Senior Nick Swan has a lot on his mind. Besides working on graduating this semester with a degree in political science and finding a place to live next year, Swan wants to pursue a career in music. During the summer he recorded his latest work, a low-key acoustic album in his apartment entitled The Spottswood Sessions.
Swan kicks the album off with a fervent and excellent cover of Bob Dylan's "Tangled up in Blue." Swan's husky, Springsteen like vocal style makes a great mix to the laid back acoustic sound that sets the tone for the album. Swan gets personal on many songs but also makes out to be a fairly decent storyteller, such as in "Photograph" or "Citizen Soldier."
I sat down with Swan the other day and talked about his album, how he got into songwriting and his plans for the future.
DH: How long have you been playing music?
Swan: About 11 years. I always wanted to play guitar and I bugged my parents long enough so they finally broke down and bought me one. It was around the time the Seattle music scene was pretty big, so that really got me wanting to play in a band.
DH: What are your current influences?
Swan: Well the Seattle bands really got me into classic rock such as Clapton and Led Zeppelin. That got me into blues such as Robert Johnson. Now I'm into Springsteen and Dylan. I like a lot of old country music such as Johnny Cash. I like jazz such as miles Davis. You know I like some rap, Tupac and The Roots. Classic R&B such as Otis Redding is pretty good. I dig music with soul and good songwriting.
DH: What is in your CD player right now?
Swan: (laughs) I should probably know that.
DH: Well, your best educated guess
Swan: I think it might be Fleetwood Mac.
DH: Oh which one?
Swan: The latest one, Say You Will. Actually it may be The Black Crowe's Shake Your Money Maker, I've been digging that record lately.
DH: Can you remember when you wrote your first song?
Swan: I don't know. I started not too long after I started playing. I know the first songs I wrote I eventually threw away because they were bad. I was maybe in 8th grade or high school when I first started writing songs I kept.
DH: So have you recorded any other albums besides this one?
Swan: Yeah I've made others, mostly though I just gave them to friends. When I lived in Knoxville I was in a band called Atticus and we recorded an album in 2000. I think there are a few hundred copies of that floating around.
DH: How long did it take you to record this CD?
Swan: Not very long, probably about two weeks in all. I guess I just had a fleet of inspiration and wrote and recorded the album at the same time. It was just me doing it at my apartment in my own spare time so I didn't have to worry about much.
DH: Your major is political science and as some may know, you used to be a political columnist for our paper. Your song, "Citizen Soldier," while not overtly political, is definitely reminiscent of some of the cultural and political ideas in The U.S. today. What is your opinion of artists who mix music and politics?
Swan: That's an interesting question. Well, I think everybody has the right to say what they want about any political situation. I myself try to be as apolitical as possible. I think for a musician it is not to your advantage to be political in your music because you're either preaching to the choir or going to annoy part of your fan base. My thoughts are to just record good music. I don't play for republicans or democrats. I play for music. It annoys me when an artist I like takes a stance, with which I disagree. I still listen to them though. I'd just much rather discuss other topics or general themes of right and wrong.
DH: You cover three songs on the CD, Dylan's "Tangled Up in Blue," Radiohead's "Motion Picture Soundtrack" and Springsteen's "Thunder Road," how did you decide on those songs?
Swan: I've always done the Dylan and Springteen tunes, so I thought why not I might as well record them. The Radiohead song was kind of a fluke actually. I'm a fan but I had never heard that particular song and a friend of mine who was getting into songwriting sent me the lyrics one day and asked me to write music to it. What's on The Spottswood Sessions is what I came up with. I later listened to the song and heard it was nothing like my version but I kept my version because it was kind of a unique thing.
DH: So you went to school in Knoxville as a music major and moved to Memphis. Why the transfer to The U of M?
Swan: I grew up in Knoxville and felt I did all I could there. I was looking for a change and I really enjoy the music history in Memphis. It's not just Elvis and BB King; it's Johnny Cash and Al Green. I wanted to come here to be a part of that.
DH: Why did you switch your major to Political Science?
Swan: When I came to Memphis I started as a recording technology major. I did one semester of that and figured I knew enough about recording to where it wouldn't be that useful to hold a college degree in it so I made the switch to Political Science because it was something I've always been interested in.
DH: You graduate this semester. What's next?
Swan: Playing music.
DH: What are your music goals as of now?
Swan: I guess I just want to start on that road to get to where my heroes have been. I want to start playing as many gigs as possible and letting people hear my music. I also want to play around the country, The U.S. is such a diverse country and I want to go from place to place, trying different things and getting in front of as many people as possible.
DH: You have any gigs coming up?
Swan: Yeah I have a gig in two week in Knoxville; it'll be my first show there in about four years. I'll be playing a show in Memphis on Dec. 18th at the Bottom Line. It'll be me and a bunch of musicians I played with since I've been here so it's kind of a Nick Swan and friends type show.
DH: What would you be doing if you didn't play music?
Swan: I don't know. Probably something with writing like a newspaper, history or a novel or something to that effect. I'd probably be very reclusive and sit in front of the computer screen all day.
