Swell Foop in Conversation with DJ Hank
Out of the six bands playing at the Paper Moon Radio Station Fundraiser Show, I was tasked with interviewing Bay Area based (but not bound to) Swell Foop as they celebrate the release of a new four song EP. Through about forty-eight minutes of chit chat, I gained an understanding that I was catching this very new band at a time when they were exploring sounds, writing styles, and what it means to be recording musicians. Here are what I believe to be the best bits of our talk…
WHO IS SWELL FOOP? HOW LONG HAVE THEY BEEN TOGETHER?
Miranda Loyer: We’ve been together for about four years now, and started by supporting a show that Sophia got, and then it kind of took over into this other thing…
THERE IS A NOTICEABLE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE BAND’S PREVIOUS EP DON’T SPARE ME AND THE NEW DEAD WEIGHT EP, THE RELEASE BEING CREDITED SPECIFICALLY TO SOPHIA SHEN AS WELL AS SWELL FOOP.
ML: Every show since our first show, we’ve played songs that I’ve either written or co-written (with the rest of the band) and that’s the way we’re going forward still. Sophia had written this EP… Sophia, do you want to explain?
Sophia Shen: I wrote this EP for my solo project (the subject matter being very personal, detailing Sophia’s break-up from their last relationship) and it emerged with its own creative vision about a year and a half to two years ago. I originally recorded it with the same producer (Ivan Garcia) we recorded Don’t Spare Me with, though It never really came to fruition. We decided we needed to redo the drums and revamp it, which led us to overdubbing the tracks with Swell Foop…It’s definitely different from Swell Foop because it’s all my writing instead of something Miranda and I created together. Consider this as a little side project/quest until we lock back in and record an album before the end of the year.
ML: That we’ve both written.
I WAS RATHER INTRIGUED BY THE ARRANGEMENT OF SOPHIA SERVING AS WRITER, AND THE REST OF THE BAND GOING WITH THE FLOW, PROMPTING ME TO ASK IF THEY’D EVER FLIP THE SCRIPT AND LET MIRANDA WRITE A WHOLE PROJECT…
ML: I actually had a bout of writer’s block this year and last year which prevented me from bringing a lot of written material for a Swell Foop project, so it made sense (both timing wise and artistically to create the music this way). That bout has since faded, and we’re both writing together again.
MIRANDA DID SLIGHTLY ENTERTAIN MY SPECULATION BY ALLUDING TO A GROUP OF SONGS SINCE WRITTEN ON THEIR OWN, BUT REMAINED MYSTERIOUS ON WHAT THE FUTURE OF THOSE SONGS WILL BE BY RETURNING OUR FOCUS TO THE FUTURE OF SWELL FOOP.
I NEEDED SOME CLARIFICATION ON WHAT THE MAKEUP OF THE BAND ACTUALLY WAS AND WAS INFORMED THAT THE DRUMMER FOR THE BAND, TIENA ELIAS WOULD NOT BE PRESENT FOR THE INTERVIEW NOR THE UPCOMING PAPER MOON FUNDRAISER SHOW. TIENA IS STILL A VITAL MEMBER OF THE BAND AND IS FEATURED ON THE NEW EP. AFTER FINDING OUT TIENA WOULDN’T BE PRESENT FOR THE SHOW, I SELFISHLY ASKED IF THEY’D STILL PLAY THE TITLE TRACK DURING THEIR SET…
HR (ME): Are you going to play that song “Dead Weight”?
SS: No…
HR: NO?! FUCK…
SS: How?
ML: Without a drummer?
WHILST ACTIVELY MOURNING THE NEWS I’D JUST RECEIVED, I ATTEMPTED TO RETAIN COMPOSURE AND EXPLORE WHAT THE PROCESS WAS LIKE FOR CREATING THE AFOREMENTIONED TITLE TRACK
ML: That one was pretty hard to get right, so we’re glad that you vibe with it because it was one of the last tracks that needed work
PRESSING FURTHER, I ASKED ABOUT THE INFLUENCES AND EXTERNAL FACTORS THAT LED THEM TO GOING IN SUCH A RAUCOUS SONIC DIRECTION FOR THE SONG
SS: At the end of the day, this EP has a targeted audience of one person, and that person is my ex-partner. The first hardcore and punk shows I went to were with them, and it was never really my scene (so in a sort of stick-it-to-the-man kind of way…) It was a song where I addressed my partner by saying fuck you, you fucked up my life, I’m gonna write a hardcore song and it’s going to sound really good. “Sedate Me” is the next closest song to a grungier tone. We love Mannequin Pussy, Biking Kill, Le Tigre, all very fundamental to a message and ethos we care deeply about that informs how we conduct ourselves as a band. “Dead Weight” as a song is easily the black sheep of the EP.
HR: For sure
SS: It’s all about my general frustration with being someone who’s assigned female at birth, who’s navigating through music spaces, Having to climb the social ladder and ask for a seat at the table, whilst being in a relationship with someone who is white, who’s assigned male at birth and having to watch doors practically open on their own for them. After the break-up I really examined all of these feelings and frustrations that I had while I was with that person (the ex) and it all began to make sense when I viewed it through the lens of a social issue.
I HAD TO EVENTUALLY CUT MYSELF OFF FROM ASKING MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT JUST ONE SONG ON THEIR FOUR SONG EP. MY NEXT SET OF INQUIRIES WAS ADMITTEDLY A BIT OF A TEST TO SEE HOW REALISTIC AND INTROSPECTIVE THE BAND REALLY WAS. SWELL FOOP PASSED WITH FLYING COLORS.
HR: Are there things you wish you did differently with this EP? Things you wish you did differently in the past?
ML: I listened to our first EP (Don’t Spare Me) and I'm like ugh, I’d change this, this, and this. However, as much as I feel that way, I really have respect for us for finishing a thing, calling it done. Things just reach a point where you have to finish. We could’ve nit-picked that project forever, and we did nit-pick it forever, but after seeing how it was received we knew we made the right decision to just stop. It seemed to really resonate with people in a way we didn’t expect, despite the fact that we still had frustrations with the way it sounded. It’s helpful to focus more on the future rather than the past, and to funnel your frustrations with a current project into excitement for a future project. What did I learn previously that I can now use to improve and make future work better?
SS: There’s a handful of things I would’ve changed about the mixing on Dead Weight (the whole EP). You get to that point when you’ve been sitting in the studio for hours on hours, listening to the same tracks over and over, you begin to hallucinate and start to go crazy. It’s like an asymptote (go look that up if you need a math class refresher) you can get closer and closer to your perfect vision of what it should be but it’ll never actually achieve that. I definitely wish I could listen to our music as someone else, through their perspective, just once.
ML: Same, It’s like rewatching your instagram stories and pretending you’re someone else watching them, though it never gives the effect I want it to give.
ASKING THEM TAKING A STEP BACK FROM THEIR CURRENT MUSICAL ENDEVOURS, I WANTED TO KNOW WHAT SWELL FOOP WAS DOING BEFORE THEY WERE, SWELL FOOP.
ML: I started playing piano at five years old and begged my parents to quit, only to ask to start lessons again a year later, which I then played through high school. Similarly with acoustic guitar, I started lessons and then quit early on, only to eventually pick it back up in highschool and then buy myself a bass. In the pandemic is when I started writing my own songs, but before that I was all about learning classical music. I learned a lot of Chopin. It was really important for me to know a lot of pieces.
SS: My first instrument was the oboe… I played it for three years in middle school and then two years in high school, the last time being in the pit orchestra for my school’s production of Sweeney Todd. Its symphonically minded nature didn’t really resonate with me much. In high school, sometime before the pandemic, two of my friends had started making music, and after hearing them I decided I needed to write my own music. I had one of them teach me guitar so I could play on my own recording, and the rest is history.
NO MORE SERIOUS QUESTIONS. RAPID FIRE OFF THE DOME QUESTIONS TO CLOSE OUT THIS INTERVIEW. LET’S SEE WHAT THESE CATS ARE REALLY ABOUT WHEN RUBBER HITS THE ROAD.
IF YOU HAD AN UNLIMITED BUDGET AND COULD BUY ANY PIECE OF EQUIPMENT, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
ML: Guitars
SS: Better guitars yeah *laughs*
ML: I think we really would buy expensive guitars though, we have really cheap guitars right now. Pedals too, we’ve been upping our pedal game recently, it’s an expensive hobby.
IF THERE WAS ONE POPULAR BAND OR MUSICIAN YOU COULD TAKE OUT OF EXISTENCE WHO WOULD IT BE?
ML: I have my answers, though does it have to be a band?
HR: Any artist, any musician
SS: Mine’s definitely not a popular band…
ML: All problematic people, so like Chris Brown, you’re done.
SS: *laughs*
ML: So basically anyone like that, you’re done.
HR: That’s a good quote for the piece
ML: I’ll stand by that too. Sophia, who do you want to call out publicly right now?
SS: *laughing* I can’t say it
ML: Chris Brown is our final answer
YOU’RE STRANDED ON A DESERT ISLAND. YOU CAN TAKE ONE RECORD, ONE BAG OF CHIPS, AND ONE ANIMAL TO THE ISLAND. WHAT ARE YOU TAKING?
ML: Well, my bag of chips is probably… salt and vinegar? Salt and vinegar kettle chips… I don’t know there's a lot of records that have been important to me in the past…
HR: Well you’ve only got one
ML: Sophia you go. Let me think…
SS: Okay, my record (they gesture towards a record hanging in their room) as you can see here is Soft Sounds From Another Planet… my bag of chips would be wasabi shrimp chips, they’re so good. My animal would be my cat Suki
HR: Nice, Suki the cat, shrimp chip, and Japanese Breakfast
SS: Very wasian of me…
ML: Ok my album, I don’t fuck with this musician, but I’d probably say Room For Squares by John Mayer… it was a really important album for me when I was in… middle school. Pet? I don’t really have pets, I don’t really like animals, I’d say a sloth maybe.
THAT’S ALL THE TIME WE HAD TO CHAT WITH SWELL FOOP, BUT BE SURE TO CHECK OUR THEIR NEW EP DEAD WEIGHT AND SEE THEM PLAY LIVE AT THE PAPER MOON RADIO FUNDRAISER EXTRAVAGANZA AT THE RESIDENT IN DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES ON 9/28/25.
SWELL FOOP ON SPOTIFY:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5zQi16UXlsQxpqeIOYBu7r
SWELL FOOP ON APPLE MUSIC:
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/swell-foop/1652702280
SWELL FOOP ON INSTAGRAM:
https://www.instagram.com/swellfoopband/?hl=en
TICKET LINK TO PAPER MOON SHOW:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/paper-moon-radio-tickets-1670572761099?aff=oddtdtcreator
