INTERVIEW: Danny Rico, Greg McDevitt, & Mike Sanchez – Can’t Swim
Having notched up an impressive three releases in just three years, CAN’T SWIM have gained a momentum that has firmly planted themselves on the road to the top. With an incredibly dedicated and rapidly growing fanbase spread all across the world, the band show no signs of slowing down until they reach the pinnacle of their genre. With last year seeing the release of their second full-length album This Too Won’t Pass, we were introduced to a much darker, heavier iteration of the band, and has become a release that many regard to be their best yet. We sat down with guitarists Mike Sanchez and Danny Rico, and bassist Greg McDevitt before their recent headlining show in Manchester (read our live review here) to get the low-down on the past, present, and future of CAN’T SWIM.
Your latest album This Too Won’t Pass has been out for a while now, what has the response been like?
Danny: It’s been the best so far I think, as far as our releases have gone.
Greg: We wanted it to be a cohesive project and I think that if there were any criticisms about our last album it was because of a lack of that. That’s one thing that people have really picked up on, but this one’s been great. All the singles we released all had great reactions and once the album came out it’s pretty much been the same. It’s been really great so far.
Going into the release of the album, what did you want people to take from it?
Danny: I think we just wanted, as Greg was saying, for it to be cohesive. We just picked a couple of ideas that we like about our band and that we found were very responsive with the people that listen to our music, and we just tried to put that all in one house and just go for it. We wanted to be heavier, we wanted to be darker, and just have more of those kind of themes.
Greg: Yeah I think if there was a lyrical message it would be that we’re all just pieces of shit and we’re all probably going to go to hell when we die.
Which songs from the album have been going down particularly well live?
Danny: I’d say Sometimes You Meet the Right People at the Wrong Times goes down really well.
Greg: Yeah definitely Sometimes You Meet The Right People At The Wrong Times. Even at the very beginning when we were playing that song people were always singing along and what not. My Queen as well always gets a great reaction. We had a hometown show for the release of the album where we played every song live, it was the first time we ever did that and it was really fun to actually play all the songs. The songs on this album are very much geared towards the live performance.
You said last year that you don’t go into ‘fancy studios’ to record, preferring your living room instead. How integral is this approach to CAN’T SWIM‘s sound?
Mike: I like it because we can take our time and it’s the comfort of like, I know Greg and how he thinks, I know Danny, and Chris, so I think it’s just comfortable, for me at least.
Greg: Definitely. I tracked all my bass over the course of two days, whereas talking to most people tracking bass they get like four hours.
Danny: Exactly right yeah, I think that’s the most valuable thing. Also, It’s nice to kind of keep it in-house. Fortunately, we’ve been able to manage making the records ourselves and it’s cool, it’s a cool experience. It’s definitely special and you don’t see it happening that often any more, so it’s pretty interesting. I think it’s something we’ve always held onto and something we probably always will in some vein with our band.
Obviously Chris [LoPorto, vocals] isn’t with us at the moment so you guys might not be able to expand too much on this, but lyrically, your music is incredibly honest and raw, is delving into such personal topics a form of catharsis to you?
Greg: Chris is definitely the songwriter of all the lyrics and whatnot, but I think that one thing that’s great for us is that the lyrics really resonate with us as well. Knowing him and knowing his experiences in life, we probably have a better idea of the specific things that his songs are about, but that’s not as important as what people can take from them individually. I think that’s another thing about them, that everyone can relate to a lot of these feelings. Like, the first time I heard a lot of the songs it really affected me in such a strong way and I hope that’s the same for the audience.
Danny: I also feel that musically I definitely get the catharsis that you’re talking about from playing these songs. Even the musical aspect of it, there are just general things about it that are darker, heavier, and that’s the kind of thing I like to play live, that’s when I have that moment where I feel that I’m getting it out of me. So I feel that both lyrically and musically we definitely get something out of it, which is awesome.
Greg: Yeah, a bit of an exorcism.
Danny: For sure!
How did your approach differ going into This Too Won’t Pass compared with your previous releases?
Danny: Well the first album I think came from an assortment of song ideas that were already in existence and we just tried to meld them together. Whereas, this new record it was like: “Let’s just start from a clean slate”. There wasn’t much to pick from, all the songs were being written from one specific period of time, so it made it easier for us to make it more cohesive.
So far, you guys have released an EP and two albums in just three years, do you intend to keep with this really quick turnaround between albums?
All: Yes
Greg: There’s nothing wrong with being a band that doesn’t release music that often, some of my favourite bands barely ever release music. We’re very lucky to have a frontman who is prolific in his songwriting. I think it’s really been an advantage for us to just constantly be putting new music out because we’ll find some people gravitate towards some songs and not others and we can see what works. For our first year or so of touring we only had five songs out and it was kind of tough to cater to different crowds, but now I think we can really cater to a very vast audience and we’re definitely going to try and keep it that way.
With that being said, any news on album three?
Danny: All I can say is that we definitely have learned and appreciated that we should gravitate towards a heavier sound. So I think whatever may be in the future, it will probably be heavier.
Greg: I mean, we definitely have more songs already and definitely plan on…
Danny: Doing something with them.
You’re very much a band on the rise, what goals do you have in your sights for the future of CAN’T SWIM?
Danny: Honestly, we just want to keep on going, man. The band started off as like: “Well, I guess we’re doing a band now”. Then before we knew it people were responsive to our songs, people were responsive to our live show and we’ve just been improving our live show time and time again. Between member changes, who’s playing what, and how do we come off live, I feel like we’re only now just figuring it out. I think it’s really only up from here. We’re just going to keep doing it as long as we’re having fun, the shows are fun, that’s what it’s all about.
Greg: I think if there’s anything that we all have in common, it’s that we’re not really like the goal-oriented type.
Danny: Right!
Greg: None of us have five-month plans, let alone five-year plans. I think what Danny just said about just going with the flow and hoping that we just continue to see a progression, I know that’s kind of a lame cop-out answer, but that really is how we operate. The most structure my life has ever had is with touring because it’s like at least you know where you’re going to be a couple of months from now. So I think we’re just going to keep letting it ride and see where it takes us.
So keeping on the subject of touring, do you have any good tour stories?
Danny: So many, wow.
Mike: There’s plenty, it’s hard to think of just one.
Danny: What happened today? I’m sure something happened today. What did we do?
Greg: We probably can’t talk about most of it [laughs]
Mike: Oh! We watched Rush Hour 1 & 2!
Greg: That’s right! We watched the bloopers of Rush Hour 1 & 2.
Danny: We also watched the entire special features of Rush Hour 1. We love movies. We love quoting movies. That’s who we are.
Greg: I think that if there is anything about touring that really keeps the monotony down, is that I think we all seem to be having the most fun when things are going terribly wrong.
Danny: That’s very true.
Greg: Those are like those real gut-busting belly laughter moments when things are at their worst.
Danny: We thrive on sarcasm.
Greg: So the first time we ever toured in the EU we played a show in Amsterdam, and one of the funniest things was just trying to get the car out of the carpark.
Danny: Yeah that was hilarious!
Greg: We were parking in this tight little thing and Danny was outside just like; “Cut the wheel!”, and we were in there just not knowing how we’re going to get this car out of the carpark and hysterically laughing.
Danny: We were just literally moving millimetre-by-millimetre – Doesn’t that happen in Austin Powers? Well, that was us in real life, in some garage in the middle of Amsterdam, with loads of traffic behind us – it was incredible.
Greg: For some groups of people that would cause a lot of arguments.
Danny: But we were just laughing the whole time.
Greg: Any time things go wrong it seems to bring us all closer together. I mean, things have never stopped going wrong in all of our lives, so that bodes well for us in some degree.
What is a particular moment in the band’s career so far that you’re really proud of?
Mike: I think for me personally, the hometown show. We sold-out our hometown and that’s never happened with any band I’ve ever been in.
Danny: Likewise.
Greg: Yeah, it was the biggest headliner we’ve ever done. We played the entire album, we went in there with medium expectations I’d say. We were surrounded by so many friends and family, a lot of people travelled to come to the show, people we’ve met at some of our really small shows that we had in the beginning had travelled hundreds of miles to come see that show. It just really put a lot of it in perspective, that not only is this something that we’ve invested a lot of time in and we really care about, but it’s something other people care about too. Like Mike said, we’ve all been musicians for a really long time, we’re all in our fifties now.
All: [Laughs]
Greg: This is the first time we’ve really been able to have an impact on other peoples lives and have our music be really important to other people. I think we all see it as a bit of a responsibility now, to the people who listen to our music, it’s not just for us anymore.
Who would be your dream collaboration?
Danny: We’ve always been interested in heading in a direction of more, I don’t want to say mainstream rock, but heavier, more of like the nu-metal crowd.
Mike: We all collectively like KORN. Being on a KORN tour? Oh my god!
Danny: Yeah, if we could just tour with KORN, I will just go home afterwards.
Greg: Just once.
Danny: Just once and I’ll call it. That’s fine.
Greg: So yeah I think it’s unanimous, a Korn tour.
What can we expect from CAN’T SWIM in 2019 and beyond?
Mike: More shows!
Danny: More touring yeah.
Greg: Perhaps more music. The train doesn’t stop. We all like the idea of off-time, but when we’re actually in the middle of it we’re just itching to get back on the road. So yeah, just more of the same and hopefully getting bigger and better.
Just to round things off, do you have any parting words for our readers?
Mike: Nothing fucking matters, just do whatever the hell you want.
Danny: Just do whatever you want, man.
Greg: Don’t listen to us either, be your own hero.
Mike: We’re all morons from New Jersey.
This Too Won’t Pass is out now via Pure Noise Records.
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