Sticking to home turf for today’s Band of the Day, we have London (ish – it’s down south, innit?) lads A Room Swept White…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are from the Crawley area, a town between London and Brighton.
How did you meet?
Long story really. In our very early days we switched through many members. That being said myself and James were the only ones that stuck about. Shortly after, my old schoolmate Ryan joined. After a while of going through a few members, James and Michael settled in the band for a good few years. We have recently split ways with them on good terms.
How long have you been playing as a band?
If we’re talking about when we started to take things serious, it’s been about 5 years, but the last year or so we lost James and Michael and so we decided to take time out to put all our time into writing our new album. Therefore we were pretty much not a band to the public. It’s only recently we have been stepping back out into the light.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Yeah, we get this a lot! It’s actually the name of a book, but we haven’t a clue what the book is about, just liked the name. It was different to all the other names out there.
What are your influences?
We have a broad taste in music but we’d say we take influences from band like WSS, Architects to even bands like Dream Theater and Periphery. James, our drummer, is a fan of Gavin Harrison from Porcupine Tree, so a lot of his drumming is inspired him.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Aggressive, quarrelsome shards of sound beautifully wrapped in a velvet sheet of atmospheric wonderfulness. Topped off with some blokes shouting.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Yeah, basically moaning about how awful it is that a lot people give in to a system that is designed to shatter any sort of dream they have, and about how we’re programming generation after generation to value success by the the digital numbers that sit in their bank about.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Lovely music. Lovely vibes. We have played hundreds of shows all over the country.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
We don’t really do many crazy things like climb things or hang upside down from the lighting truss so I guess the wildest thing would be when Alex smashed the headstock of his guitar into Ryan’s face.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Drums: Shine kit, Sabian cymbals, Pearl & DW hardware, Vic Firth sticks
Alex guitar: Ibanez, with a Kemper power head, orange close back 412.
Ryan: Sennheiser mics
What are your plans for 2018?
Supporting regular touring bands. More tours, even more tours. Few festivals. Support even more awesome bands. We will go out on a few headliners but you’ll catch us supporting a few bigger acts later this year.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
We have made so many friends on the road but I’d say support Architects and have pals Vanity open.
A Room Swept White: facebook | twitter | instagram | bandcamp | youtube
