Swiss Lips Interview

One of 2013’s hottest prospects in the UK, Swiss Lips are finally releasing their long awaited, self-titled debut LP. We caught up with the guys to chat about the new record and discuss how it all came about.

You guys are from Manchester, home to a lot of great bands over the years such as The Hollies, The Bee Gees and of course New Order. Did this inspire you in any way and do you feel you still have a lot to live up to?
No more than any other bands, to be honest. Manchester is a good place to start a band though, loads of great venues, other bands to learn from etc.

Are you still all based in Manchester? I know at one point you moved to The Union for a month in East London, will you do a similar thing again?
The Union was a one-off, I think we would die if we did it again! We’re still based in Manchester but all get around a bit.

Moving onto the new record, it’s been two years or so since your last set of releases. What happened during this period and how did it inspire what is to come? Did you guys all go away and do your own thing then re converge in the studio?
We were stuck in a record deal that wouldn’t allow us to release music, this put the brakes on everything really. We carried on making music though and finally got out and to a position where we could start releasing again.

Your last release was ‘ U Got The Power’, which received great acclaim and support from the likes of NME and Radio 1, which must be a great feeling knowing you guys are doing something right. Does this put a lot of pressure on the forthcoming self titled LP?
It was nice to get that support from them yeah, although Radio 1 support seems to be nothing about the quality of the music, more about how many Facebook likes you have, unfortunately. We know we’ve made a strong album and just want people to enjoy it now, no pressure or expectations from us.

Having listened to the album, it’s clear that this isn’t a compilation of disposable songs, each tune has a depth to it, which is a hard thing to achieve. How did you go about achieving the balance between pop, electro and dance and do it so well?
Thank you. We just put everything we had into it and that depth was important. It’s easy to write a catchy song; we wanted to write something that made you feel good.

I find it hard to fathom you guys created all this great music under the dismal skies of Manchester; you guys could easily blend in the American scene – think Manchester meets California. Have you thought of moving out of Manchester?
It’s true. Getting away from the rain would be good.

Moving onto touring, which festivals are you guys playing this year? What would be your dream festival to play?
We’re not currently booked for any festivals; we’re largely ignored, unfortunately. We’re hoping the album release will open some doors for us. I love playing festivals in hot places, – Lollapalooza looks good.

Finally, who are you guys all currently listening to? (Apart from yourselves of course!)
I really like the new Gaz Coombes album; it’s such a great album. Also Champs, Lemonheads and loads of Nirvana.