"Sweat Baby Sweat" with Swan

Australian beer, Australian rock n' roll, what's better?

Rock n' roll, beer, and the fast life- what could possibly be better? Not much according to Swan anyway. Swan is the brainchild of Matt Swan (or "Swanny"), the Australian rock n' roller who cut his teeth as one-half of UK rock heavyweights Royal Blood as well as Australian based band The Swamps. Now ripping through a new solo career, Swan has just released the video for his debut single, the roaring "Sweat Baby Sweat". An ode to late-night dance parties and letting the good times roll.

We had a chat with Swanny about the blood pumping video, the new music, playing at Margot Robbie's wedding (yes), and what we can expect from Swan.

What a blast of a debut song. How did the concept of the music video come together?

I wanted to create a high octane video to match the energy of "Sweat Baby Sweat" and at the same time incorporate some of my favorite things I like to do to clear my head... Motorbikes and Jumping out of planes! I'm good friends with the guys at Byron skydive and when I approached the team with my idea they jumped at it. It was such a great experience, the cool thing is none of them had even heard the song until just before the jump when they rehearsed it on the ground to that ripping solo.

Where did you guys film it?

We filmed it all around and above the Byron area and a huge chunk of movie magic stuff on the ground at Byron skydive.

Have you worked with Clint (Gough) before this video?

Well, interesting question... Clint was introduced to me late last year by a mutual friend and we caught up to discuss another film project that we have in the pipeline. As we were going through some footage and talking music I showed him the demo to "Sweat Baby Sweat". He heard the "Sweat Baby Sweat" hook in another part of the song and said this is your chorus. The vibe was great we spent the night in my home studio restructuring the song together and went on to track the vocals in Brisbane a couple of weeks later. So that was the first time we met and worked together. We've since become good mates and are continuing to collaborate on my next lot of material.

I have to ask- that’s really you jumping out of the plane and skydiving?

Swans are born to fly... But unfortunately, on this day I was grounded. The plan was for me to go up and dive with the team but we were squeezing so much into our shoot schedule that I had to film my other scenes whilst the boys and my stunt double were in the air.

This is the first sample of your upcoming solo work- what can we expect musically for your solo debut album? Is there a date or timeframe for a release?

I'm focusing on completing my EP this year, its a high energy fusion of Rock, Punk, Grunge, and Blues. Lyrically I'm aiming to deliver a positive message that listeners can connect with and at the same time showcase some more aggressive tones on one track that addresses a bit of my music backstory. So new music definitely over the next few months and maybe we can chat again about an album next year.

Will you be taking a break from The Swamps to do Swan full time?

Not any time soon, The Swamps keep the rock n roll fire burning in me!

How did you guys end up playing Margot Robbie’s wedding? I bet the food was amazing.

A friend of mine knows their family and put us forward. However, here's what happened... I received an email titled "Family Reunion gig?" so I replied not knowing that I was actually talking to Margot Robbie's good friend. They asked me if we could meet up in Byron or the Gold Coast to talk about this reunion gig. Turned out she was located on the Gold Coast and was easier for her to meet up there. So I stupidly palmed the meeting off to Matt Armitage as he lives up there. Little did I know that if I attended the meeting I would have spent the afternoon on the Gold Coast drinking cocktails with Margot herself. Armitage must have done something right as we got the gig, the wedding was amazing and she gave me a big hug and kiss at the end of the night to thank us. Ain't complaining about that at all!

You wrote “Sweat Baby Sweat” over a beer- what’s your beer of choice to write great rock n’ roll songs?

Young Henry’s for me. An all-round great beer, amazing taste and they are amazing supporters of Aussie music. 

Swan's debut single, "Sweat Baby Sweat", is out now. More information can be found on the official Swan website.