Band: Swear Down
From: Kent, England
Their formation story:
(Martin, vocals): "We started out because our drummer Rich had just moved to Kent (South East England) from Hong Kong and started working in the same tattoo shop as me (shout out Made You Look Tattoo, Maidstone). He asked if there were any practice rooms in the local area and after a short conversation we decided to start a band.
"Rich is originally from South Africa and was in Crossing Point playing drums and backing vocals. We got Mez in on guitar as we had seen him attending shows since he was sixteen and he wanted to join his first band. Robin came in on Bass to help us out as he was playing guitar in his band Wolfsblood (RIP) as our original bassist moved to Utah in the US.
"Robin wanted to play second guitar so after a year of just the four of us we got Luke in who was in Pupil Slicer and plays bass in a bunch of other bands with different sounds."
Their sound in their own words:
"We would describe our sound as a cross of Krishnacore, with a lot of beatdown thrown in. I’m the only practising Hindu in the band but from the very first practice we all agreed on playing beatdown with lyrics that would be heavily about Hinduism and Shiva as well as lyrics about working class life and left wing politics. If we had to pick some bands that influence us it would be Bulldoze, Denied and lyrically like Shelter.
"Amusingly, our new song is called 'Violence' and it’s about how violence isn't the answer if you do it with hate in your heart. In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna talks about why the battle that’s about to happen is actually fine as long as you don’t kill or hurt the enemy with hate in your heart. So we love violent shows because with all the moshing, it isn’t done on purpose or with hate it’s just a necessary part of the scene I think."
Latest release info:
"Our demo came out in October 2024 but we’re looking to record an EP in June this year. With us being a 5 piece now we’re hoping to sound much bigger than the demo, and with plenty of shows under our belt at this time we are firing on all cylinders and sounding tighter than ever. We’re trying to make music for the people who love to mosh and crowd kill as we like that ourselves.
"I don’t want the lyrics to come across too preachy but in the immortal words of Guru from Gang Starr 'there’s always a message involved.' We consider ourselves to be a live band first and foremost because that's where we want to give as much back to the hardcore scene as we can. However, we want our music to sound as powerful on track as our live performances so we will take every step to commit our live energy to the tracks."
Future plans:
"We’ve got some shows coming up in Newport (Wales), Southampton, Ashford and Tunbridge Wells (all of which are in the South East of England) but we’re really excited to be playing a beatdown fest in Germany in September. That hasn’t been fully announced yet so I can’t say too much about it but if anyone on the beautiful continent of Europe wants to put us on a show on Friday 26th September we will be knocking around doing nothing, plus we voted to remain so we love Europe so don't hold that against us!
"Other than that, we are simply taking on as many bookings for shows as possible, because we are always ready and willing to play. Throw into that the recording and we are hoping that 2025 can be our busiest and most productive year to date."
What other bands from their region should we check out?
"We’re so thankful that the South East of England scene is really strong at the moment. I live in Maidstone, Kent and there was a period where there were no hardcore shows, that was until Harry Kavanagh (vocalist of Mindless) and Dan Brennan (bassist in Mindless and owner of Moral Quandry Records) started Blood Soaked Style. Since then we've been getting shows in Ashford and Folkestone by VaeVictus and NewYouth Collective.
"The best bands in our area, and I really really highly recommend you listen to them are Freeze, Mindless, Convulsion, Warden, Sorg, Locust, and Acid State. It’s great that so many young kids are starting bands in our local scene. We’re really grateful to everyone who listens to us, comes to shows, buys our merch and just moshes to us. Praise Shiva, No Cowards allowed."
Swear Down on social media: Instagram
Tagged: swear down
