The raw power behind Sex Swing’s new album

Transmission 104: Interview with Sex Swing

Sex Swing is a British noise-rock band that melds a powerful combination of heavy rhythms, distorted guitars, and intense saxophone. The group formed in 2014 and includes members from various UK underground acts such as Earth, Mugstar, and The Keep. Since their inception, Sex Swing has developed a visceral sound that combines raw noise with a hypnotic, almost psychedelic atmosphere. Their albums have built a reputation for their dark, immersive qualities, culminating in their third studio album, Golden Triangle, which is set for release on 4 October 2024 through God Unknown Records.

Title: Golden Triangle
Artist: Sex Swing
Release Date: 2024-10-04
Genres: Alternative Rock, Noise Rock, Post-punk
Label: God Unknown Records
Description: Sex Swing’s new album Golden Triangle combines noise rock with heavy rhythms and a visceral and raw saxophone.

Featured image: Steve Gullick
Sex Swing’s Bandcamp, Instagram

Before forming Sex Swing, you all played in different bands. What were some of the key lessons or experiences from those earlier projects that you carried over into this band?

[Dan Chandler] Let somebody else do the admin work. Jason really likes doing the admin side of things. And Jodie, they’re really good at it. But that seemed to be my job in the older bands. Nothing really changed for me. It’s always been about a bunch of mates getting together and making noise, really.

[Colin Webster] I think it’s important not to try and force things. It’s like you just want to get in a room and see what happens.

[Dan Chandler] With Sex Swing, when we set out, the original idea was for it to be a sort of low-effort band. That hasn’t really worked out. But it seems like by not trying as hard, it’s become way more successful than any of the other bands I’ve been in.

So it’s kind of counterintuitive. We didn’t try that hard, and people seem to dig it. Whereas with other bands where I first started out, we were trying to get on every show. And it didn’t pan out so well. So that was interesting.

[Colin Webster] I definitely had that experience as well. When we started, everything fell into place really quickly. Like Dan says, without really trying particularly hard. Whereas in other projects, you’re just hitting your head against the wall, trying every single avenue to get records out or get onto festivals and never get anywhere. And then it just happens with Sex Swing.

Was there a particular moment or catalyst that led to the formation of Sex Swing, or did it evolve naturally from the collaborations between its members?

[Dan Chandler] Stu, the drummer, and I were in a previous band called Descalator. When that split up, we wanted to do a new project together. And we just happened to be at a barbecue with Tim, who was our old keyboard player. And we were like, yeah, let’s try something.

Tim started out on keys and was on keys on the first album. I’ve known Jason for years through playing together in various bands on the same bill, so he was up for it as well. And then Colin quickly joined after that. I can’t remember how we got in contact with you, Colin.

[Colin Webster] I knew Tim. I’d done some recording at Tim’s studio, and we’d been in touch a bit. I think he just asked me if I wanted to come and play with these guys. And I just came down for a jam. And it was like, yeah, it was good.

[Dan Chandler] Apart from Colin and Oli, I knew the other guys for years. Colin was a new face.

[Colin Webster] This was more than 10 years ago.

What led you to focus on the Golden Triangle, an area known for its turbulence, and how did it contribute to the album’s development in both concept and sound?

[Dan Chandler] So I was in Laos, which is a really interesting place. It’s like the Wild West in parts. I was reading about all the crazy stuff that goes on, particularly in the Golden Triangle area. Coming back through Thailand, somebody recommended a book called “Beyond Shadowlands,” which is a reportage book about that region. I thought it would help with writing lyrics to have a theme, and it really did. When you’ve got subject matter that you’re constrained to write about, it really helps. There’s so much interesting, crazy stuff that happens there, it’s an endless source of subject matter.

[Colin Webster] We wrote all the music without hearing any vocals at all. We had all the writing sessions and recording sessions just putting the music together. Dan was there, but it was very loose in terms of verse and chorus sections. We were putting the music together without knowing any lyrical content.

Dan took all the music and did all the vocals without any of us around. We didn’t hear anything Dan had done until one day there was just an email with everything completed, including all the lyrics.

So it was kind of rich.

[Dan Chandler] Writing the vocal parts by forcing the lyrics into the song and being constrained to write about certain themes was much easier than having a blank canvas.

Were there moments during recording where the album took on a life of its own and went in directions you didn’t expect?

[Colin Webster] The album really took off with the vocals. That changed a lot of things. There were sections where we thought one thing would happen, but a completely different thing happened. For example, the middle section of “King’s Roman Casino” went off somewhere else.

There’s lots of things like that.

[Dan Chandler] I was surprised with a couple of the tracks, wondering what I was going to do on them. Particularly the one that sounds a bit like Rocket from the Crypt. Bruce McClure did a long spoken word piece for one of the tracks. And that was just an idea I thought of because I’d known Bruce for years and he happened to be in London and I asked him, and he was definitely straight up for it. And I didn’t know if it would work, but it turned out really, really good.

I’m really happy with how that sounds.

[Colin Webster] We’ve never had a guest before on anything, I think.

Your music combines heavy rhythms with saxophone, creating a powerful atmosphere. How did you first decide to incorporate it into your noise-rock sound?

[Dan Chandler] before Colin joined, we all felt it sounded pretty interesting because at that point we didn’t actually have a guitar at all. It was just bass, keys, vocals, and drums. We needed something, but we thought if we got a guitar, it was just going to sound like every other noise rock band we’ve been in before.

The fact that Tim knew Colin made it seem like an obvious choice to try that out, and it really worked. We didn’t start with the idea of saxophone in mind. It was a happy coincidence that we were searching for something, Tim knew Colin and suggested it, and we were just lucky it fell into place instantly.

It sounded amazing in the first practice. It went from something interesting to something really cool.

Given the turbulent state of the world—with pandemics, wars, and climate change—do you feel, consciously or unconsciously, that these global issues influenced the atmosphere or lyrics of Golden Triangle?

[Dan Chandler]  Maybe, but not consciously. My lyrics are quite passive on any kind of commentary. They’re more like observational passages. Obviously, the world around us has an impact on everything we create, but it’s not consciously political in any way. There’s maybe a subconscious element that influences it, but it’s not overt.

Do you find that the visual elements, such as the album artwork or music videos, play an equal role to the music itself in conveying the themes of Golden Triangle?

[Dan Chandler]  We’ve never really done a video before. But certainly the artwork by Alex Bunn on the album, we’ve used the same artist over each of the three albums. I really think his work just connects with the sound we make. It’s the perfect visual fit for how we sound. If we do another album, we definitely want to use Alex’s artwork again.

[Colin Webster] Alex’s artwork has been a really good constant element, and it’s something that people always pick up on for the three studio albums. There was a different person for the live album. But Alex’s artwork is really important to us.

[Dan Chandler] Videos are sort of a new thing for us, and I don’t really connect them with the lyrical themes or anything like that. I think they were just cool videos.

[Colin Webster] The “Pat Jasan” video has that kind of 60s, 70s psychedelia look to it. It makes me think of the Top of the Pops dancers, Legs & Co. With the lighting and the swirly effects, I think it fits really well. It’s got this psychedelic thing, which the music’s not necessarily that, but I think it’s our take on that kind of music for that track.

[Dan Chandler] The other video was just us in a rehearsal room, but I really like that one.

After the release of Golden Triangle, what direction do you see the band heading in next? Are there any new projects or experiments you’re eager to explore?

[Dan Chandler] It would be great to write some new stuff pretty soon. We haven’t really played many of the songs from “Golden Triangle” live yet, so I think that’s the next big thing for us – getting some tour dates in the diary, getting some festivals next year. Doing a couple of tours with these songs is really exciting.

Prior to this album, we’d been playing the same set of songs for a reasonably long time, so having an entirely new set and getting on the road to play some shows is the next thing. We want to see how these songs work live. The way we tend to play live is we don’t necessarily follow the song pattern per se. When we start trying these songs out, there’s a lot more improvisation. We’ll stretch certain parts, change some parts, and the song can evolve a lot during a few different performances.

So that’s the main thing I’m looking forward to.

[Colin Webster] Definitely. The immediate thing is the record’s coming out next month, and then playing some shows and seeing how it develops live. That’s the main priority. I’m really looking forward to playing live again.

[Dan Chandler] Yeah, it’s been a while.

Photos and images courtesy of Sex Swing

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others