“I was just in the shower. I heard the phone ring and I was thinking, ‘Who the heck is this? Oh, fuck. I’ve got an interview.’ I am currently drying off.”
The nude, tattooed, electrician currently getting toweled in Canada as I sit fully dressed in Australia, is not facilitating a new dating scheme, Tradie Wants A Wife. He’s Anto Boros, bassist for punk rockers The Swellers, stocking up on hometown before the band’s first Australian tour as part of the Soundwave’s Counter Revolution.
Though The Swellers – brainchild of brothers Nick [guitarist and vocalist] and Jonathan [drums] Diener – have been touring and recording for nigh on ten years, it was only two years ago that Anto, previously of Canadian group Sydney, came into the fray; a year after guitarist Ryan Collins joined. It was on Sydney’s first American tour, with The Swellers and Fireworks [the latter, incidentally, the first to sign to Soundwave’s label arm 3Wise] that Anto first sparked up a friendship with his bandmates-to-be, Nick and Jonathan.
“I became really close with Jonathan and Nick; at the end of that tour they were subtly hinting that I might like to join… I wasn’t ready to leave my band because I’d worked so hard with Sydney for so long, so I was like, ‘I’ll keep an eye out for y’all.’ A few months later our drummer quit and joined another band. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” he laughs.
The prospect of dismantling Sydney to join The Swellers still wasn’t an obvious choice straight away. Anto reckons he had to process — “I was pretty devastated” — before being wrenched into action when Sydney and The Swellers’ mutual friend – A Wilhelm Scream’s bassist – Brian J. Robinson learned The Swellers needed a bass player. “He called me and said, ‘Whatever you’re doing, stop it and give Jonathan and Nick a call right now.”
Living in different countries — Anto in Canada, the remaining Swellers in the U.S. — was an obvious concern when first they discussed joining forces. “It’s kind of inconvenient but all I ever wanted to do was music and that’s all they ever wanted to do,” muses Anto. “The next day they were like, ‘How soon can you be here?’ and I was there the next day with five songs learned. My first show with them was the following week.” Geography ceased to be an issue. “It takes about three hours for me to get to Ryan’s house but seriously, dude, we are on tour so much that we barely need to practice because we are playing pretty much every night. Plus, everybody’s a great musician in their own right so that really helps. Every time we have a tour coming up I’ll just head over to Michigan a day earlier so we can practice. And then we just head out…”
Head out they do. Immediately after Anto joined the band, they went out on tour in support of Ups And Downsizing, The Swellers fourth release. It wasn’t long before they were embarking on tours with Paramore, the Vans Warped juggernaut, and heading O.S. for their first ever trip, and tour, to Europe.
Each member of The Swellers already possessing touring experience was one thing, but making their first real foray out of their comfort zone, touring internationally, was unifying. “It was very cool because we were able to experience everything for the first time, together. I’m not really the type who likes travelling alone. I definitely like to have people with me… so having three friends with me was perfect.” It was everything Anto had hoped for “and more. I mean, when you start playing in a band, the only thing you really wanna do right off the bat is tour. Being able to do that, on the other side of the planet and having kids sing your songs, I mean, it’s an accomplishment. It’s the greatest feeling you could ever really feel.”
Naturally, their travels led them into the recording studio with renewed vigour; though with the new lineup officially in place they took the time at least to ensure each band member was pleased with their individual contribution. “Jonathan and Nick live together and are incredible songwriters so they are constantly writing and throwing out ideas. They get all rough ideas down and then Ryan and I write our own parts to go into it. When we meet up we work through the kinks. Nothing’s set in stone, it’s like, ‘Here’s an idea that I’m working on.’ I think that’s the first time The Swellers have worked like that. I know it was the first time The Swellers did pre-production…”
Integrating Ryan and Anto into the writing process successfully was obviously necessary, but of course, historically, in rock music, having brothers in a band together can be tumultuous, not least when they are the core songwriting team. “Oh yeah,” replies Anto with a quick laugh. “They’re brothers so they’re bound to have their little tiffs every now and then. Ryan and I, quite early on, found it best to just let them work it out.”
Inter-band relationship management is nothing new, but as well, Anto says having a producer on board, Descendents drummer Bill Stevenson [Rise Against, NOFX, Propagandhi], threw another opinion into the mix. “In essence, Bill Stevenson was a fifth member of the band. ‘The Best You Ever Had’ was, originally, the fastest punk rock song, no chorus, just straightforward and Bill was like, ‘Dudes, this is a gem but you need to slow it down. Take the double time out [of the first verse].’ We had to eventually compromise. [But not before] Bill said, ‘I’m ordering you to slow it down a bit.’ We ended up loving it,” says Anto, before adding, “He wanted to do it on the second verse and we couldn’t do that. That’s why I think this record means more to everybody. When someone says, ‘I don’t know if we should do that,’ you take it personally. But we figured out a good way of communicating and I think we wrote the best Swellers record to date.”
Aussie punters get a chance to hear the new material in only a few days at Counter Revolution. The Swellers are one group of men who were wrapt to hear that the Soundwave crew had a backup plan after the sudden downscaling of the original Soundwave Revolution event. “When we found out we might be playing Soundwave with Van Halen we lost out fucking minds. When it was green-lighted, we were telling everybody. When it was cancelled… that stung. All of our friends who had been over already with their bands were telling us, ‘Dude, [Australia] is the fucking best. You’re going to have the time of your life!’ To feel for a second as though we weren’t going to go at all? It was pretty crushing. Luckily, everything was sorted and to think that we’re going to be there this week is pretty insane. We are ecstatic.”
– Melanie Lewis
COUNTER REVOLUTION TOUR DATES
Brisbane – Saturday 24 September Buy Tickets Set Times
Sydney – Sunday 25 September Buy Tickets Set Times
Melbourne – Friday 30 September Buy Tickets Set Times
Adelaide – Sunday 2 October Buy Tickets Set Times Not Yet Released
Perth – Monday 3 October Buy Tickets Set Times Not Yet Released
