Swim Deep take us through new album ‘Hum’ track-by-track

Midlands stalwarts Swim Deep, one of the leading stars of the mid-noughties B-Town movement, return today (June 19) with new album Hum.

The band’s first album in two years is an accomplished effort, which proves to be as emotional as it is musically diverse.

“We went straight back into the studio, picked our guitars up straight away,” recalls frontman Austin “Ozzy” Williams of following on from 2024’s There’s A Big Star Outside. “It was the first time that we weren’t having to reinvent ourselves, and there was so much power in that feeling and nothing drastically changed – and then Robbie [Wood, guitarist since 2018] quit.” 

Though born from turbulence, the group have crafted something incredibly special.

Listen along to Hum and read the band’s track-by-track guide of the new record exclusively on Rolling Stone UK below.

‘Pieces Of You‘

‘Pieces Of You’ started with the arpeggiator, which was influenced by our song ‘How Many Love Songs Died In Vegas’, before coming together around a bassline repurposed from ‘Still Life’ by The Horrors. Everything was meant to crash around that chord sequence, and naturally it ended up getting a bit baggy. JJ had a similar thing going on with the guitars too.

Lyrically, it’s about the aftermath of my wife’s dad dying. He was quite a well-known and well-liked man, and afterwards everyone seemed to want to tell a story about him. Some people almost took ownership of the grief, and it started to feel like a bit of a circus. A lot of those people weren’t even known by the family, so it felt disingenuous.

When someone dies, all the stories come out. The song is about people trying to piece together someone who has passed away through everyone’s little version of that person. Sometimes that can create a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster.

It’s the first song on Hum, and it touches on themes that inspired the previous album too, so it feels like a nice connection point between this album and the last one.

‘You, Me & Mary‘

‘You, Me & Mary’ is about my incredible wife and daughter. During a family holiday, my wife suffered a miscarriage, which was deeply traumatic for us in many ways. It made us reflect on whether “you, me and Mary” was the family we had been blessed with, and we found a great deal of comfort and gratitude in that. Just a week ago, we welcomed our second child into the world, so with the song coming out now, it feels like a real full-circle moment.

Musically, it was originally quite punky and a bit New Order, but it also felt like a really exciting genesis moment for the album. It started with just the riff, jamming in the rehearsal space. James was later inspired by ‘Recharge & Revolt’ by The Raveonettes, which has this big, melancholic string-synth element that he wanted to bring into the mix. Eventually, he got his way with it.

‘I Keep Her Photograph With Me‘

‘I Keep Her Photograph With Me’ was written by JJ, and it was the first time we really heard his songwriting in the band. The song arrived fully formed, which was a really inspiring moment for us. It made us realise what a great songwriter we had coming into the group.

JJ had written the song in his head after seeing a line in a gallery about keeping a photograph with you. It stuck with him, and when he got home he put the song together.

It was inspired by The Flaming Lips’ ‘Do You Realize??’ and a lot of Spiritualized. Lyrically, it’s about an obsession with time passing, the feeling that it passes too quickly, and wanting to hold on to special moments.

We were really happy to get a massive Hammond organ on there too. I think we were talking about The Mamas & The Papas at the time, and the song has this floral, ’60s sound to it. I’m glad we managed to capture that.

‘Broken‘

‘Broken’ is another JJ song, and it’s a really personal one. It was loosely inspired by Alice In Chains’ ‘Nutshell’, especially that MTV Unplugged performance, which almost feels like Layne Staley is singing at his own funeral, even though he died much later.

I remember us being in SubCat Studios and playing that Alice In Chains song on someone’s phone. It felt like we’d really arrived at this ’90s acoustic grunge sound that tied together the kind of music we were all enjoying. It became a sonic middle ground for the band.

It was uncomfortable for me to sing at first because it’s such a personal song for JJ, and I’m grateful to have not gone through the subject matter myself. But when I sang it, I felt every word, so it didn’t feel like I was faking it. It was a real honour to sing a song that wasn’t mine in Swim Deep.

As much as we write as a band, it’s usually my lyrics that I’m singing, so this was a strange experience. It felt like a turning point for us.

‘The Throw‘

I’d been playing the riff for ‘The Throw’ in soundcheck, and James kept saying, “That’s good.” In the back of my mind, I didn’t think it was a Swim Deep song. I thought maybe it would end up on a solo record, but it started to feel like it belonged with the band. Eventually, I thought, why hold it back?

It’s one of our sludgiest songs, with a big, dirty ending, and it speaks again to that grunge influence. Some of my favourite drums on the album are on this track.

Hopefully you can hear how much fun we’re having playing it live and connecting with each other musically. There’s a freedom we have now as a band, where we can play with pushes, unusual time signatures and little moments that we might not have reached for before.

‘Such A Fool‘

‘Such A Fool’ went through a lot of different versions. We tried it in different time signatures before landing on the 6/8 version that’s on the album, and it had a really interesting development process.

When I took it to JJ, he elevated it so much. He made it feel like a proper song, especially with the guitars and choruses. The drums are energetic and angular, but it’s also very Horizon-esque.

People are sleeping on this one.

‘Mud‘

‘Mud’ was born in our label’s studio, where we would meet up and jam with no real pressure or goal. It was just friends playing music together and expressing ourselves the only way we know how.

The chorus came to me, and I immediately thought it was too good to be an original thought. It was like seeing a magic trick and being told it’s actually magic, and there is no trick.

With everything else going on in our lives, I often forget that the one constant thing is the love I have for my wife every day. This song is about that.

‘Is There Something Going On‘

There was a bit of magic in the room when we demoed ‘Is There Something Going On’, but it was really difficult to recreate. We just couldn’t get it right, and at one point it was going to be left in the bin.

James made a big stand for it because he really liked the song. Everyone else was done with it. JJ was miserable. But I’m really glad we salvaged it.

The guitar was inspired by Echo & The Bunnymen, but also by Bert Jansch’s ‘Angie’. It has some of the best guitar on the album, so I’m glad James fought for it.

We were with Bill Ryder-Jones in the Wirral, and we went back to his and sat in his lounge with our acoustic guitars while he played songs. This was one he really loved. Bill was just as integral to this record as he was to the last one, but this time he let us get on with it a bit more. It felt like he was checking what we’d learned from the last record.

It was almost like a master and apprentice thing. He let us use those tools and take on more of a producer role ourselves. Just his presence alone is inspiring and motivating, and ultimately he always wants more out of us. On the last day of recording, he still said it wasn’t finished yet.

‘In Dreams Alive‘

‘In Dreams Alive’ is another sleeper hit. There was a big conversation about whether to put it at the end of the album or in the middle as a pick-me-up. The mood of it really punctuates the album, and it was actually an album title contender at one point.

At the time, it felt too ‘Swim Deep’ as an album title, but now I think that was a stupid thing to think. This feels like the album closer, and ‘Lift Me Up’ feels more like a coda. It’s nice to have an upbeat song as a closer, rather than ending on something quieter, although we sort of did that anyway.

Bill had a massive influence on this one too. He did a beautiful string arrangement. He took some time away from the control room and came back with a full orchestral score. It was crafted above JJ’s bedroom in The Compton.

‘Lift Me Up‘

‘Lift Me Up’ is completely live on the album. It was the first or second take, with everyone on acoustic guitars in the booth, and the vocals are live too. The piano was the only overdub.

Because it was such an intimate and special song, and because it was conceived and demoed in one session, we wanted to replicate that feeling: something pure and simple, with a lot of emotion attached to it.

It felt like a really nice change of pace right at the end of the album.