For our next issue on our Introducing interview series, we caught up with Colum who is the head honcho behind Swerve Digital.
Hi mate, nice to catch up with you, how are you doing today?
Hey guys. Firstly thanks for inviting me for this catch up – it’s been a while! Things are really good this side, just settling down after some huge life changes recently but are hopefully going to benefit the brand moving forward very soon.
Let’s start by asking, how did the birth of your label originally happen and how long has the label been running?
Swerve Digital was not originally my project, it was a love child of my current business partner Lee Pearce and a good friend Nikolas Syrimis around 2015. I joined to support the A&R function of the label around five years ago and after Nik moved to focus on other adventures I took up a more prominent role in the business and it’s been a great adventure, learning as we’ve grown our footprint as a brand.
Where are you based in the world?
As mentioned earlier, it’s been a crazy last twelve months, i’ve upped and moved my life from London to take on some new challenges in Bangkok, Thailand, for the foreseeable future. It really is a city of sensory overload, but that along with the possibilities here make it a great place to call home.
Do you have any upcoming events that we can talk about in the pipeline?
We’re really excited to be hosting George Smeddles for an intimate 500 cap party in Bangkok on 27th May. With our label doing relatively well, I’m really excited to now put more energy into our events in Asia. The possibilities here are endless and there is a lot more in the works for Autumn/Winter as well as we speak.
We can’t just forget about our UK family though, our true home. We’re set to announce something very special in a unique space in London in the next couple of weeks. I don’t believe any similar brands to us have utilised this space, so I’m excited to see how it turns out. Keep an eye on our socials for updates on this very soon.
How would you describe the sound of your label to someone who hasn’t heard any of the releases?
Our sound has really evolved over the years, originally founded with a techno core, our sound has progressively moved to cater to be a more house-edged label. We have hosted some fantastic artists over the years – focusing on developing breakthrough artists, but also collaborating with industry leading names. Working with people such as Harry Romero, Luca Donzelli and DJ Steaw have been personal highlights so far.
Right now I would say we are a fuse of Deep Tech / House. I still love the rawness that can come through with the tech-focused bottom end, but I like to find tracks for the label which can layer this with beautiful house elements; keys, strings, vocal hooks to bring the release to a new level. People who know me best understand I am a sucker for a big vocal hook if used well!
If you want to reach out to us at Swerve you can reach our demo email at [email protected]
Do you have any upcoming releases we can talk about that are planned in the pipeline?
I am happy to say the label will be ramping back up now after a year of lower output after moving continents! June 2nd we have a massive four-track EP from Danny Snowden coming on the label. I usually like to supplement a release with a remix, but Danny’s output is so incredibly strong we have four absolute crackers to share with you very soon. They’re available on pre-order on Beatport now and previews will be up on our socials very soon.
Do you have any Swerve residents, if so, who are they?
We have three great residents working with us; TwoSlice, Robin Rafa and T.Bunts. They are all incredibly talented and even more important in this industry, genuinely nice people. If you head over to our YouTube channel you can actually catch their vibe if you haven’t before through full set recordings at our Phuket Villa last year – perfect!
