INTERVIEW | ANDREW SWAYZE | PYRAMIDISLAND.COM

Strong ideologies lurk behind the bent and unpredictable stage persona of frontman Andrew Swayze of A. Swayze and the Ghosts. Compelling, disarming and glimmering with madness, their live shows set them apart from the typical dirge of garage noise bands coming out of Australia at the minute. Their debut single Reciprocation’s pared back lyricism and hypnotising jams see frontman Andrew Swayze throw down the gauntlet to audiences in a challenge to engage in genuine connection or die. Vulnerable, furious and devoid of pretence these Hobart lads are unsurprisingly landing a cult following as well as national attention for their particular brand of defiance. Amanda Laver was in conversation with front man Andrew Swayze the week of their 2017 Faux Mo performance.

A: You guys are gaining some serious attention for the live shows you’ve toured in launching your debut EP Reciprocation – congratulations too, for the nomination in the National Live Music Awards. What first made you gravitate toward becoming a guitarist and vocalist before the days of A. Swayze and the Ghosts?

I think that naturally I’m fairly extroverted and I want to be at the front all the time. And I think that when I was probably a young dude in my early years I just wanted to be that extrovert. I’d just be like “Yep, I’m here!” and I’d want everyone to see me. While I didn’t love playing guitar at that point I loved music so I thought “Shit I’m gonna try guitar ‘cause that’s the thing you do if you wanna be the font man!” I had that in my head the whole time and I started playing in bands when I was 18 but I was just a guitarist…all I wanted to be was frontman. It hasn’t been until forming A. Swayze and the Ghosts that I’ve actually been able to go in as the lead singer.

I’ve read that you were all housemates at one point and that informed how the band came together. Did you find that living together and playing in the band added pressure to the dynamic of the group?

Yeah we’d been mates for years and our friendship actually formed over music which sounds pretty cliche but it fully did. Henny mainly plays our lead stuff and he also sings in the band. He and I went to college together but he didn’t speak to me the entire time. When I started a band with his mate he finally started talking to me and we became friends. Then he joined the band and after two years of him not giving me anything we’ve actually became best mates.

We started A. Swayze and the Ghosts under the idea that I would write all the songs and they would just help out with playing them. Then we realised that it was actually gonna be a lot better if they were actually contributing to writing the songs as well. We started looking at it that way after a few practises and it became a completely collaborative thing.

In terms of being housemates it was fine, it was good actually. We lived in a house of 5 people. The dynamic is a bit treacherous in a house of 5 people, it can be a bit gnarly and it was a shitty old house which was cold…

And five is an uneven number…

Yeah uneven numbers are harder…

Were you the loner who was left out?

[Laughs] No definitely not, we were all in it together. It was a pretty loose sort of experience living all together but I think having the convenience of being able to practise every day and write every day made a big difference in our formation. We’ve all played together for years but playing as A. Swayze and the Ghosts is the first time we have actually performed together and recorded our music.

When you released your debut single Reciprocation in October cult bloggers said things like “ A. Swayze and the Ghosts are Hobart’s new flagship band” It’s also getting plenty of praise for its pared back writing and super low – fi sound. Where was it recorded?

It was in our bass player Bens’ basement actually. We produced it ourselves, it was just all live. We wrote the song a week beforehand and just decided to jump in and record it. It was pretty cool and it came out pretty long as well [10 minutes 20 seconds] It was just a ‘press record and go’ kind of situation.

So you did no post production at all?

Zac our drummer is quite good with sound and so is Ben so between them both they’ve got that completely covered. We recorded and I think Zac mixed it while he was waiting for a plane a couple of days later. That was it, we just chucked it out after that.

Is there a particular mindset you’d like your audiences take away from listening to your work and seeing you live?

I suppose we want people to be attentive during our shows. Someone who’s sitting there texting during any performance (not just ours) fuck them. Pay attention. We want to grab peoples attention and go “Right we’re here for 40 minutes or however long and we’re going to steal your attention.” These are our songs and we’re proud of them. We love the music we play. You’re either checking us out or you can just leave. But you can think anything you want of it. If you watch the whole set and go “Oh I don’t like that band much” that’s fine. At least you checked it out. I mean we put a shit load of energy into our performances without planning on doing so, it just sort of happens… and if you come away and feel maybe a bit more ecstatic or a bit hyped up after our performance or you’re feeling the same energy we’re feeling on stage then sick. Good. Job done. Awesome. There’s no planning for it and it’s a bit of a party, we just have a really good time.

Indeed the Hobart launch of reciprocation was one of the most memorable live gigs I witnessed. At one point you got super riled up with your comments about the vacuousness of social media and the crowd all went a little insane in response. Can you tell us a bit more about why social media inspired you to write a song?

That song is called C2C which is an abbreviation of connect to consume. It’s really about being influenced by these big groups of people who have no impact on your actual life. I think honesty is the most important thing and that’s the thing that’s being covered up by social media. You can tailor how you look and what you get up to based on social media and people see that and go “Right, that’s that person”. Previous to this kind of phenomenon you were seen as how you actually were. Now you are completely in charge of how you want to look. You are your marketing team. And yeah you’re always working and you’re constantly exposed to other people’s opinions on things without having the time to make up your own.

And then there’s the fact that people just take photos all the time of fucking everything. Every interaction. But it’s select as well. I mean for example I need to take a photo of me and Amanda right now because she’s interviewing me, I need to put it on my Facebook page just getting an interview with Amanda. We’re regressing, like you have to see it to believe it. There are too many photos, too many statuses I know too much about everyone. I don’t give a fuck about 90% of what I see on Facebook. Memes are good. Memes are great, but yeah but just shut the fuck up, you look like a fuck head. Pull it together. And since forever that’s been the ok thing to do, you would just literally tell your mate when they’re acting like a fuck head but now with social media we’re questioning whether that’s the right thing to do?! I’m thinking “Every time I go to the fucking pub mate, you’re on social media and you’re telling these people all this stuff about your life. What are you getting out of this!?” It’s fucking crazy. C2C is a song we only do in our live set at the moment but it means a lot to me.

Yeah ‘Facebook addiction disorder’ exists now. People develop narcissistic tendencies and an addiction to ‘likes’. Do you think live music and art can do anything to wake people out of their weird online reveries?

Yeah it can help some people maybe. But the others? Just let ‘em fucking burn, seriously.

At one point at the Hobart launch, you kind of became possessed by the spirit of Reciprocation and took all your clothes off, ran through the crowd and danced on a table before running back to the stage to grab your guitar and finish the set nude. Did the message behind Reciprocation inform your nudity that night?

The nudity wasn’t planned. We didn’t talk about that before the show, in the heat of the moment I just felt like that was the thing to do. I think during that song I just wanted to completely say “Fuck it, here it is”. And because it was the launch of the single I really wanted to focus on that particular song. It was the first time I’d been nude on stage before which is quite a big barrier to push through. Fuck, if you can get naked and perform in front of a bunch of people it’s really opening yourself up.

The real meaning behind Reciprocation is given away in the first verse though. The total thing it comes back to just reciprocation within a relationship. So obviously it takes two to tango, you’ve gotta give and you’ve gotta receive for anything to actually work and you’ve got to be honest. But I mean the other idea behind it is a sexual idea and the meaning of the song literally comes down to giving head and receiving it. It was super liberating singing the lyrics and releasing that song. It’s something I’d felt in previous relationships before and to get that all out and make that available to the general public was a liberating thing in the first place. Add being nude to that and yeah, great.

You kind of can’t lose when you’re in that mindset really can you?

No, everyone might as well just get naked really.

Was it more liberating because you were in tiny old Hobart, your home town?

Yeah it was definitely more liberating in my home town. I think playing interstate you don’t really know anyone and you can kind of get away with anything you want. That night was also funny cause I had a friend in the audience who was watching these two girls swooning over the band while we were playing clad. Then as soon as I took my gear off and bent over and they saw my asshole it was a bit like “Oh fuck this! I don’t know if I’m in the right room!’” and they talked a bit then left. So no, they didn’t like it. But if you cant handle it then catch ya! That’s not why you do it but I do enjoy that reaction as well. It’s half the glory – pissing people off and weirding them out. “Oh it’s a penis, it’s an asshole” It’s just a regular penis. A lot of bands in Hobart have done it before too, I mean it’s been done a thousand times in this place.

I other thing I realised that night was that I can play a full set and be really extroverted without taking drugs to do so. Which was in all honesty, the thought going through my mind when we were playing. When Reciprocation came up I mean it’s a really passionate song…maybe that influenced my decision too but the real reason was me sort of proving a point to myself. That yes, you can do whatever the fuck you want when you’re on stage without it being hard to do so. But to be naked in front of a bunch of people you know considering you know everybody in Hobart, there’s an aftermath effect. I got a lot of backlash from it from older men I know who heard about the show and were like “You just don’t do that kind of thing” and that just made me feel better. I was like “Yep, fuck yeah you do!” It’s just a dick. Whatever. But I don’t plan on doing that every show, it’s not a thing. It was great fun at the time and I’m not worried about being naked in front of anyone anymore. Getting naked is something you do every day. But it becomes a thing in public. It’s bizarre that it’s a conversation topic.

Yeah I think it has to be brought out in the open more often and that’s why I was interested in chatting about it. I wonder if live music and art still have the power to neutralise all this sexualisation and shaming of our naked bodies? Everyone has unique features be they big thighs, uneven labia, small penises, disproportionate boobs. Adults have placed all this bizarre sin and sexual pressure on these parts of our bodies that aren’t always sexual. They’re just here and they’re real and honest…

Yeah, I mean the fact that women actually go and get labiaplasty, I mean thats FUCKED. Why do people have to be ashamed of their bodies? I mean you take a shower by yourself and it’s not a sexual thing, you stand in front of the mirror after your shower and dry yourself, it’s not a sexual thing. Why does it become a sexual thing later on when you’re in public? Why have you always got these sexual pressures put on you? Fuck the best sex you have is when you’re completely comfortable with yourself and your partner whether it’s a one night stand, a six year relationship or a fifty year relationship you know? That’s a point that needs to be addressed in not just our culture but so many cultures. And the problem is that when you start a relationship with someone it takes months to build that confidence and trust and even if you’ve both got it you’re still not sure where the other person stands because of all these crazy standards that have been set. It’s fucked.

Do you think that maybe this kind of art in performance can change audiences perceptions of their own comfort zones and push them?

Yeah audience members would still go home after our gig that night and stand naked in front of the mirror and go “Am I comfortable doing the same thing?” I mean the fact that the question is there in their minds rather than them just going home and switching back off again….I think for some people that makes a difference. “That guy can do that, maybe I can too”.

But then the problem with that is that they might associate someone on stage as being the focal point of attention who’s this really bold individual for whom getting naked is not even an issue. Fuck that. I still get up in the morning and have a shower and see myself naked. I’m 26 and I wouldn’t have done that when I was 17. Maybe I’ve been influenced by other bands and have just thought about these things for long enough to feel comfortable with that.

Who are some of the bands that have inspired you over the years?

I think King Gizzard are doing awesome stuff. Especially on the back of their own label Flightless. Those guys are bringing alternative music to the general consumers ears which is really quite cool. Especially being Australian and being alternative and doing what they want, which is the coolest thing. They’re such a versatile group who are somehow accessible and they’re just doing everything themselves which is really quite admirable. I’m a sucker for the classics though. I love the Doors, I love Elvis, I love the Beatles, I love the Stones. All of whom are big influences as a front man, y’know Morrison, Elvis, John Lennon. Such charisma in their performances and they still had a certain conviction, absolute conviction in what they did which is really fucking admirable. It’s really important to me and it’s really important to our band to be absolutely honest in what we do. And also not boring.

The part where things get really unpredictable is where the magic happens…

Yeah probably our only rider is like a thirty meter microphone cable for every gig. We don’t plan that sort of stuff. And it’s boring trying to practise that shit. In fact it’s really hard practising in a room sometimes, I just wanna run around.

Do you have any other creative practises that inform your music?

I write. I try to write most days. They may be certain ideas I’ve come up with during the day that I want to explore a bit more. I find it pretty hard to talk about the things that I think of but writing them down seems to work a lot better. I like to take my time to write, get my ideas out and go back to them a little bit later and review them. It’s kind of stream of consciousness but I’m a grammar nazi as well so I can’t just jot stuff down.

You guys have got a few festival dates coming up, do you have a preference for playing your own shows or festival gigs?

We get received better at festivals because people are fucked on drugs.

And do you enjoy that atmosphere more as a performer?

I enjoy having a crowd heaps – whether that’s a festival or a show. I mean our launch was great. So many people rocked up that I didn’t expect to rock up. It was overwhelming, brilliant. But I think as long as people are getting into it, like there could be five people up the front going hard and throwing out their best dance moves and really getting in to it or there could be three hundred people who are doing the same thing, just letting their hair out a bit. Sometimes they’re just sitting there listening intently, I mean you can tell when someone’s actually listening. That’s just as good as some dude just going ballistic up the front.

And how long will your fans have to wait for the next single to come out?

I can’t give you a date. It’s not long. It’s gonna be ready though.

“It’s not long but it’s gonna be ready” that’s the key quote I’ll take from Andrew Swayze today.

[Laughs] Yeah I listened to it three times today and I’m super excited for it to happen. It sounds great. And it’s even better than Reciprocation.

Leave your comfort zone and go see A. Swayze and the Ghosts live at:

A Festival called Panama TAS, March 10th
By the Meadow Festival VIC,  April 1
Supporting The Living End @ The Odeon TAS, Friday April 7th
and at Boogie XI Festival VIC, April 15th

-Amanda Laver.