{"id":78908,"date":"2017-02-15T01:46:29","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T01:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/inthemix.junkee.com\/?p=150267"},"modified":"2017-02-15T01:46:29","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T01:46:29","slug":"how-swindail-became-one-of-australias-most-in-demand-producers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/earthquakemix.com\/boom\/?p=78908","title":{"rendered":"How Swindail became one of Australia\u2019s most in-demand producers"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our series Spotlight, DAVE RUBY HOWE is profiling the local electronic artists you need to know. Today, it\u2019s\u00a0Sydney\u00a0producer swindail.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you’re wowed\u00a0by a new artist for the first time, you\u2019re likely wonder where the hell they came from\u00a0and how they got so good.<\/p>\n

When it comes to Sydney dude-on-the-up swindail, the truth is that it took a lot of trial and error – he’s the first to admit that he spent the last few years tinkering away on his sound and sharpening his skills before his music got to where he wanted it to be. There’s a lot of early tracks that don’t exactly stand the test of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI [think of]\u00a0them as a sort of benchmark for bad music,\u201d producer Sid says of his early aborted tunes. \u201cThey\u2019re very, very far away from the stuff I\u2019m doing now. Pretty despicable stuff; think badly produced hard electro with too much rhythmic stuff going on to the point where nobody gets it.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days,\u00a0Sid\u2019s output as swindail has earned him an enthusiastic group\u00a0of followers\u00a0– a squad that includes fellow producers like\u00a0Cosmo\u2019s Midnight, Basenji and Enschway.<\/p>\n

“[Cosmo’s Midnight]\u00a0teach me a lot of stuff about production and the music industry as well, so they\u2019re just great buddies to have”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI think they just hit me up on SoundCloud one day,\u201d he says of how he first connected\u00a0with Cosmo\u2019s Midnight. \u201cNothing crazy, they just said they were digging my music so I forced them to invite me over one day so we could hang and write tunes. We\u2019re chill now though, they live like 30 minutes away so we just work on tunes and go get food and stuff . They actually teach me a lot of stuff about production and the music industry as well, so they\u2019re just great buddies to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fruits of those studio sessions come with the Cosmo\u2019s x swindail remix of\u00a0GoldLink\u2019s Dark Skin Woman,<\/em>\u00a0out on the American rapper\u2019s recent\u00a0Remixes<\/em> collection alongside versions from Brasstracks, Motez, Gravez and more. The Sydney triumvirate’s take must\u2019ve struck a chord with GoldLink, as he and swindail recently caught up for studio hangs when the American rapper toured Australia over summer.<\/p>\n\"Screen\n

\u201cMy manager got in touch with his team a little while after the remix I did with Cosmo\u2019s dropped and so I just sent him a load of different things – turns out he loved one of those things so much that he\u00a0recorded on it the following week. We got in the studio while he was in Australia for FOMO [and] hearing his new stuff and then our song together was pretty mind-blowing,\u201d Sid says with a huge grin. \u201cOther than that I think I have to keep quiet for now, watch this space though.\u201d<\/p>\n

With his list of collaborators continuing to expand at a rapid rate – swindail\u2019s also just dropped his new original, jussrite<\/em>, featuring Auckland production duo SACHI and vocals from Selection regular naji – the Sydney don reveals that he approaches each musical partnership with a kind of fastidious workflow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate ambiguity in the creative process because it usually ends in arguments”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI hate ambiguity in the creative process because it usually ends in arguments, so when I work with others I like to get everyone to decide roles based on each of our strengths and weaknesses,\u201d he explains. “That doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t give each other our input on things, but I think it helps people stay on task without worrying too much about other things. Kind\u00a0of\u00a0like a high school project or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

With jussrite<\/em> foreshadowing an upcoming EP from swindail, the remainder of 2017 will be all about taking the producer\u2019s music to the people. Having already toured with Basenji and Mr. Carmack, Sid says that swindail live setup is a jumble of gear, performance and DJing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of do a glorified DJ set,\u201d he laughs. \u201cI play a lot of my own music – most of which is unreleased stuff – and play drums, keyboard instruments and other stuff over the top of it all. The only real reason I keep the DJing element in there is because I like to showcase all my friends\u2019 incredible music too.\u201d But there\u2019s an evolution to that show still to come, with Sid\u2019s ambitions involving a more multi-dimensional experience for punters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m working pretty hard on a strong visual component to the show,\u201d he says. \u201c[It will have] a bunch of dynamic and reactive animations and stuff to compliment the tunes and create a little more immersion.\u201d<\/p>\n