Swim Deep is a new band on the cusp of an emergence into the mainstream spotlight – having flourished amongst a newly thriving British Midlands music scene. In the 70’s and 80’s Birmingham was a hive of undiscovered rock and metal, producing legends such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. During the 90’s it was engulfed in the Madchester Britpop movement with bands like The Charlatans and Ocean Colour Scene mimicking what was happening in the North. In truth, it was missing a true musical identity of its own. Fast forward to 2012. The almost overnight success of Peace, a Cure-inspired indie-pop outfit, saw a whole host of indie labels fighting to pluck the next big thing out of dingy nightclubs like The Rainbow, The Victoria and Sunflower Lounge.
Suddenly the city seemed filled with bands making ironically indie-beach-pop music set against a dingy industrial backdrop, christened BTOWN by the locals. The fact that the city is so vast and yet the amount of live music venues is relatively small, has meant that bands have needed to network in ways different from bands in other larger cities. It’s well documented that successful locals such as Peace, Troumaca, Corelli, Wide Eyed, JAWS and Swim Deep were all regular drinking buddies when they were growing up. In turn, this created a chain of bands bringing one-another into the mainstream; Swim Deep began supporting Peace, JAWS started supporting Swim Deep and Wide Eyed have recently begun supporting JAWS. Swim Deep are undisputedly the new next-big-thing to come out of BTOWN. Dressed like ninenties throwbacks and sporting long hair like California surfers you can’t dispute their talent – The dreamy rhythms, the introspection of their lyricism and altogether rawness of their sound. Debut track “King City” flew around the social-web with a video that was paid homage to the city that was backing them, showing the boys skating around run-down graffiti-clad parts of the city and drinking in local bars. Next came “She Changes The Weather”, a laid-back, sleepy love-song that could still be adapted when the band thrashed it out live, stage-dives and all.
Having signed to RCA last year, the four-piece have broken the city limits jetting around the world to spread their sun-kissed tunes supporting the likes of Spector on tour. Swim Deep will no doubt be heading along a path of international recognition with the release of their debut album Where The Heaven Are We making its appearance this September. But they will always be a product of an incredible wave of music that’s coming out of Birmingham. By Angela Newfield
Swim Deep 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.2
Reviewed by b3
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