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My chat with Richard Swift was, well, swift. An international phone call for fifteen minutes might not seem to be enough time to ask everything I'd wanted to ask of the wonderful Mr. Swift, but surprisingly, we had a lot to talk about in terms of his excellent new album, Dressed Up For the Letdown. In comparison to his previous release, 2005's double-CD reissue The Novelist/Walking Without Effort, Letdown is a stripped down, stark, honest, and at times quite humorous collection of pop songs. That it's also a bit of a concept album about the darker side of the music industry, well, that makes the record even more fascinating. I'm quite happy that I had the few minutes I had to chat with him, and I think his comments are insightful and interesting.


Is Dressed Up For the Letdown a conceptual album about the darker side of the music industry?

Yeah, kind of. I certainly was going through a lot of bullshit with the music industry at the time I wrote it, so yeah, it's definitely my journey over the past four or five years, although I wrote it in the last year and a half. (Laughs) But yeah, it's definitely a critique of the business and the state of the world I see.

Does a lot of it date back to before you were with Secretly Canadian?

Yeah, it does. Some of the songwriting does; some of it was…you know, thinking about it, I think I had almost completed most of it concurrently to signing with Secretly Canadian. Actually, Dressed Up was one of the cards that I played to get the deal with them. (Laughs) It's kind of funny; as soon as I finished the record, by that point I had really sort of stopped giving a shit for the most part, and then things just kind of picked up. Literally, within days, essentially, I'd thrown up my hands in frustration and I said, "Well (sigh), let's see what happens." Then Secretly Canadian called a few days later, and life started to go up for me there.

Wow, that's amazing. It's a great story, considering the frustrations you'd had.

I certainly don't regret any of that time. I would never want to go back, because I had some serious mental problems for a few years, and now I'm better. I'm back, I'm healing, I've got some good labels releasing my records---records I don't have to change at all, records no one has a say in except for me. Realistically, it's why it took me a while to sort my label thing out, because I wasn't what certain labels were looking for. Certainl labels were offering me total shit deals, yada yada yada. Everyone has a routine; now mine's worked out, I've stuck with it, and things have sorted themselves out.

It seems less of a "I hate the music industry" theme than it does a call to focus on one's own musical ability.

Yeah, that's certainly true. I don't think much of the record industry--I hate to use the term "necessary evil" because I don't really believe in that concept, but yeah, there would be no point for me to bitch about the record industry. I'm just pointing out things. There was a day and age where people like Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Neil Young--man, Neil Young was a fucking pop star! He was a huge pop star back in the day! People either forget about that, or they just don't know. In this day and age, stuff like that is really impossible to find in "pop." There are guys who are kind of on the fringe, like the folk and the freak-folk scene--but they don't touch sincerity, pop appeal, and the weirdness of Neil Young. We live in a day and age where a person like Neil Young coming along is highly unlikely. In talking about my album, I think I was--I can't say "proven wrong" because I kind of had things work out in the end. I don't think I'd want to make a record that was just me all bitching about the record industry. I think the record finds me reaffirming myself, defining my principles, and sticking to it. There's obviously frustrations that come along when you're doing work you think is good and you take it to people who say "It's great, it's wonderful, but if we could do a couple of remixes, tweak it here and there, do a really nice rock video, and if you cleaned up your look and your shit, it'd be even better." I got a lot of that bullshit. I wasn't going to budge on any of that. I wasn't going to. I make my records a certain way, I want my songs to sound a certain way, and nobody is going to come in and mess with it.

"Richard Swift is an artist. Richard Swift is not a whore."

(Laughs) Exactly. That's the thing. If I was in it for the money, I certainly wouldn't be on this end of the music industry. People like me aren't making loads of money. I'm to the point now where I am able to pay my bills and pay my band and can live from just writing songs. That's...pretty rare. I'm fortunate.

The one song that really stuck with me was "Artist & Repertoire." Was it based on actual things A&R men told you?

Well, in a way. Not just for myself, either; I think it's true for hundreds of people in my situation. Some A&R guy isn't going to tell you that you sound a little trebly in the second chorus. They say things like, (phony-sounding voice) "Oh, the looooook…..the look isn't quite right. Let's tweak it here and there, make it better." I just waded around until I caught up with labels that not only would put out my records, but would put out my records without changing anything. None of it. The artwork, none of it. None of the sound, nada. "Artist & Repertoire" is based from my experience, but I don't think I’m unique at all. Not just in the music industry, too; there are people who do great things but get shot down by uncreative people who think they know how to do it "better." It's a frustration, and it's very trying on you.

I think Dressed Up for the Letdown is a record an aspiring musician should listen to.

Oh? Cool, man. When I made The Novelist, it was kind of a private lesson to myself. Letdown is a bit of a warning letter, in a way. I think it's pretty encouraging, too. At the time, I was grappling with life or death issues. I was going through anxiety and panic attacks that were lasting months and months and months, and I went through massive bouts of depression. It was a really dark time. The record is kind of about dealing with that shit and sticking to my guns, and not giving up my principles. I think if you've got it, you've got it, man. I think if you have to work too hard at it to make it happen, it's not really there for you in the first place. I kind of knew the whole time that it would work out. It was just a matter of being patient. But I'm not unique in what I've gone through. People have gone through this sort of thing since the beginning. There's always been the struggle of the artist versus business and how the two can coincide and coexist, or if they even can at all.

Personally, my point of view of it is if you want to play the game, you cannot complain about what happens to you.

Yeah, you've got to know what you are getting yourself into. I think everybody comes into the business a little blind. I'm kind of glad I went through the things I did, because now I have a perspective on it all. My relationships with two wonderful record labels and the music industry is pretty healthy. I'm very thankful, and I feel rather fortunate to have such a great group of people helping me out, but at the same time, if the label dropped me tomorrow, I don't think I'd be too heartbroken. I'd be bummed, but I'd keep going, and I'd still have my career. I'd still make music. That's all that matters.

Richard Swift's Dressed Up for the Letdown is out today on Secretly Canadian

Do you know how incredibly difficult it is to write a best-of list for a year, when you've just heard the best album of the next year? Such was the case when my ears were allowed to hear the second album (and proper debut full-length) of The Earlies, the brilliant The Enemy Chorus. I've loved this band for a long time, but even this record is a wonderful step in a different direction. Whereas the first few releases of this Texas-meets-England conceptual project were soft, delicately austere pop songs, the new album throws in a few new elements, such as beats and a bigger band, and mixes them all together in one long, continuous flow. But, then again, greatness was expected. John-Mark Lapham is a gentle, soft-spoken man, as befits the music he makes.

I really love The Enemy Chorus, and even though it is your second album, it's your proper debut release. With the way you worked on your singles, how was the experience of working on the album?

There were a lot of similarities. We sort of used the same work ethic as we did when we put together the first record. I think what made The Enemy Chorus a different experience was that now we knew what we could do this time. We had worked with all of the people who are a part of our live band and we knew what we were now capable of. Christian, our keyboardist, and Brandon, our singer, were a lot more involved this time, too. It definitely was a more complex dynamic in terms of energy and what we hope will come across in the live show.

Were you centrally located this time?

Nope! (Laughs) It was pretty much done the same way as before. Brandon is married and lives in Dallas. I was living in England for some of the time, and then was back in America for some of the time, so it was really a lot like the setup we've always had, geographically. We'd mail things back and forth--we're used to it by now.

That takes me by surprise, to be honest, considering the electric energy and live feel The Enemy Chorus exudes. With this method of exchanging back and forth, there isn't always room to capture the feeling of working in a room together.

We've never worked in a room together. I think between both albums, we got one track done together, and even then, it wasn't all of us. We just know how to do it now, and we make the most of the resources we have available. I don't think we could ever make an album any other way; I don't think we'd survive as a band if we all had to meet in one room and start hashing out ideas. I think our world would implode, actually. (Laughs)

A lot of it has to be that there's so many of you.

There's only four in the core of the band, so that makes the decision-making process a lot easier. We all tend to work on our own a lot of the time, so when we get together we each have ideas, and then others take them and do things with them. Everyone has their strengths, and they do what they do best and pass them on, and that works really well for us.

When you started making songs together, was the idea behind The Earlies strictly a studio project, with no thoughts given to ever performing live?

I think from the beginning, even from the very first single, Giles and I had a really strong vision as to what it would sound like live, and I think we both tried to mimic a live band on the first few records by getting together and discussing what we thought a live band would sound like, but, realistically, we didn't have the ability to play live, and we didn't even actually know who was playing with us, or how it would come off. Now, we are aware of what we can do, and we know who is going to be out there doing it, but we're definitely up a few layers from where we were at the beginning.

When you started formulating the ideas for The Enemy Chorus, did you have it in mind that the album would flow together as one cohesive movement. In a way, it reminds me of the Earlies Secret Broadcasts you have composed.

Yeah, as far as my own input goes, that's how I approached it, because I'm the one who does the secret broadcasts. It didn't even come across as much as I wanted it to. I would have probably had things overlapping even more, but I'm still happy with the results. When you start putting songs together, you start thinking about what will come before and after, and you start thinking of ways to segue things together and make it rich like that.

What prompted the change from being a studio-minded project to becoming a live, touring band?

I think it was just a natural progression. I don't think we had any choice, really. The live shows started coming together, and we'd get feedback, and it grew. It's an integral part now, as much as anything else we do. I don't think we would have survived or flourished had we remained a studio band. We needed to add that live element into our music, and I think it is a natural progression. I don't think there was a moment where we sat down and said, "I think we have to do this now." I think we instinctively knew we had to do it. Because of playing live, Brandon gained a lot more confidence and a lot more comfortable, and so he was able to put a lot more across with what he does. The first batch of songs we wrote, we did things in our bedroom, we did things on our own, and we just kind of left them as they originally were. We did that on this album, but then we went back and we listened to the songs, and we went back into the studio and rerecorded some of the tracks and added overdubs. That added a new element, a new layer to the songs, and a whole new dynamic as well. There's ore playing on it, whereas the material on the first album there was some playing, but then we looped it or we processed it and we didn't rerecord it.

How much of a role did the auxiliary members of the band contribute to The Enemy Chorus?

Every song is different. We tried to build on strengths and weaknesses, because we know what we can do now, so we generally give them a vague idea of what it is we can do now, so we generally give them a vague idea of what it is we want and then we play them the material. If we have something specific in mind for them to do, we'll get them to do that, or sometimes they will start improvising a bit, and we'll go in and structure that and chop it up and work it into the song. Each song is different, but they definitely added an invaluable part to our music.

Has taking the band on the road proven to be a difficult task?

Hmm, I don't think so. I'm not really the live guy. I'm the studio producer guy. Christian, he's the live-minded fellow who brought in a lot of the live members and got everyone on track, and he sort of formed our live shows into what they have become. It's really natural for him. He's been playing all his life. It is definitely hard work, though, to get everything together and get everyone organized and actually get things moving and on the road, and then to fly Brandon over or get people where they need to be. There's a lot of work in that, but it surprisingly flows rather well.

So the main focus of 2007 is taking the show on the road?

I think our tour starts in March. We're playing Paris in January, but then the tour is in March. Right now, we've only scheduled European dates, but we would like to do a US tour, probably closer to the summer, but we haven't scheduled anything yet.

How has the reception been for The Earlies in the United States? I know that in Europe, they're much more open to variety, but what about America?

We haven't really...I guess we've done all right here, but we've not really made any big headway in America. I think part of it was the fact that our album had been out well over a year before it was released here in the US. We didn't have a label deal, so all people had was import copies, and then when the album came out on Secretly Canadian, a lot of people who would have bought it already had it, and it was seen as old. We'd had a bunch of positive reviews for it the year before, so that kind of added to that opinion. We'll see how it goes for The Enemy Chorus. Everything's going to coincide this time around, so we'll see. You never can tell with some of these things. What might work well for one time might not work for another. But I'm not really worried about that.

The Enemy Chorus is released today on Secretly Canadian