Melbourne DIY punks Going Swimming have been floating around (pun intended) for a while now, and first came to my attention recently with the release of their latest single Your Sister. Naturally, I was hungry for more, and today the boys have pulled through with their new single, Them Shakes.
Gutsy, raucous and so much fucking fun, Them Shakes is badass and a very exciting step forward for the Melbourne four piece. From the first scream, it grabs you by the neck of the shirt and forces you to dance along to it’s garage riffs and thumping beats. Dramatic and upbeat, this song is an absolute ripper of a track and we couldn’t be more stoked to bring you the first listen.
With lyrics like ‘”The monsters,” She said, “are all in your head. Whether they’re under your bed or they’re already dead,” this track can only be described as a garage-punk soundtrack to reading Goosebumps, in the best possible way.
Them Shakes comes ahead of Going Swimming’s forthcoming album Deadtime Stories, which is set to be released September 25. To celebrate the release of this big ball of energy, we asked the guys a few questions to get to know them a little more, and to get you just that little bit more excited about their incoming album. Check it all below!
What kind of monsters are in your head?
Haha, right down to it! At the moment they’re the usual sort of monsters; growing up, getting old, moving on and moving out… Monsters like those never ending questions that you deal with every day; Why do I have no money? Will I die alone? How did we elect this backwards super villain to lead our country? Why are avocados so damn expensive? You know, the usual stuff.
Tell us what you all can about Deadtime Stories. What is it like to have your debut record about to drop? How long has the process taken you?
It’s been a grind. We’re really proud of it and can’t wait to share all the new songs with the world, but it’s been a really long time coming. Some of the tracks were written years ago before our first EP even, while some were written just days before we started tracking. Initially we recorded about 18 songs, but wanted to keep it short and sharp, so cut it down to 11 tracks, which we’re really happy with.
I think we’re starting to get a bit nervous now, or at least I am. Some of these songs have never even been played live, so it’s exciting to get this new material out there and to see what people think. It’s been a while since we’ve toured so it’ll be great to hit the road again. There’s so much behind the scenes bullshit that has to be done when prepping a new release (especially when it’s so DIY like ours), it feels so cathartic to play live and thrash out a set. It’s what we really love doing.
Both this record and your EP Shark Attack were done by yourselves. Do you think you’ve gotten better at recording since the first EP? What are the downfalls/bonuses and why’d you decide to actually do it yourself?
We really love being so DIY, but at the same time it’s hard to get ourselves into gear and to fit around our life schedules. On one hand we’ve saved a shitload of money, and had the absolute freedom to go in whatever direction we’d like without. However, we can get really fucking lazy. Our drummer went to the U.S. for a month in June last year and we were supposed to have the guitar tracks laid down by the time he got back. It wasn’t until January that we actually finished them. So yeah – we’re rubbish at deadlines. We ended up getting a little burnt out and going around in circles with the intricacies of the sound (having listened to the record so much) that we ended up sending it over to Carl Saff (Ty Segall, Dinosaur Jnr) in Chicago to give us a hand with the mastering.
I think we’re definitely getting better at recording. Our guitarist, Aswin has been recording our various bands since high school. He’s got a great ear and he and Cal, our bassist, are both total tech nerds when it comes to that kind of stuff. Since the Shark Attack EP, Ashy’s really improved at capturing our sound, but with the recording process as well as trying to manage full-time work and just generally having a life, it was pretty stressful on him. I reckon he’s just about retired from the recording game now!
From what we’ve heard already in Your Sister and this new track Them Shakes, Deadtime Stories is sounding pretty gritty, what’s been some of the inspiration behind the record?
We kind of adopted this “monster punk” sort of theme for the record. It’s not really the balls-out punk that the Melbourne scene is really digging at the moment, but the tracks are a lot heavier than the surf tracks that we were punching out a couple of years ago.
Deadtime Stories will be available both digitally and on vinyl on September 25.