Birmingham’s Swim Deep have unveiled their latest single, ‘I Keep Her Photograph With Me,’ a track that finds the quintet leaning into a lush, 70s-inspired psychedelic haze. Taken from their forthcoming fifth studio album, Hum (due June 19th via Submarine Cat Records), the song marks a significant creative milestone for the band’s newest member, JJ Buchanan. After a painful and abrupt exit from his previous band, Fur, Buchanan admits he wasn’t sure he could write again. This track served as his breakthrough, a meditation on the fear of things ending and the small rituals, like keeping a partner’s photo in a phone case, that we use to hold onto time.
Buchanan shares,
“After coming back to songwriting via writing with Austin, this was the first song that I’d written on my own in two or three years. My time with my last band ended quite abruptly and painfully, and I really didn’t think I could write a song again. This was a platform to express myself again, and the song touches on my obsession with anticipating the end of things and the feelings that come with it. I carry around a photo of my partner in the back of my phone. I guess that photographs are the only way to hold onto moments in time.
Lead singer, Austin Williams, continues,
“When JJ showed me this demo it was like hearing one of my favorite songs for the first time. It plunged me into this warm and fuzzy world that I was happy to drown in. And for me it had all the elements of a song that I’ve always strived for Swim Deep to emmit. Strong emotion, melancholy, hope and warmth.”
Produced by Bill Ryder-Jones, the single moves the band further away from their sun-soaked indie beginnings and into a heavier, more atmospheric territory. Lead singer Austin Williams described hearing the demo as “plunging into a warm and fuzzy world,” noting that it captures the exact blend of melancholy and hope he has always envisioned for the group. As the band prepares for the June release of Hum, this latest offering proves that, despite the hurdles of navigating the grassroots indie scene five albums deep, Swim Deep are sounding more confident and rejuvenated than ever.
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