Richard Swift reflects on his hour with Daytrotter in the barbeque-y town of Austin. To set the stage, the control room at Big Orange suddenly became overrun with indie rock royalty and bro-sephs that we’d made friends with over the last year. Already milling about were Bill Baird and Jordan Johns of the lovely and talented SOUND Team (our hosts for the week), Jared Van Fleet of Sparrow House and Voxtrot (two other lovelies) and various other castaways that we’d taken in as our buddies. Gabe Pearlman of SOUND Team walks in shortly after Richard showed up with the Cold War Kids in-tow. We exchanged hugs, having not seen them since their session here in Rock Island the day before they played Lollapalooza. (All week, an attempt had been made to make a late-night collaborative session with SOUND Team, Cold War Kids, The Walkmen and Delta Spirit together in one room playing gospel songs happen, but it never materialized; the dream lives on) The Delta Spirit fellows were next up. It was crowded. This all happened on Friday, March 16 th at 6 p.m., right after the Dragons of Zynth played and just before Willy Mason joined the fray. It was singularly the most awesome display of what music can do to people. Everyone was sitting in this stone-walled room, with a single window out that lent no view of Swift, just rapt, ears wide for whatever the man was going to pull in the adjacent room. It was chilling, in the good way.

“I’ve known Matt (Maust of the Cold War Kids) the longest. Matt lives in Long Beach and I’d lived in Long Beach. They’d come around to a couple of shows. We had them on a couple bills when we had a residency in L.A. Just through the years, we’ve been hanging out more and more. It’s kind of funny because we share a lawyer now. And this might sound bad to say, but the Delta Spirit guys were just kids showing up to my shows a long time back – like five or six years ago. Then it turned out they had a really great band going. I’m really humbled that they were all there that day. It was cool. It was that and you guys as well. I walked in and there were all these instruments all around and I thought, ‘This is kind of like hanging out with my cronies back home.’ It’s essentially how we run things around here. It was nice to have this feeling of home among all of that other stuff. It was really nice. It was cool to have all those people there because it was an example of this intangible electricity that ties everyone together somehow. It was definitely a highlight, if not the highlight of SXSW for me. No bullshit. You guys had tape machines rolling!”

First song
The Ballad of You Know Who (Richard Swift) [4.14MB] [2133 downloads]


– original version appears on Dressed Up For The Letdown
I was listening to a lot of D’Angelo at the time. I tried to write a sexy R&B song and I don’t think it turned out that way. It was the first time I’d ever guided strings. It’s the only track on the record that I don’t play drums on. My regular wasn’t really happy that I used this take. He likes to play a lot of Brian Wilson type stuff and I said, “I don’t know, man, I don’t think that’s working. I think it needs to be really simple.” Out of spite, he made it super, super simple. He came out and I said, “That was perfect.” Usually, when I play this song, I do this cheap kind of trick where I sing through a harmonica. I don’t think I had it with me that day. It’s too bad.

Second song
Dressed Up for the Letdown (Richard Swift) [2.25MB] [2007 downloads]


– original version appears on Dressed Up For The Letdown
That was the first song of this batch of new songs. It’s one of two that I played the guitjo on, I think. It’s a banjo for lazy bastards like me. I started liking that instrument a lot more when I learned it was Django Reinhardt’s first instrument. I really don’t like explaining lyrics. I think Cold War Kids and Delta Spirit had to bail out for some dinner obligation, but they were going to do the handclaps and knee slaps on this that day.

Third song
The Songs of National Freedom (Richard Swift) [2.63MB] [2061 downloads]


– original version appears on Dressed Up For The Letdown
I think Polydor’s releasing it as the next single in the UK. I think I’m going to try to get Secretly Canadian to put it out as a 7-inch. That’s the song I really like because it’s a little more upbeat and a lot of people kind of think I’m a sad bastard. It’s a song you can kind of walk to. I wrote that one in a matter of minutes so I can’t really explain it. It kind of reminds me of “RAM”-era McCartney.

Fourth song
Sadsong St. (Richard Swift) [2.19MB] [1984 downloads]


– original version appears on The Novelist
It’s one that I like to say is classic Cole Porter-esque pop. It gives it a proper timeline. It’s obvious what they’re talking about in the song. It’s one of those songs that you can just play on its own.