TOPNOTE’s post-gig debrief with Swim School and Sandhouse in London

Swim School, photographed at their headline show at Colours Hoxton. Image credit: Paddy Whidborne

‘When we started Swim School, we always got told London crowds are the worst, and they're the hardest to crack. But I think every time we've played London, we've managed to crack them.’

Swim School brought intense indie rock, atmospheric vocals and multiple mosh pits to a Wednesday-turned-Saturday night crowd in London. 

Fans of Swim School travelled from the North and the South to unite in the nation’s capital as they welcomed the band from Edinburgh, plus openers, local up-and-coming shoegaze band Sandhouse.

Swim School kicked things off with ‘Heaven’, before treating the crowd to several other tracks from their self-titled debut album. As the energy ramped up, frontwoman Alice Johnson declared she wanted to see a mosh pit, which didn’t take her long to jump off the stage and join herself (if you see this band in the capital, come prepared…). The four-piece later shared that when starting out, they were warned about London shows being the most difficult, though despite this added pressure, the crowd, the opener, and the headline act all proved these concerns were unfounded. 

After the show, both Sandhouse’s Anna Sutherland and Swim School’s Alice met fans at the merch table, signing t-shirts and taking photos, with sincere gratitude for everyone coming out for the mid-week show.

Read our post-gig debrief with both bands below, and take a look at the night’s photos.

Swim School performing at Colours Hoxton before chatting to TOPNOTE. Image credit: Paddy Whidborne

These interviews have been edited for clarity.

TOPNOTE: Congratulations, really great gig. I've been speaking to a lot of your fans who’ve seen you all over Europe. How is it playing in London again?

Billy: It's quality. Being from Edinburgh, it's a drive, you know. But yeah, coming down on a Wednesday night, and having a crowd that seem really up for it. There's a real stigma when you're up our way that London don't know how to move. Everyone says it's very business-oriented, but people seem to love it. It's class, and it's good to try out some new tunes and stuff as well.

TOPNOTE: Sandhouse opened for you. How were they getting the crowd ready?

Billy: Great band. We came across them when we got into the tour. We had a band playlist, we had a couple of their tunes in there. They sounded great, and everyone seemed to love them.

Alice: I love them. I discovered them through Spotify. It was a song called ‘Circus’, and I got addicted. We originally wanted them for our headline tour, but things didn't line up. And then when we got off this tour and they were on the bill, we were like, this is perfect. They're such lovely people, and they're really, really cool musicians. We're very, very grateful to have them.

TOPNOTE: Your debut album reaches its first birthday at the end of October… is there any new music on the horizon?

Lee: We've been in the studio working on some new stuff. We played two [new] songs tonight, so they've started edging their way into the set. ‘Hold Me’, and ‘Can't Play Guitar’.

Billy: So I feel like if you read the setlist tonight, you're probably not really going to understand the references, but it's a banger.

TOPNOTE: Alice instigated the pit and then proceeded to get in it, not once but twice. Is that a usual staple of your shows?

Lee: It's gonna be our London staple.

Billy: I think it depends on the vibe of the crowd. Like, if you get to the space in the set and you're up for it and you feel the energy. 

Alice: Every time we play live and we play ‘Delirious’, it's definitely our staple. We did 100 Club last year, it was our first gig with Lee as well. When we went on stage, it was just instantly energetic, and you can't not. I think it's almost more real when the singer is more engaged in the audience than if it’s just me stood there singing all the lyrics. If I was seeing a band I love and they were enjoying it and getting the mosh pits going, I would love it too.

TOPNOTE: Is there anything you want to say to the people who came out tonight?

Alice: Just thank you, because when we started Swim School, we always got told London crowds are the worst, and they're the hardest to crack. But I think every time we've played London, we've managed to crack them, get them to mosh and be energetic. One thing that's always stuck in my head is that we've always been told you've always got a Saturday night London crowd no matter what day of the week it is, and tonight we’ve proved it. I’m really really happy, I’m on a high.

Lee: It's cool having people travel now. A lot of familiar faces that’ve traveled to different places and stuff.

Sandhouse opening for Swim School. Image credit: Paddy Whidborne

As the crowd filled Colours Hoxton, Sandhouse warmed them up and won them over, opening with ‘Sick of Your Face’ from their most recent EP. It had been a difficult start to the evening due to their car breaking down outside the venue, but once they found their flow, their sweet atmospheric sound grabbed everyone’s attention.

Also on the setlist were recent releases ‘Pollyanna’ and ‘Snapdragon’, upcoming single ‘Gasoline’, and the unreleased, unofficially named, ‘Clam Chowder’. The five-piece ensemble ended their set with ‘Circus’, fitting to lead from one band into the next, as one of Alice’s favourite tracks.

TOPNOTE: You’ve had two singles, ‘Snapdragon’ and ‘Pollyanna’ come out this year. Can you tell me about the songs and how the reception’s been?

Anna: It’s been really good. I feel like we were a bit nervous after that first EP because it had such a specific sound. But I went through a terrible breakup in the middle, and both of the songs are about picking fantasy over reality. It’s like why do you pick to stay in something that’s so bad? And it’s because of believing a fairytale rather than looking at what reality actually is. The newer stuff is about self-delusion, basically.

TOPNOTE: You’ve got some new music coming out, ‘Gasoline’, I believe. And there was another song you played; can you tell me about them?

Caspar: It’s been a fun process working on them because we did that first EP quite a while ago, so this is a chance to do something new. Our sound’s evolved a bit and a lot’s happened. Obviously Anna’s writing about stuff and I’ve been a friend of hers through that process. So it’s been cool to work on it together and have the music as a way of reflecting it. And people seem to like it, so that’s good! ‘Gasoline’ we wrote the same kind of time we wrote ‘Pollyanna’ and ‘Snapdragon’. So we’ve had that for a little while, and it’s been a chance to explore a slightly quieter sound. We’ve got a cool video coming for that one.

Anna: ‘Gasoline’ is I feel maybe a bit more indie than we usually do. But it’s a heartbreak song, so it’s the natural conclusion to two songs that are about living in a fantasy and believing romance over reality. ‘Gasoline’ is what happens when all those things fall apart.

Caspar: And then the other one, we haven’t settled on the title yet, but we think it might be called ‘Clam Chowder’. We’ve played it a few times now.

Anna: That is probably my favorite song we’ve ever written. We wrote it on a writing retreat and it was all of us together, usually it’s just me and Caspar. We wrote it on the last day. We were basically like, nothing good’s going to happen, and then at 2 a.m. we were like, let’s just play, and the song came out in half an hour.

TOPNOTE: Do you have anything to say to everyone who came out early to see you?

Anna: Thank you so much. It was a crazy crowd, amazing energy. I felt like people were really resonating with the music, which can sometimes be hard with a support show, you know, people are waiting for the main act. We were so excited to be invited to play and had a really good time.

Caspar: Thank you to Swim School for having us. First time meeting them, they were really lovely. There were some people I’ve seen at our gigs before, so it’s really nice that they’ve come back. Also, for people that have seen us today, I hope they come back again and that they liked it, I guess. It was a really fun gig. The crowd were really sick.