LIKE SWIMMING

Winsomely catchy love (and death) songs, seamless harmonies, lightly propulsive rhythms, and a knack for blending the acoustic with the electronic are of few of the complex ways to describe Swedish indie-pop trio Like Swimming. The band released their debut album, ‘Structures’ in September 2014 and it showcased seven years of writing between Claes Carlström, Ida Hedene, and Petter Wesslander. Together, they created music so clear, and so vivid, it’s as if you can see to the bottom.

Now that well-traveled, well-polished sound is ready to stake a bold new claim in the world based on the strength of their musical, vocal and songwriting talent.

Emerging in late 2012 from a five-member group called You Say France & I Whistle —named for a legendary Van Morrison demo put down drunk in a single take — Like Swimming clearly possess a refined sense of the absurd. The band landed a record deal with DigSin, an American label in 2013 and that fall, rode a wave of buzz from MTV and indie blogs alike to the US. Like Swimming toured the country
with sets that included Chicago, Nashville, LA’s Culture Collide Festival and New York’s CMJ Music Marathon.Like Swimming returned to Sweden in late 2013 to record their first proper album at RMV with veteran studio manager Linn Fijal and Brian Malouf, a longtime collaborator whose mixing and production added an impeccable sheen.

The band’s playfulness, combined with a stark intimacy, resulted in their deeply affecting first single, “God Knows.” Where this song laid bare some painful twists of the human heart with a relatively sparse arrangement, the following single, “Go Buffalo,” combined Gothic lyrics with lush, twinkling keyboards and soaring, carefree hooks. Both tracks unlock fairytale landscapes, yearning vocals and instrumental precision conjuring nature in all its bright and
startling purity.

By 2014 the band was off and running, starting the year with the release of their first EP, ‘Let Go’ and the mega festival SXSW. In September 2014, the trio released the full length album, ‘Structures.’

Throughout 2014 and into 2015, Like Swimming found themselves performing their album ‘Structures’ in its purest form—acoustic, and intimately in countless unique situations– on a medieval city wall in Sweden, in a hipster living room in Brooklyn, and a Zombie packed bar in Connecticut. They used ukuleles, pencils, glass and children’s drum kits to create new versions of the songs from the album. Each time, they found more and more energy in the songs as they became smaller and smaller, ultimately leading to the conception of ‘Tiny Structures.’

‘Tiny Structures’ will be released on September 11, 2015 and is comprised of intimate, stripped down versions of the songs on the album ‘Structures.’ ‘Tiny Structures’ honors the music in its most authentic and transparent form. The album also includes new songs such as the band’s haunting version of the global smash ‘Lean On’ and the band’s newest song ‘Cover My Eyes.’

As Like Swimming embarks on this next step, a large leap into a “tiny” world, their talent will become only more obvious and the world will be watching to see what this inventive trio creates next.

On unreleased songs in the catalog.