Swervedriver On Celebrating 35 Years Of ‘RAISE’

2026 marks the return of SWERVEDRIVER. This time playing their classic debut RAISE in its entirety, plus an extended set of SWERVEDRIVER classics. Born in 1989 out of Oxford UK, the band formerly known as Shake Appeal settled on their new moniker in time enough for Creation Records impresario Alan McGhee – on the recommendation of Ride guitarist Mark Gardener – to sign them on the strength of their demo. Those initial tracks would form much of the debut ep Son of Mustang Ford featuring the classic of the same name quickly followed by two further eps Rave Down and Sandblasted before, in 1991 landing on their debut full length LP Raise. The album quickly became quickly a defining sound of early 90s underground alternative rock. Energised and inspired by the guitar heavy sounds of My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr, Husker Du and the like, Swervedriver perfected their own shimmering, guitar-clashing juggernaut with a uniquely British flavour firmly intact. Ahead of their Australian tour. Singer and lead guitarist Adam Franklin speaks to Rob Lyon ahead of their Australian tour.

I nearly fell out of the chair when I got the press release that said Swervedriver were coming back to Australia. I couldn’t believe it. I’m really genuinely excited about this one, and you guys must be as well?
Yeah, it’s been a while, I guess. Was it 2019, maybe, we played? I’m not sure.

Was there a bit of pressure to add Adelaide?
Apparently there was, some sort of, you know, online vote, wasn’t there, or something, and people saying, why aren’t they playing in Adelaide? I don’t know why Adelaide doesn’t get put on the list all the time?

Thirty five years of Raise, when you reflect on that milestone now, what does it mean to you?
It just means I’m bloody old! Bands weren’t supposed to go on for this long, I suppose it’s kind of funny, because I think about, like, thirty five years ago, which is, what, 1991? And then thirty five years before that is, like, 1956 or something… it’s a bit like Bill Haley and the Comets kind of playing in 1991.

Do you get nostalgic, or is it still very much looking forwards as a band?
Well, there’s no denying this is nostalgic in a way, because we’re playing an old record. But, we try and mix it up, but because it’s thirty five years, it’s like, hey, let’s play Raise, and it’s a good record to play, and people still want to hear it.

How do you find playing it start to end? Are there tricky parts that take a bit of relearning?
No, I mean, I think the album actually has a kind of flow, a bit like a live set really. It has a great start with Sci Flyer, and it goes through a whole sort of journey in a way. It’s a good album to play from start to finish. I don’t think all our albums are like that. I mean, we did Mezcal Head as well, and it’s a bit strange, because Mezcal Head in the US had two extra tracks added to it, Never Lose That Feeling and Never Learn. So for us, that was kind of strange, because you kind of get to Duress, and then You Find It Everywhere, and then it’s the end of the album, but then you come back out and do the other two songs. But Raise is more of a compact thing, forty minutes, and takes you on this journey, I feel.

Did you ever think it was going to be one of those defining albums of the ’90s? It was such an important release. Did you ever think you had a particularly special group of songs at the time?
Not particularly, I suppose. I mean, we felt we were making a good album. Some bands have debut albums that they disown because it wasn’t quite, they hadn’t quite got their sound or whatever, but I feel like the whole kind of Swervedriver sound and sort of concept was expressed right from the off and people kind of got it. These songs about UFOs, driving, and messed‑up relationships, I don’t think when you’re recording something you’re necessarily thinking about whether there’ll be a kind of legacy. It was our first album, so we were just trying to make a great record. It’s exciting when you’re making your first album, you want it to be something special and I guess it’s been proven now that it kind of is something special.

Has there ever been any temptation to go back and remaster it, or do you think it just captures that time perfectly and needs to be left as it is?
Well, the record is being reissued by Sony and Universal in the States. I mean, at one point, thought that the tapes had been… there was a fire or something in the Sony storeroom. We kind of thought maybe the tapes had been lost, but I guess they have been found, so now I’m kind of thinking it is being remastered by Sony?

So with the rest of the set, how do you fit everything else in? You’ve got such an amazing back catalogue, even two albums from 2024, it must be a bit of a challenge?
Yeah, there’s probably about seventy songs by Swervedriver now that have been released, so there’s a fair few there. I guess the second half of the set, we’ll just mix it up a bit, really. We’ll see how the mood finds us.

What’s next for Swervedriver?
I think it’d be good for us to put something out next year, we don’t really want to be a completely nostalgic band, so yeah, put something new out, and then perhaps there’s another milestone around the corner. But, I mean, the milestones just keep coming at this point, don’t they?

What do you look forward to most about returning to Australia?
Well, hopefully staying awake, because that’s always quite a tricky thing when you first get there, the jet lag just kind of hits you around the face, really. Yeah, we’re just gonna go out and have fun. There are a lot of people… it seems we’ve picked up a lot more fans. During lockdown and stuff, we noticed that we weren’t doing anything, and we noticed that the followers on social media had doubled. And I guess there’s a bit of a wave to be ridden there. It’s definitely a good time right now. It’s been one of the busiest times for us, really. This year alone, just arranging all these tours, and then adding we’ve had requests from all sorts of places. Kazakhstan want us to play, and Thailand, we’ve never been to Thailand. I guess we’ll just see how far along we get.

Are you noticing a younger generation coming through in the supporter base now, discovering Swervedriver for the first time?
Definitely, yeah. A few years ago, when we came to Australia, and we have some Scottish friends that live in Singapore, and they contacted and said, if you’re coming to Australia, why not, you’re going to have to stop off somewhere, why not play a show in Singapore? So we were kind of, yeah, why not? And then we were surprised to find there’s all these kids milling around the front of the stage, and then we started playing a new song, and they were singing along and knew the words, so… it’s cool, yeah, because it is definitely the older people that saw us back in the day, but there’s definitely a healthy contingent of kids as well.

The quote I like is: “Radiohead weren’t the first great band to come out of Oxford.”
Yeah!

Congratulations on the milestone, and we look forward to seeing you here in Adelaide. I know there’s going to be a big crowd, because we’ve made a lot of noise about it.
Looking forward to it, it should be really exciting. I mean, the fact that we haven’t played this since ’98, I didn’t realise it was that long, actually. I guess, we’ve been there a few times in the 2000s, but we were saying, for some reason it’s always those four cities, and our outlook was always, well, if we’re down there, we might as well play as many shows. We don’t want to play everywhere. That tour we did in ’98 with Powderfinger was because they’re from there, and we ended up playing Darwin and all sorts of places. But, it’ll be really exciting, really looking forward to it.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Swervedriver on the following dates, tickets from Feel Presents…