If you haven’t already submerged yourself in the slick electro-pop goodness of Conversations, the new single from Swaré, stop what you’re doing and go listen to it now. The song is a perfect showcase of the Sydney artists effortlessly cool songwriting abilities, and we’ve had it spinning on repeat ever since we first laid ears on it.
So fresh off the track’s release, we caught up with the artist himself to chat all about it, his songwriting process, and what the future holds.
With an irresistibly slick new single fresh under his belt, we caught up with Sydney-based artist Swaré to chat all about it.
HAPPY: Hey, how’s it going? What are you up to at the moment?
SWARE: Hey! I just got home. Cooking some rice and dumplings. Needless to say I’m pretty excited.
HAPPY: We’re loving Conversations! How does it feel having the track out there in the world?
SWARE: Thank you! It feels great. We finished it a little while ago so it’s kind of a relief. And people seem to dig it, so that’s a bonus.
HAPPY: Could you tell us a bit about the song?
SWARE: It’s actually all about a nasty relationship I was involved in some time last year. Without realising it I was being pretty badly messed with in a really toxic, manipulative situation and then finally got out. A lot of the lyrics are actual things I said to this person over the phone, when they were trying to pull me back in.
HAPPY: How did you approach the writing/recording of this new track differently to past material? If at all…
SWARE: So it was written all pretty quickly, in an hour or so. But with the recording process Themba and I set out to be as minimal as possible with the arrangement. We wanted to make a really solid groove with the least amount of instrumentation possible – just the essentials. I think it’s really easy to just throw layer upon layer into a song to make it sound beefier and we wanted to avoid having a song that was just in your face. We wanted it to be cool without needing to say it was cool.
HAPPY: Could you walk us through the process of how a Sware song come together? Is there a general pattern, or does it change from song to song?
SWARE: I kind of start from the bottom and work my way up. Rhythm section first, usually a nice bass or drum section. Then I’ll try and work some chords in over that – but I’m not a keys player so they’re usually not right and often I’ll put them in front of an actual keys player and they’ll ask me what’s going on or what key we’re in – I usually don’t know. And I always do lyrics last, they’re probably the trickiest bit but the most fun when they work.
HAPPY: Are there any other artists you’re really loving at the moment?
Honestly someone I’m really admiring is Timi Temple. His tunes are great but more than that it’s how he conveys his personality through his music. He’s just got good vibes and he seems to do it so effortlessly and authentically which I think is rare.
HAPPY: What’s next for Swaré? Any other exciting plans in the works?
SWARE: Yeah absolutely! Themba and I recorded lots of songs that are all finished and ready to go, we’re already preparing for the next release. And then it’s building the live show, improving on what we’ve already got and making it better then getting on stage and showing people what we’ve got. Basically just growing things.
HAPPY: Cheers for the chat!
SWARE: Hey, no worries. Thank you!
