of the best independent Scottish music releases of the previous 25 years. The release was met with positive reviews nationwide; in publications such as ' Uncut' and 'NME'.

Influences and Comparisons

Over the years, How to Swim have adopted and altered influences, acquiring a broader compliment of styles. Initial influences; the likes of Nick Drake and Pavement can still be heard, although a shift towards songwriters like Tom Waits and Nick Cave is significant, with comparisons to the two often being made. Larger groups including The Polyphonic Spree have also helped shift the band from their original lo-fi, post-punk approach towards a more orchestral sound. Today, How to Swim’s lineup and arrangement style is most comparable with bands such as Architecture in Helsinki and Arcade Fire.

Current Line-Up

Ink Wilson – Vocals/Guitar Sean Callaghan – Guitar Chris Brown – Percussion Martin Docherty – Bass Rich Merchant – Trumpet Ross McCrae – Trombone Anna Webster – Backing Vocals/Glockenspiel/Keyboard Mhairi Ross – Violin Anissia Kerr – Keyboard Hannah Rankine – Saxophone/Flute

External links

* [http://www.howtoswim.net Official How to Swim website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/howtoswim How to Swim on Myspace]

Reviews

“How to Swim are on great form, proving themselves as more than capable of holding their own against the Arcade Fires and Polyphonic Sprees of this world. Whether writing bonkers pop tunes about Genesis P Orridge, slaying all before them with the grin-inducingly danceable Dexys stomp of A Little Orgasm Of Disappointment, or tearing into a cover of David Bowie’s Let’s Dance like a pack of hungry wolves round a giant steak, it all comes across like the sound of a band approaching critical mass, soon to explode and shower us all in artful skulduggery and orchestral mayhem.”

Sunday Herald (T In The Park 2006)

"... they play like the devil's own cabaret band” ...”When they hit full stride, it's awesome."

Is This Music? (King Tuts, Glasgow) – July 2005

“Go and see them now: they'll be sold out when they're playing in hell.”

Brazen Magazine (King Tuts, Glasgow) – November 2006

“How to Swim (5/5) are big” … “they produce quite simply a jaw-dropping performance” … “a constantly growing crowd are left stunned by the audacious brilliance of their performance.”

The Skinny (King Tuts, Glasgow) – June 2006

“How To Swim are a genuine delight of well-crafted songs and charismatic lyrics” … “See them now before you have to camp out to get tickets.” (5/5)

The Skinny (Glasgow School Of Art) – 2007

“From the melodious sprawl of ‘A Little Orgasm Of Disappointment’, to the raggedy edges of ‘When The Rain Comes’, the combination of jazzy orchestral workout and frontman Ink Wilson’s sinister inflections makes for a listen near impossible to bracket. And there are never enough bands you can say that about.”

The List (The Littlest Orgasm)

"...first track ‘Bones’ is the kind of song one listens to while pouring over the fine details of a world domination mission” … “‘Bones’ will be the song playing in my head when I fall to my knees after a long caustic desert shoot-out but “Feeling Guilty (No. Really)” is the song I want playing when they light the taper at my cremation.”

Rise And Shine (It Stings When I EP)

"Did you know that Nick Cave was born with a tail? No, me neither. Not strictly relevant, you may think, but, maybe, just maybe ‘Bones’ by How To Swim is the best song Cave never wrote” ... “This is lounge music for people whose lounges are full of ruined books, ruined records, ruined bodies and a special kind of madness. How To Swim are very possibly the best new band in Scotland."

Joyzine - 2005

“How to Swim will be huge.”

The List – 2005