Matt Connarton Unleashed: SWARM

That is Vultures. The band is Swarm in all caps, by the way

from Texas, and we've got them with us on Skype. Hopefully everybody can

hear each other. Hello, are you guys there? Can you hear me?

Oh? Awesome? Yes? Yes, I can you guys hear me?

Okay? Here? Beautiful, beautiful. I always get nervous when we're

merging calls with Skype, because well, it's Skype, and you know how

that can go. But it looks like we were successful. Welcome, guys,

who do we have on the line with us? Go ahead and introduce

ourselves. I'm a Parish, I'm the singer of Swarm and also the virginal

creator. And then we got Bats our guitar player. Here, yep,

I'm here, I'm Bats. I play the guitar all right. Welcome,

Welcome, Hey, I love your sound, I have to say, so,

we don't I feel like the genre of I guess industrial metal would be

the term. I feel like there's not enough of it, and I feel

like there was a time when there were a lot of bands doing this,

but I don't feel like there's that many around right now that are doing this.

So when Jenny sent me you guys and said, you know, this

is a guest that I've booked. I listened to these tracks and we're gonna

play another one at the end of our conversation, and I was just blown

away. This is great stuff. I really appreciate that a lot. Do

you guys kind of where you where in Texas? Are you? Are you

in Dallas? Yeah? Dallas, Texas? Okay. Yeah. We've talked

to a number of bands over the past couple of years from your area,

but you know, but they're always just like, you know, metal,

mostly just straight metal. So this uh, industrial aspect is, like I

said, it's unusual. I mean, are there other bands in your area

doing what you're doing or do you guys really kind of stand out. We're

kind of the only industrial metal band here in DFW. Now, we do

have industrial acts here, which we do play a lot with and stuff,

and we also cross genre and play with a lot of metal shows, but

as far as like an actual industrial metal style band, we're pretty much the

only one here in DFW. Yep, it's just us. Yeah, So

I would imagine doing what you're doing. You know, like you said,

you play with a lot of industrial bands. You also play with a lot

of metal bands. Oh yeah, yeah, because you kind of fit in

either way, right when you when you play shows with oh sorry, go

ahead believe it or not. Like, yeah, our actual first like show

is an actual band and not a pro solo project, was a death Metal

concert, no kidding, no kidding. So in a in a scenario like

that, how does that like, how does the crowd react to it?

I mean, even if they're trepidacious at first, I imagine you can win

them over. But are people into it right from the onset or is there

a process of kind of winning people over because you know, you stand out

a little bit, right, you're doing something a little different than what everybody

else is doing. So the first time that I performed, we performed with

the death Metal which is our first concert, I was very nervous, like

you know, and I was like, these are a bunch of big metal

head dudes, and we're not like, you know, up there like Cookie

Waster, you know, so it's not you know, we're not quite that

heavy. So I was kind of scared how they were gonna take to it.

But to be quite honest with you, as soon as we got going,

you know, like I guess people were just happy to hear you know,

more metal, you know, and different kinds of metal. And I've

been noticing, you know, a lot of the shows here lately have been

cross genre, you know, as far as different types of metal. Like

we we're very blessed here in DFW to have the scene that we have and

a lot of understanding people who just have an act for different kinds of music

and different types of metal, you know. So it's been it's been a

it's been a definite blessing. You know. We've had the We've gotten to

play with a lot of different metal bands and different types of metal acts,

and we've played with a lot of different types of industrial acs. So it's

gotten like kind of the best of both worlds. We really enjoy it.

Yeah, that's excellent. Paris, you mentioned you started the project. Yeah,

so originally I was in a synthpop band, oh wow, and uh,

I wanted to do something that was completely opposite, just unfriendly, mean,

heavy and broody sounding. So during the during the COVID time lockdowns and

everything, I just you know, had a lot of time off work,

so I h I just sat there and started creating, you know, a

different sound palette and coming up with the swarm sound. And then you know,

I got a show that I had to fill in for my other band

because my singer was sick, and I was scared to death because it was

just me and a bunch of synthesizers. You know. I got up on

stage and performed nervous as heck, you know it can be, and everybody

was like filling it and I was just so impressed, and I got off

stage, and next thing, you know, like I had more offers for

shows and time to make this a band, you know, so I started

reaching out and you know, we went through some lineup changes and bats.

Here he's been. He's been one of the most long term members we've had

so far, and the band definitely a keeper if you asked me. And

you know, he's really added a lot to the the heaviness factor and he's

got a lot of new metal influences. So yeah, it brought into like

a whole new you know genre, you know, where we're not even just

like like we're catering into like so many different genres, you know, because

each one of us has our own different music taste and we all bring it

to the table. You know. Yeah, that's great. And Bats,

I assume you played in other bands before a Swarm. Oh, yes,

I played in multiple bands. I'm originally from the New York, New Jersey

area. Oh okay, So I was part of that metalcore scene back in

early two thousands, and I'm why I moved down here. I didn't play

for a while, and then I saw a Facebook ad with this guy a

year and a half ago and I was like, you know what, I

want to do that? Yeah, And I reached out sent him a video

and he was like, you're in buddy boy? What what? What was

it that? So you're from the Northeast, so what was it that brought

you to Dallas. Oh? It was during the two thousand and nine,

during the recession, and this is where the jobs were. Yep, yep,

No, that makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah, and it

and it worked out musically for you, that's for sure, it really did.

It took it took almost fourteen years, but finally landed a real nice

gig with with Swarm. And I wouldn't want to be in any other band.

It's probably the best band I've ever been in. I've been in a

lot of bands and it's just the camaraderie, just even the musical talent.

Like Parish was saying, all four of us, we all have different musical

taste and we all bring it in together and it comes out like we have

new metal, we have industrial, we have hardcore, and it just all

comes together. Yeah. Yeah, because yeah, oh no, go ahead,

I was going to add to that. Yeah, so you know,

like I come from the hardcore punk scene, and you know, I didn't

get into industrial until like three years ago, so it's still all new to

me, you know. Yeah, yeah, we're gold Belting Pot. No,

that's that's great. Whoops, I didn't mean to play that yet.

Sorry, we are going to play that. You probably recognize it. Just

make sure it's loaded up and ready, and accidentally started playing it. Little

Seat Preview of Perdition another great track. But now, so who else is

in the band with you? And what does everybody do? Like do you

have a live drummer or how does that work? So we have struggled with

the drummer position in our band. We use uh and we're industrial, so

we do a lot of programmed distorted drawing and modified drums and stuff. So

we started off with the drummer, and he was great, but we had

to part ways with him due to health health reasons. He was a little

bit of an older gentleman. We love him to death. Dean, if

you're hearing this, we love you, bro. You know, we had,

uh, we had to part ways, and then we've just kind of

struggled with it. And then we added Germaine, who plays synthesizers and does

all the drum machine work for us and everything, and you know, addition

to him, and you know, he had so much energy back there just

having him on stage, we just kind of decided not to have a drummer.

You know, we may in the future add one, but as of

right now, we just run run our uh run our drum machines and stuff.

But you know, definitely, if we find somebody, they've gotta they've

gotta they gotta jibe with us. You know, we're all friends and it's

kind of a plus, you know that we all get along as good as

we do because but at the same time, it's a curse because we definitely

want somebody who can fit with us, you know, because we spend a

lot of time together and you know, it's just it makes sense, you

know, at the end of the day. Yeah, but it's it's great

that you have a project where you don't necessarily need a drummer. I mean,

if you're when you're doing something you know, heavy and aggressive, you

know, industrial is the one sort of zone of that where you can you

know, not necessarily have a drummer. And I know that. And this

seems to be universal because whether I talk to somebody from Dallas or whether somebody

from the local area up here or whomever it is, drummers seem to be

the hardest to find. They are. Yeah, they are different bands,

yes, twenty different bands. Yeah. Well I have a theory about that.

I think what happens is, you know, when you're growing up and

you want to start playing a musical instrument, when you have to go have

the conversation with your parents about, yeah, I want to play and here's

what I want to play. That and drums and maybe the tuba are the

two instruments where they're going to actively try to talk you out of. You

know, nobody wants you know, no, no parents want you know,

drums in their you know, unless they live in an area where there's no

neighbors. And you know what I mean so I that's my theory about why

drummers are in such high demand and there seems to be so few of them.

Oh yeah, it's definitely been a challenge, uh you know, and

uh we we've tried a few different guys out and it's just styles it and

match and stuff of that, nettor. So yeah, we're not actively looking

for anybody. We personally feel that the right person will come our way and

we'll just know, you know. And then when it comes to bass,

Vinnie Steel, our bass player, that guy is he is a show in

himself. Even if we didn't play, you can do there with him and

his bass and it would be a show and people would pay to play to

see it. Oh no kidding. Oh yeah, he's a he's are on

stage and he comes from the hardcore scene too, so he'll be it's hardcore

dancing and throwing his bass around and he's something to see for sure. He

can play that bass. Like our one song, Heartworm will be playing it.

He will punch the notes in literally punch his guitar and still keep playing

the song. Wow. Well, I I'm a bass player myself, so

I have to tell you I really admire that I'll have to. Are there

videos online, like on YouTube? Are the videos of you guys playing live?

Yes, yes, we do have. It's a Swarm Underscore dt X

okay, and yeah we have. We have a lot of live videos up,

some actual full shows of us even I'm gonna we're on uh we're on

Facebook, We're on Instagram, and we're on good old TikTok okay. Very

good. So I'm curious too about the name. Uh where does the name

come from? And why is it in all caps? And is there any

particular significance to that. So when I originally started this project, it didn't

have a name, and I just kind of I kind of quickly just like

I wanted something that fit the sound, you know, and I did like

a lot of grainy sense that kind of reminded me of like insects buzzing and

stuff. So that was kind of like the whole like aspect of it.

And then like you know, a lot of my songs are like, you

know, anti government, anti this and anti that, sus like we swarm

you know this stuff, and uh, you know, it's like I don't

know, it just kind of fit. And as far as the all caps

is concerned. I think that's just the way the logo shaped up. It's

really not in all caps. But it's be honest with you, that's never

been discussed before you vot. You've opened a new a new discussion. Okay,

okay, Yeah, it's not abbreviations or anything like that. Yeah,

it's funny. Yeah, it's funny because there's some bands too that, for

whatever reason, just gets spelled in all caps for no apparent reason. Like

I'm a I'm a Kiss fan. My favorite band is Kiss, but you'll

often see Kiss written in all caps even though it doesn't stand for anything.

Or Rush is another example. You'll often see Rush written in all caps for

no apparent reason. It's just people just write it that way. You know.

It's kind of funny. Yeah, I mean definitely the way that our

logo is drawn. Yeah, it's it's an all casts, which I designed

it myself, so I might have a lot to do with it. Yeah,

yeah, no, it makes sense. Now, what about the live

show, because obviously the music that you're doing and this style it lends itself

to I mean, do you have any kind of production going on or any

kind of stage effects, or maybe you don't need that with your bass player

who's apparently very energetic on stage, but I mean does anything like do you

have like a projection screen or anything like that. So we are very like

we have some of the best venues here in DFW and and most of them

like offer like full light shows and everything back and yeah, we've got it.

Like if you if you have, if you ever are in town,

check out Haltam Theater like I I recommend it, and you got to get

a hot dog while you're there. But it's, uh, it's a great

place. And you know, as far as we've been spoiled, like I'm

not even gonna lie. We started off our old drummer. When we had

our drummer, he had a lot of lighting rigs and lasers and it was

cool looking, but we kind of we kind of let that go because you

know, setting all that stuff up on the shows, you only got so

much time on stage, you know, and we never really sat down and

perfected that aspect of it. So we we've been kind of running bare bones.

But uh, it's definitely stuff that we've been talking about adding, Like

we just recently I started incorporating a mask on certain songs that I wear yeah,

you know, it just fits to songs and h we have a song

called Heartworm where I wear it and stuff. So we're definitely getting to the

point where we are about to start investing a little bit more in the in

the actual scenery on stage and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. One thing we

do is like I move around a lot, and Jermaine Bloody he's in the

back of the sense he moves around a lot too. He is constantly moving,

and Vince is constantly moving, and Parish is moving. It's there's a

lot going on on stage even without the lighting. Yeah, but like Parish

was saying, we're gonna start adding those some banners because I don't use an

AMP. I actually plug in directly with an AMP modeler that up. I

could be on stage in two minutes or less. Plug in XLR. Done

same thing with Vinnie Steele. You know, I'll bet other bands that you

play with love you for that too. That and the lack of a drummer.

I bet other bands that you play with love you for that, because

I just know from my own experience, like there's nothing worse then you know,

waiting for you know, when you got a bunch of bands on a

show, and I also used to promote a lot of shows, and it's

like, there's nothing worse than when you're waiting for bands to set up and

they're taking forever. Even worse when like if you're following a band and you're

waiting to get on stage and they're taking forever to break everything down. But

it sounds like you guys must be super efficient with that. I would imagine

with the way that you you approach your setup. Oh yeah, about eight

minutes the whole band, No kidding, Now, we do take the gum

riser up though. We put Jermaine up there and he has his whole sense

station set up and everything. Yeah, it's it's pretty incredible. I don't

know if you've ever seen Skinny Puppy live, but it's kind of, you

know, like Kevin Keyes has a setup. You know, it's monstrous.

You know. I got to see their last show, which was also my

first time seeing them, and it was sonice to see his rig up there,

you know, and uh, that's kind of how we run. He

has his he has this big setup up there. You know, he kind

of overtowers us. He's just back their head and just throwing so much energy

out into the crowd. It's unreal. Oh, that's cool. That's cool.

Do you guys have any music videos? Have you made any videos that

you've posted other than you know, you mentioned those live performances, but but

have you produced any videos. We have not yet. We're actually about to

start getting into that. We have a song called Heartworm that were you know,

when Heartworm was originally written, it was with a lot of different members

besides me and Billy. So we're gonna amp that song and we're gonna be

releasing a new EP with that and a couple of other new songs on it

and a cover of Limp Biscuits Break Stuff. Oh that's cool. I was

gonna it. Used to be in a band that we would cover that song.

Yeah, you added my name, Parish, do what you said?

Billy? You added me? Oh no, that's sorry. Oops, it's

okay. Everybody knows me. It's not a big deal. Yeah, yeah,

there you go, there you go. Break Stuff is a fun song

to play. I was in a band called the jinkst and we used to

cover that song and Uh, our our singer, uh Rhino, he would

like turn purple during the you know, the breakdown part. He would he

would get so intense and and like much more intense than Fred Durst ever did

from what I've seen. I mean, Ryan would he would just turn red

like he was so into it. That's a fun song. We joked about

it for the longest because you know, we play with a lot of metal

bands, and you know, everybody everybody wants to, you know, talk

smack about Limp Biscuit and not take him seriously and stuff. And I was

like, man, I don't care. I grew up listening no all different

music, and I I mean when I was at when you're at a party,

you know, and you're in your young teens back then, you know,

you you partied your butt offlessly in the Limp Biscuit and everybody did.

So we joked doing it as a cover for the longest and we unveiled it

at it like an All Metals so the first time we ever did it,

and people absolutely lost their mind, Like I especially when it when it pauses

and it goes to give me something to break part hopping. I was like,

Yeah, we're gonna be doing this song for a while now that we

have full video of that on our TikTok. The full version of that and

you can even me. My wife tried to start and watching a bit during

it. It was great. That's great. You guys do any other any

other covers in this project? Uh? We do. We try to.

We try to incorporate one cover into our every live set we do. So

we have a we have a cover of Heresy by nine and Nails that we

play and it's like really heavy and uh I got the double bass in it

and everything. And we're working on a cover of uh urmy Loose by lover

Boy. Actually that's fun. I like that. All right, all right,

very cool, very cool. Where do you guys record, because there's

so many different ways to record music now? Uh? I actually believe it

or not. I handle all the recording at home. Our our next EP

is gonna actually be the first studio like in a like actual studio setting.

I'm gonna I'm gonna have an audio engineer do all the mixing and mastering because

I know a lot I hate doing mixing and mastering. Yeah, so we're

gonna we're gonna just gonna We're gonna outsource it this go around and get everything

nice and polished up and do actual physicals of it and everything which we'll have

available on our website. I'd expect it to be complete, probably or towards

twenty twenty five. Okay, okay, so you're gonna you say physical,

so you're gonna actually put it out on a CD as well? Yeah,

yeah, yeah, CD, probably cassettes available. Cassettes okay, yeah.

Interesting. You know, it's been a topic of discussion on the show for

a long time. I remember it must have been five or six years ago,

maybe longer. I was on band camp looking for uh, looking for

bands and band camp dot com, and I still remember vividly the moment where

I saw that there were artists in this area who were putting out things on

cassette, And the first one I stumbled upon, I was like, is

this a Is this real? And I realized there were a bunch of artists

doing it, and I was like, oh my god, cassettes are back.

I never saw that coming. Yeah, yeah, but that actually comes

from your younger audience. So I go to a lot of punk shows and

a lot of like, you know, more obscure shows, and that's kind

of where you'll see the cassette tape set. Yeah. Oh, and I

was shocked the first time on when I went to this venue called Kiki's House,

and uh, there was an industrial group from California called the Diesel Dudes

play and then they had cassette tapes and I was like, what is this?

And so I had to buy one, you know. Yeah, you

know, I listened to it regularly, like it's it's definitely a regular play

for me. That's wild. When you when you got that cassette, did

you did you have something to play it on or did you have to get

something to play it out? I had to go. I went to a

thrift store and bought like an old ghetto blaster. Yeah, that's what I've

did. Use it. Oh, don't let him kid you. He's got

a Hello kiddy one nice. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah, it's it's

interesting how one of the things that I find interesting about just getting older is

is seeing over time what you know, how these things change and what goes

away and what remains. And sometimes what you think is going to go away

or did go away, ends up coming back. And sometimes things that you

thought would never go away do go away, you know, in terms of

technology, and you know, I used to work for I left there in

twenty thirteen. I used to work for a national chain that's old CDs,

and and I remember everybody talking about even back then, you know, any

day now CDs are just going to be gone. There's gonna be no more

CDs. But even today, you know, here it is twenty twenty four,

people still buy CDs. You know, people still want physical media.

I mean it's a lot less than it used to be, but you know

people still buy it. Me personally, I'm at a show. If I

hear a new band that I really want as an artist, I understand that

you know, these are these guys aren't making you know, big money off

of these Spotify streams. You know makes so much money off Spotify, so

thanks to me. Well, I feel the ultimate compliment that you can give

an artists when you see them live is actually purchasing their music from them,

because you're you're paying them way more for an album than what you know Spotify

has given them. And you got to have like a memory there in your

hand, you know, you can pull it up and be like, man,

I remember when I bought this. That was a cool show. Those

guys are great, you know. Yeah. I have a whole CD collection

at my house and it's nothing but local music and DFW bands. And you

know, I've always try to pick up a you know, my favorite band's

new release and stuff when they dropped something new and whatnot. You know,

No, that's great. No, I commend you for that. And and

that's such an important point that you brought up about, you know, if

you're going to support local artists, you know, yeah, buy their stuff

because yeah, uh Spotify streams. In fact, Spotify you guys probably know

this already, but I guess recently they've changed it so now if you're under

a certain threshold, they're just not going to pay you anything. And granted

it was only pennies anyway, but you know, so it's it's so important

to support local music. Yeah. Anyway, the only thing that saved us

is we have a remix out by Xavier from Three Teeth, another well known

industrial metal BANDA and that's that's kind of been the only thing pushing us is

that we have that out there. So it's definitely been a blessing. How

did that come about? Interesting story? Actually I met him in a chat

that wasn't even related to their band. I didn't even know about their band.

It was access virus form which is a synthesizer I use and uh we

we comment. I commented on a post of his because he had showed a

picture of his rig, and I asked him a couple of questions about his

sense because I was still learning it. He gave me some real good,

uh information on it and everything, and we just kind of started, you

know, talking back and forth, and uh, you know, he told

me he was in a band and I was like really and he told me.

I was like, yeah, we're doing pretty good. And uh he

sent me a copy for music and I was like wow. And for me,

that was the thing that really got me to want to do industrial with

those guys. And so when we started kind of getting a little bit more

traction, I was like, man, let's get a remix done. And

I was nervous. I wrote him and I was like, hey, man,

uh, you want to do a remix for us, you know,

and uh, I was surprised. He told me he would do it,

and you know it, Uh it was pretty cool actually, you know,

like he made a club remix. It was great. Oh wow, Yeah

that's fantastic. Yeah, good, good for you guys. That's great.

So what's kind of the trajectory you've got are you? Do you have anything

coming up as far as new music. Obviously we're going to play another track

in a moment, But what should we know about what does the future hold

for you guys in the short term or the long term. We do have

coming up. We definitely do have new music coming up. We got some

things in the pipe right now. We've recorded and that's gonna be coming soon.

Excellent, excellent out there looking for that street Sweeper song and we released

it. It's it's gonna be a heavy one too, very cool. Well,

please send it to us when it's ready to you know, we'll play

it here and we'll definitely have to have you guys back. I love what

you're doing. Like I said, I feel like there's not enough industrial metal

and it's the stuff is great. I really love it. I really love

it. And what should people know about how to find you guys online?

To keep up with everything that you're doing. Oh Billy handle that way.

He's the social media googur Well keep going our website ww dot swarmdtx dot com.

You can see all our shows on there. We have pictures, we

had Spotify to go to. We also have Facebook, just put in Swarm

Dallas. You'll find us okay, running ram Swarm Underscore dt X on Instagram

and on Facebook. We are official Swarm band on TikTok that's you. Just

put that in and we'll pop up. Excellent, excellent. Uh what what

is the significance of dt X? By the way, I have a feeling

das for Dallas, but it is okay. Yeah, And if any of

y'all in Dallas, Texas next weekend, we're playing a really awesome show.

We're gonna be playing Bulgerfest at Halton Theater with our friends and Vivid and Bulger

and Manifestive Boris. It's gonna be a really good show. Hey, y'all

should definitely come out very cool, very cool. And uh, thank you

both so much, Perish and Bats. This has been great. I really

enjoy talking with you guys. Like I said, I love your music.

We're gonna we're gonna end this track with this track tradition. Anything we should

know about this song. I do like the title, so yeah, this

song was actually written. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say no names,

but okay, if you if anyone's ever been in a relationship with a narcissist.

It's it's kind of about getting away from that and just you know,

you know how much they can just drag you down, you know, and

that's kind of what the song's about basically. Okay, well it's relatable.

You know, everyone's been in that situation at one point or another. So

so great. So we're gonna give this a listen. Guys, Thank you

so much. Really, I really loved having you on the show. And

you've got new music coming so we will definitely do this again in the not

too distant future. But and we're gonna play this track. But I really

appreciate you guys joining us today. Thank you both so much. Oh,

thank you for having us. Yes, absolutely all right, Thanks guys,

take care you too, Thank you, thank you. You got it all

right. That was Parish and Billy. I'm sorry Parish and Bats. I

see now I'm doing it from the band Swarm and check this out. We're

gonna listen to this and then we're gonna come back, and uh, we've

got a little bit more show to go, so I've got one last thing

to share with you all today afterward, But give this a spin. Give

this a listen. I'm gonna give it a spin, you give it a

listen. This is called Tradition and the band is Swarm

Game Plan