SWIM, the four-piece pop-rock band, came together in 2014 with the addition of Brian D’Angio (James Madison University, 2020) as the band’s drummer.
Since SWIM’s formation, they have created a significant volume of music and hit big milestones like having over one million streams on Spotify. Their two most popular singles, “Heartbeat Connection” and “The Chase,” have over 660,000 and 280,00 streams, respectively.
“We tried to build a lot of hype around the release of ‘Heartbeat Connection,’ posting it everywhere and promoting ourselves like crazy,” D’Angio said. “Three weeks later, it was picked up by Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist, and it took off. All of us were so excited and proud to see a song we worked so hard on being loved by listeners.”
Until that point, SWIM had 500 monthly listeners on Spotify. Now the band has more than 22,000 listens, with the peak being 50,000+ monthly streams. “We are super grateful to be picked up by Spotify’s algorithmic playlist. So many people are listening to Spotify playlists, but it’s even more exciting that people are still listening and kept coming back even after we left the playlist.”
One of the downsides to having so many people connect to one song like “The Chase” or “Heartbeat Connection” is creating new music that might sound different, and this is always in the back of the band’s mind. SWIM still stays true to the pop-rock sound but is also slowly evolving their sound.
“We do catch ourselves saying, ‘Hmm, well, maybe the listener would want this, or maybe if we did this, another playlist might pick it up, but as a band, we want it like this.’” D’Angio said. “Sometimes we have that battle with ourselves, but we do our best to block all of that out and make music that we enjoy making because that’s what got us to where we are in the first place.”
The band was in the middle of writing and recording their first full-length album when the pandemic hit. Everything they were working on stopped.
“It was pretty rough because the studio shut down, and we tried to get together as much as possible while still staying safe, so we could still work on the album,” D’Angio said. “We’ve been doing virtual recording stuff lately, which has not been amazing, but our sound engineer is really good, and we love working with him. We’re just trying to keep going and finish up the year.”
The band pivoted and learned how to write and record without always being with each other. Navigating around COVID-19 was demanding but not as demanding as writing music with a cohesive sound.
“It’s up and down because sometimes we get a little frustrated how sometimes some things don’t work out in the studio. Each of us wants something to sound different, and then our engineer gives it to us another way,” D’Angio said. “That is how recording and making music is with guys who are passionate about the sound and direction of our music.”
With the added challenges of recording through the pandemic, SWIM still has plans to complete their album and release five singles in the coming months. Of their five planned releases, the band has put out two, their single “Moonlight” on January 29 and their most recent single “Oh Honey” on March 25.
“It’s our dream to release a full-length SWIM album with a cohesive collection of songs we poured our heart and soul into,” D’Angio said. “Writing cohesive songs is very challenging because you want to make them all make sense and have them all be streamlined. Right now, it’s very intricate, and we’re trying to get through it. But it’ll be cool once it’s all done. We’re all very, very excited for it.”
After seven years with SWIM, D’Angio has been able to grow as a musician. After graduating and not being able to put all of his extra time and effort into pursuing his music dreams, the process has gotten harder.
“We’re just trying to keep it alive, make it work, and not think about it too much because it does mess with us because we don’t know what the next step is after this album. We’re just trying to take it day by day and week by week and balance everything as best as possible,” D’Angio said. “I love playing and creating music with SWIM and want to keep the dream alive as long as I can.