event

B Side Patio Series presents w/ Ray Flanagan, Grant Swift, Andrew McManus, Sean Benjamin, Shawn Brewster 

Thursday, July 13th
Doors 6:30 p.m. / Show 7 p.m.
$10 | 21+

Grant Swift

Transformation, the new LP from songwriter, composer, and vocalist Grant Swift builds on the softly psychedelic folk-rock and hook-drenched power pop of his First Elephant release to deliver the listener a truly transformative experience. Swift’s knack for crafting irresistible melodic hooks and his soaring, ethereal voice are still here in spades of course. On this new release Swift has stripped his sound to the core, allowing his songwriting and virtuosic acoustic guitar playing to come to the fore. Yet, from its simplicity comes a grace: the simple, enchanting beauty of immaculate composition and warm, organic performance merging in a work of captivating beauty.

After the process of creating First Elephant, Swift found that if he was going to elevate his writing he needed to turn to simplicity. He found the antidote to the swirl of modernity by venturing to an olive farm and vineyard in Italy, trading field work for room and board. He finished writing, recorded, and mixed Transformation abroad.

“I took a whimsical and spontaneous approach” says Swift. “A lot of the sounds on the record are things I recorded on my phone, or on a small handheld recorder while out in the world, like a foghorn in Japan, or waves on a beach. The “snare” drum on “Be There” is actually just the sound of turning off a small practice amp of mine. So, this album is also more of an exercise in creative limitation.” All of the instruments on the record – apart from the lovely strings by Patricia Santos (Cello), Lavinia Pavlish (Violin) and Laura Sacks (Viola) that grace several tracks – were played by Swift. Everything was recorded and mixed by Swift in his Brooklyn apartment, a bathroom in Paris, and an Italian basement .

“I believe the record feels more intimate in part because I didn’t really share the songs with anyone ahead of time” he continues. “I actually went to lengths to not have my fiancée hear it while I was working on it, for fear that any insight or feedback, even if it was positive, could interfere with the process of making it in a pure and efficient way. I had my friend James Zaner master it so I could finally get a separate set of ears listening to everything at the end.”

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