Tell me about how SWMRS formed

Cole Becker: The drummer Joey, and my brother Max and I have known each other since we were 4, and grew up playing music together. We saw 'School of Rock' and we were like 'ah we want to be musicians.' We had a bunch of bands, before SWMRS we were in a band called Emily's Army—we changed Emily's Army's name to SWMRS essentially. But Emily's Army was kind of more teen pop-punk; it got some traction and we did Warp Tour. It was really fun, but now SWMRS...

How would you describe your music now?

CB: Music now is kind of like rock and roll, with grungier influences. Someone said it's 'scragglier.' I would say it's more mature, but also it's more independent, because when we were in Emily's Army we were still trying to figure everything out, and figure out who we were musically. We had a lot of help from Joeys dad [Greenday's Billie Joe Armstrong], figuring out that sound. Now we know our influences better, we have wider influences.


[Photo via @abaxley]

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