SWMRS, pronounced swimmers, is a punk-rock band with a beach vibe twist. Originating from Oakland, California; the band’s music is fast paced enough to get you dancing and yet still could be considered chill. The Bite had the chance to chat with one of the lead vocalists, Max Becker, before SWMRS’s performance on Feb. 26.
When did you decide to pursue a music career?
Freshman year of high school is when I really started thinking about it seriously; it’s when we all started.
What was the experience of breaking into the music industry like?
It was cool, like going to a new high school. At first you’re like the new kid, but then you kind of show everyone what you got, and depending on who heard you, people start to like you. It’s really slow at the beginning but it’s all fine.
You guys write your own music. Where do you get your inspiration?
A lot of it comes from experiences and decisions. As you get older, you have to start making decisions when there is not really a right path, because not everything is black and white. We also write a lot about being proud of where we are from, Oakland, California, and we wouldn’t want to be from anywhere else. Also, we write about girls.
On your most recent album, “Drive North,” what was your favorite song to write or perform and why?
Well I wrote three of them, and my favorite song to write was “Turn Up” because it happened so quickly. I wrote it in one night and we recorded it the next day. It was cool how it all came together. One of my favorite songs to record was “Drive North” because we did it live; it was actually the only song on the label that we did live. It was cool to do something a little more old school and a little more raw. It turned out way better than we expected, so we were stoked.
Your brother, Cole Becker, is also in the band. What is it like being on tour with him?
It’s actually not so bad. We’re pretty different guys so we don’t usually butt heads. We’re all best friends. It’s never awkward; it’s more just that we care about each other so much that we are also very brutally honest. It has also brought us all closer. We’ve seen each other do things that you never see other people do.
While performing, how do you and the rest of the band engage with the audience?
What we like to do with the crowd is not really between songs, it’s more during the songs. We like to get really close and maybe even go out into the crowd. Sometimes a few of us will even stage dive! We grew up playing at this place called “The Night Before Gillman’s Street,” in Berkeley and it’s a very tight knit team so you want to interact with the crowd. I think we try to do that as we travel across the world.
Your sound is often compared to bands like The Beach Boys. How do you differentiate yourself from the other bands in the punk-rock genre?
I think we try to take what we traditionally know how to do, which is rock-and-roll and some sort of beach music, and we add a new element in our recording process, which was the low end. When we mixed our record, we turned the guitar down lower and we turned the bass and the drums up in the mix, and it turned into a very modern sound.
Lastly, describe your sound in three words.
Normally, I would say grunge pop, but for the third word I’d say modern because I heard Cole use that the other day and I think it makes a lot of sense
