We’ve got another fun interview to bring you! This time, it’s with Louden Swain! Louden Swain is a band that consists of Rob Benedict, Billy Moran, Michael Borja and Stephen Norton.
The band was named after the main character in the 1985 film Vision Quest. They’ve released many albums, the last being No Time Like the Present, which released this past January and debuted at number 11 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Chart. MTV described Louden Swain’s sound as, “initially leaning heavily on punk, though their influences ranged from The Clash and The Replacements to Weezer, The Foo Fighters and The Beatles.”
Louden Swain is a staple at Creation Entertainment’s Supernatural conventions, where they perform and put on a show called “Saturday Night Special”. Coming this summer, they’ll be releasing a LIVE album called Saturday Night Special. The live album will feature performances from many of their friends along with a lot of Louden Swain songs.
Just today, the band released the music video for “Amazing”, a song off of No Time Like the Present. You can watch the video below:
This band produces such great music and the members are genuinely great people – it’s evident by how much their fans care about them. For example, fans make incredible art of the band, including two of our fandom artist spotlight artists, Scout Villegas and Angèle Desjardins.
We love this band, and we can’t wait to hear more from them in the future.
Check out our interview with them:
Nerds and Beyond: What is one of the most memorable live performances you’ve had over the years and why?
Louden Swain: Probably the first show back after Rob had his stroke. It was Vegas in March (I think) of 2014. We opened with Reunion and when Rob sang, “I’m alive and I’m still trying” everyone broke out in applause. They were right there with us. It was quite powerful.
Nerds and Beyond: Billy has given us a little bit of a glimpse of his singing lately, is there a possibility of seeing Billy singing more during performances in the future?
Louden Swain: Yeah, whenever Billy sings you are reminded that he used to be the lead singer of his last band (“Lost In Mayberry”). It’s difficult to get him up to the mic, but when he does, it’s magic. He’s been lending his background vocals to more and more songs live and in the studio and will continue to do so. You also hear him a lot at the live Station Breaks shows.
Nerds and Beyond: Can you share with us about your experience being part of not only the music for Kings of Con, but also members of the cast for the show and Kings of Conversation?
Louden Swain: The band had a blast doing both. It was great to combine Rob’s “other” career with this one. And with the band becoming such a mainstay at Supernatural conventions, it made sense that [we] would be the band both in the fictional show and in the live after show. Kings of Con is such a family — the crew and cast hang out all the time, and the band fit right into that. We’re excited to see where the fictional band goes in Season Two!
Nerds and Beyond: Is there a dream music venue or location you would enjoy performing at as a band?
Louden Swain:It’s always been a dream to play at the Hollywood Bowl. It’s a real magical place, and such historic acts have played there over the years — from the Beatles to Radiohead. Seems like a lofty wish, but that’s where we’d play.
Nerds and Beyond: What’s your favorite song on the new album?
Louden Swain:
Rob: Juliet
Mike: Taxi Driver and Leg Up
Norton: Leg Up
Billy: No favorite. That’s like picking a favorite kid
Nerds and Beyond: What’s your writing/recording process like?
Louden Swain: It has evolved a bit over the past few albums. Traditionally, Rob writes songs on the acoustic guitar and brought into the group to orchestrate. The band gets their hands on Rob’s song and turns it into a Louden Swain song. Amazing, Present Time, Change the Locks, Over B4 It Began, Leg Up were all written this way. Sometimes Billy will write music that Rob puts lyrics to — She Waits, Carpool Lane, Honey Bee were all that way. And on the new album This Is How was written that way. But for the first time on this album we wrote songs in the studio. We had ideas and kind of jammed while engineer Zack Darling recorded. Taxi Driver and Juliet were done this way. And the next day, Rob wrote the lyrics on the fly, actually in the car on his (hour) drive to the studio. We were stoked about that.
Nerds and Beyond: Do you have any pre-show rituals?
Louden Swain: We all gather in a circle, put our hands together and chant our secret band chant. It’s really goofy and doesn’t make a lot of sense — like us! But it makes us giggle and motivates us. Again just like us.
Make sure to check out LoudenSwain.com!
