With a rustic sincerity that manages to string country sounds from around the globe, Current Swell have a catalog of sounds that would do most artist’s a creative justice – how could I not make contact? I managed to prise a few answers from Current Swell’s Scott Stanton and dig deeper behind the folksy charm of these Canadian ‘news roots’ lads.
When did you first start playing together as a group?
There was no specific time. We were always jamming together, just playing our songs and one day we got a gig. We were never intentionally starting a group it just happened.
What’s the story behind the name?
We never had a name because we were never starting a band so at our first show we gave the M.C a list of names and told him to pick anyone he wanted and he said “Current Swell” and it just sort of stuck.
Who would you consider the artists that have had the most influence on the band you are today?
That’s a hard question to answer, when I write music it can come from anywhere, something that has happened to me in the past, present or future, mixed with a story or another idea. That’s what’s so fun about writing songs but the last 3 albums I have been listening to a lot are Youth Lagoon, The whitest boy alive and this Howlin Wolf vinyl my dad gave me.
You‘ve got elements of both traditional and country rock in your music, does that represent anything you listened to growing up?
I would say yes. I grew up listening to Neil young, Bobby D, Muddy waters lots of old delta blues stuff. I never listened to country, just folk rock and blues.
You’ve got an American Tour coming up, which do you prefer – recording & compiling or doing shows?
I love it all. Being at home creating music, being on the road performing to fans, we have a big passion for performing to good crowds and being in the studio printing what you have created on to paper and finally getting to listen to what it sounds like as a whole but it’s all heaven and hell. It’s never smooth sailing.
‘Short Stories’ started with an almost ‘Romantic Italian’ intro, did you deliberately include influences from off the continent?
Haha I remember when we first started jamming and someone would play a riff and we would be like “oooohhh that has an Italian feel or Spanish feel let’s include a song” and that how we made our first record. We hardly new what we were doing, we were just having fun. We never deliberately put a direction in front of our song writing.
Living in the UK, bands like ‘Fleet Foxes’ and ‘Bombay Bicycle Club’ that represent a new appreciation for folksy rock have seen good reception, and you can spin a tune better than many of them. What do you think your chances are for a similar response at home or abroad?
We don’t expect to achieve what those bands have done but I don’t think we expect anything ever. We just continue to work hard and have fun and we are fortunate to be in a position where we get to continue to do what we love traveling around the world. If we ever got any crazy success, it would just be an added bonus.
