Oxford’s Swervedriver are coming home with new songs, says Stuart Macbeth

Los Angeles is a long way from East Oxford. Yet that’s where Creation Records boss Alan McGhee first heard Oxford band Swervedriver’s debut demo, recorded in Union Street, just off the Cowley Road.

One of the most exciting and successful bands to emerge from the local music scene in the early 1990s, Swervedriver say their sound was inspired by the noise of the Oxford car factories they passed on their way to school.

The demo cassette had been passed to McGee by Mark Gardener of Ride in early 1990. After listening to it while driving through downtown LA, McGee immediately signed the band to his label.

A string of EPs and debut album Raise followed, to widespread acclaim.

Subsequently, guitarists Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge, bassist Adi Vines and drummer Graham Bonnar toured Europe, North America, South East Asia, Australia and Japan, releasing three further albums before disbanding in the late 1990s.

In 2008, they returned, announcing their billing at California’s Coachella festival. Their return was sealed in 2013, when they released their first single in 15 years, Deep Wound.

Now they are back with their first album in 18 years: I Wasn’t Born to Lose You. And they are giving hometown fans a chance to hear it tomorrow, with a show at the O2 Academy.

“It’s very important for the band to keep releasing new material,” says Adam, talking to me from Canada.

“Jimmy, our guitar player, and Steve [George], our bass player, were pushing for Swervedriver to write new songs.

“When we first reformed, we were playing our debut, Raise, from start to finish. I still feel a connection to the songs on that record. But we all felt we should have a brand new album that we could play from start to finish.”

They recorded I Wasn’t Born To Lose in Melbourne and at Ray Davies’s legendary London studio, Konk.

“It was recorded during the tour, which meant we were ‘road fit’ and tight as a band. We were also thinking about the arc of an album. Raise has a flow to it and so does I Wasn’t Born To Lose You.”

The album was released in March and Adam thinks there’s plenty to delight the band’s legion of fans.

“We’ve always held this space kind of between genres and we feel this new album touches on all the areas we’ve ever touched upon.

“At times it’s spacey, at others it’s heavy and it’s always a bit poppy. There are lots of guitars and lots of melodies.”

To put the finishing touches to the album, the band came back to Oxford.

“I recorded vocals at Mark Gardener’s studio and the set was mastered in Cowley by Tim Turan, who had recorded our first demo.”

Adam still thinks of Oxford as his home town and continues to keep up with the city’s music scene, he says, “reading Nightshift over a pint in the White Rabbit.”

So what are his own memories of starting out as a sprightly young musician in the city?

“Swervedriver were formed out of the ashes of a band called Shake Appeal. We used to play a lot at the Caribbean Club, which was in Oxpens down near the College of Further Education.

“It was a cool little space. I remember a very crazy show we played at the Wheatsheaf. We also did a gig at the Corndolly, which is now The Cellar. Although I have zero recollection of that one.”

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Live dream: Swervedriver onstage (photo: Liv Niles)

Adam does have vivid memories of seeing My Bloody Valentine play the Wheatsheaf and of the many gigs he played at the Jericho Tavern.

“The very first show I did was at the Jericho. I was in a band called The Suspects, from Wheatley. Simon Quinn was the other guitar player. His brother, Mick, is in Supergrass, of course”.

Mick is playing bass with Swervedriver on their current tour.

Adam goes on: “I just remember it being incredibly exciting to be getting up and plugging a guitar in front of everyone.”

Having made it big, the band found themselves in North America, first supporting Soundgarden and then on a national theatre tour with the Smashing Pumpkins: “It was a great time to be touring with them, because their second album, Siamese Dream, was just blowing up and all the venues were sold out,” he says.

“A lot of kids told us that the first time they ever heard of us was when we stepped out on stage on that tour. So we gathered a great following in America from playing those shows.”

The band’s following continues to grow. “Our fans are much beloved,” says Adam, adding, “To a degree, Swervedriver remains their hidden secret.”

It’s a secret worth discovering at their gig tomorrow.

“Someone in New York recently told me that being in a Swervedriver audience is genuinely more pleasant than being in a lot of other bands’ audiences,” he said. “And that’s something we’ll always want to hear.”

Swervedriver
O2 Academy Oxford
Friday May 22 2015
Tickets: £15 from ticketweb.co.uk