The Swellers on Fueled By Ramen, New Album Ready
Suite101 Talks Exclusively with Nick Diener About New Record, Tour
Aug 4, 2009
The Swellers have recently signed to Fueled By Ramen Records, a label that sports such acts as Cobra Starship, The Academy Is... and Paramore. Suite101 caught up with the band before their show at Otto Bar in Baltimore, Maryland and spoke with frontman Nick Diener about the signing, the band's new album and being a true punk band in a sea of pop.
Suite101: How did the Fueled By Ramen signing come about? Why were they such a good fit for your band?
Nick: "They hit us up pretty early actually, and we were skeptical at first but they have a good success record...We were pretty straight up with them saying, "We're not gonna waste any time...we'll finish the record with or without a label" and we recorded it exactly the way we wanted. So we finished the record and played a showcase and Fueled By Ramen showed up with like 10-11 employees...we got to meet them all, everyone was really cool so it was a question of should be sign with a label that's only known about us for a couple of months or been around from the beginning? It was an easy decision."
Fueled By Ramen has indeed kept a solid track record for signing young bands with a high ceiling for success. The Swellers are the only signing this year for a label that has sported acts such as Fall Out Boy and Less Than Jake.
Suite101: What are the most immediate differences? Obviously it's a bigger family, higher level of attention, but what's the best thing to come from the move?
Nick: "We've been doing things ourselves for seven years, and it's been stressful but great, but it's awesome to have more people involved...we went from having no one to having a publicist, a manager, so many people involved and excited about our band, everybody's [at the label] has been really awesome."
From the ground up has been the theme for the band's upbringing, its frontman and drummer (Nick and Jonathan Diener) hailing from a town close to Flint, Michigan an area that has been decimated dy the automotive downturn in the United States.
The Perils of Dealing with Success
Suite101: How worried are you guys about a higher level of notoriety leading to stereotyping or labeling of your band?
Nick: "The only worry we have going in was how we were going to be marketed. The label...they seem totally cool with everyone we've wanted to do, which is unusual y'know usually everybody wants to have a say but it's been great...artists on the label have been pulling for us...having Paramore there is a big plus..."
Suite101: Speaking of which, Hayley Williams recently used her Twitter to declare The Swellers her new favorite band, care to respond?
Nick: "(laughing) Yeah it's been pretty cool. I respond to her messages and I get like 40,000 new hits and followers."
Details on the New Record
Suite101: Let's talk about the new album, how much freedom have you guys had? What direction can we expect?
Nick: "It's my favorite record so far...punk has really had a resurgence. I wanted to make a timeless kind of record where people look back years from now and it's still pretty relevant...just tried to write great songs. The album is going to be called "Ups and Downsizing" and lyrically it's dealing alot with where we come from as a band with being from Michigan and watching all these jobs disappear...my dad had to relocate to North Carolina and we're trying to sell our parents, my brother [Jonathan-Drums) and I...and it's not going to sell..."
"The first single is going to be "Fire away" and it sums things up pretty good for us as a band...this kind of get up and find a new life...if you've been abandoned or alienated...it can relate to anybody. We've gone though alot of changes as a band...from lineup shifts...guys that weren't the right fit or didn't want to tour as much as we did..."
Lineup changes are a fact of life for most bands and The Swellers have not been immune. They replaced their guitar and bass players in 2008 on the brink of several large tours and have now cemented their roster with Nick on vocals/guitar, his brother Jonathan on drums, with Ryan Collins and Anto Boros filling them out on guitar and bass.
Suite101: When's the record due out? What will you consider a successful release?
Nick: "September 29th. For us my idea of success is how many kids are singing your words back to you...if it all explodes and we become huge, I'm prepared to go all the way but if we were just playing to 50 kids a night it would be the same thrill."
Suite101 is waiting on that invite to their CD release party.
The 29th will also be the day when new labelmates Paramore release their third album, "Brand New Eyes." With such a groundswell of support from bands and fans already mobilizing it is very likely there won't be any going back to playing fire halls for The Swellers. As Nick said there's nothing left to but, "tune your guitar, plug in, and go."
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