Interview with Swiss Lips

Swiss Lips are a five piece electro band from Manchester, and have toured with the likes of Bastille and LadyHawke, and were featured as Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills' song of the week back in 2012.  All of this before releasing their much anticipated debut album.  I chatted to Sam Hammond (vocals) and Tim Estherby (keys) before their sold out gig at Bush Hall in London.

Who came up with the band name and what's the meaning behind it?

Someone in the background: Vagina!

Sam: It's not vagina!  When you're trying to pick a band name it's really difficult cause everything's already taken or really shit, or both.  And you need something that's unique when people are searching for you and trying to find you.  So we were trying to just pair words together and things like that for ages and it just popped in my head and I liked how it sounded.  I suggested it to these lot, there were a few arguments and then it just stuck.  It's not really a very great story.  

Tim: We didn't think to Google the name before we decided to announce it and then someone was like, 'It means vagina'.  

How did you all get into music?

Sam: We've all been doing it for years in different bands and things like that, and known each other through Manchester's small music scene.  I've been playing since I was about 15 in bands, playing guitar and stuff, and everyone's pretty much the same, always been doing stuff.

When did you decide to pursue it professionally?

Sam: I think I've always wanted to.

Tim: About thirty years ago!

Sam: Just when someone lets you.  This is the first professional band I've been in really, I've had other things close to it.

Who would you say your main influences are?

Tim: For this band in the early days, it was bands like Phoenix and Justice.

Sam: It changes all the time.  We started getting into loads of hip-hop and trying to nick bits of that, but not the rapping, cause you can't rap when you're from Manchester and white!

In terms of the writing process, is it quite collaborative or is it just one of you coming up with ideas?

Sam: It is collaborative, yeah.  A few of us write and come up with ideas, then we develop them together and finish them off together.  

Tim: We do a lot of it on GarageBand in the first place and then take it to the band.

Sam: I've actually moved onto Logic now, so consider myself an extremely good producer!  GarageBand is awesome though.

I know you get loads of questions about this on Twitter and stuff, but have you got a date set for the album release yet?

Sam: We haven't but we know it's going to be soon.  It's been finished for a long time, but the problem was that our label were refusing to release it basically, we weren't a priority for them.  We've been fighting that for ages but we've just got the album back, we're just finding a home for it and talking to a few people.  It's going to be this year, even if we just have to throw it out ourselves and give it away.

You & Bastille are friends and have done remixes of each other's songs.  Do you think you'll be featuring on one of their cover mixtapes at all?

Tim: They asked us ages ago when they played the Union with us, but then we just never got round to it.  We should've done that!

Sam: We'll ask him.

Tim: Dan doesn't text me back anymore!

How do you know them?

Tim: We went on tour with them just before they blew up and got massive.

Sam: We did a lot of touring with them last year, and the year before that we went on the first tour with them.  We've done loads of gigs with them and then just became mates really.

Which venue do you hope to be able to headline at one day?

Tim: I want to do the Apollo in Manchester.  We've played venues that big, but to do that in my hometown would be good.

Sam: That'd be the one, yeah.

Tim: Madison Square Garden would be pretty chilled.

If each of you had to choose three artists, dead or alive, to create your dream festival line-up, who would you pick?

Tim: Prince.

Sam: Neil Young.

Tim: Jacko.  Seen Neil Young so I wouldn't choose him.

Sam: He's just better than everyone though, isn't he?

Tim: Prince, Jacko & Deborah Meaden doing stand-up.

Is that for both of you?

Both: Yep.

Have you got a UK tour planned for the near future?  I know you're doing this date and then you're doing one in Manchester in May.

Sam: That's it for the moment.  We'll hopefully tour around the album release, just sorting that out is our first priority, and all the promo.

Tim: Writing new stuff as well.

Sam: We've recorded some new tracks for another album.

Tim: That shocking piece of turd you just heard out there!  It's one of my favourite ones that we've done but we've not learnt how to play it live yet.  We make everything in the studio first and then we learn how to play it live with samples off the record.  We've not quite worked it out yet.

Sam: Nah, it's gonna be good, it's gonna be fine!  

Tim: We're going to try it out tonight.

Are you excited for tonight?

Sam: Yeah, we're really excited.  It's good to be back playing a gig,  we've not done one for a while.  

Thank you to the lovely Swiss Lips for taking the time to talk to me before the show.  They performed an awesome gig at a beautiful venue and I had a great day/evening, courtesy of them.  Tickets for the band's gig on 31st May at the Dancehouse Theatre in Manchester are available here