Interview with Can't Swim (Can't Swim Returns!)
We had the pleasure of interviewing Can\u2019t Swim Zoom video!
One of New Jersey\u2019s prodigal sons once mused \u201cwho says you can\u2019t go home?\u201d \u2013 but CAN\u2019T SWIM have never really left their Garden State surroundings.
Sure, they\u2019ve certainly logged tens of thousands of miles over the past seven years, bringing their cathartic blend of rock, punk, and emo to audiences around the world on bills with A Day To Remember and Senses Fail and at festivals like 2000trees. But at their core, Can\u2019t Swim are innately Jersey through and through: from the ghosts of Tri-State hardcore giants that oscillate through their high-octane sound to the very garages and studios where those songs take shape.
Now, the band plant their Garden State flag even deeper on their fourth LP, Thanks But No Thanks, an album that quite literally finds them going back to their roots.
After wrapping another slate of hard touring for 2021\u2019s Change Of Plans, the group \u2013 vocalist Chris LoPorto, bassist Greg McDevitt, guitarist Danny Rico and drummer (and honorary Jersian) Blake Gamel \u2013 decamped to the Shore, insulating themselves in the comforts of home while working to hone in on the most elemental components of the Can\u2019t Swim sound.
Joy has rarely been a word associated with Can\u2019t Swim \u2013 awash in tempestuous lyricism and muscular energy since breaking into the underground with 2016\u2019s Death Deserves A Name EP \u2013 but there\u2019s a self-referential wryness to LoPorto\u2019s lyrics on Thanks But No Thanks that winks its way through the album\u2019s 10 songs, along with a finely tuned melodic edge that balances out the band\u2019s more brooding nature.
With guitarist Rico overseeing production, mixing, and mastering (a position he held on 2017\u2019s debut LP Fail You Again and 2018\u2019s This Too Won\u2019t Pass), first single \u201cme vs. me vs. all y\u2019all\u201d is Can\u2019t Swim\u2019s most fully realized pop song to date, name-checking The Cure, The Lemonheads and Eddie Vedder, while the album-opening \u201cNowhere, Ohio\u201d offers a playful tribute to the Alkaline Trio classic \u201cRadio\u201d in between stabs of downtuned guitars.
But don\u2019t conflate fun with frivolity. The same emotional heft that\u2019s made Can\u2019t Swim a cult favorite in the scene \u2013 and earned them musical co-signs from the likes of Taking Back Sunday\u2019s Adam Lazzara and Beartooth\u2019s Caleb Shomo \u2013 is front and center on Thanks But No Thanks, from the sorrowful summer 2022 single \u201cI heard they found you face down inside your living room,\u201d mourning the death a close friend, to the classic punk rallying cry \u201cELIMINATE,\u201d which tackles the gun violence epidemic with a strength-in-numbers call to arms.
In this way, the evolution of Can\u2019t Swim as a band is really evident: What once were presented as insurmountable obstacles on previous albums are now framed as hard-but-necessary lessons that need confronting in to move forward and grow, calling upon new levels of resolve and strength to dull down life\u2019s demons. Through it all, the band have been able to truly block out the noise and let their conscience resonate loudest of all.
Four records in, it feels like Can\u2019t Swim are just now hitting their stride. They\u2019ve stretched their wings over nearly a decade, dabbling in everything from frantic hardcore (2019\u2019s Foreign Language EP) to ethereal indie (2020\u2019s Someone Who Isn\u2019t Me EP), yet have once again found their way back to their musical home.
The next few years will take them far away from their own beds as these songs reach audiences around the world \u2013 but that\u2019s a sacrifice the band is willing to make because of how much these connections truly mean.
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