This summer, well-loved St. John’s math rock/midwest emo trio Swimming embarked on a cross-country tour, aptly named ‘Swimming Across Canada.’
This tour was bigger than any of their previous excursions in Atlantic Canada and Ontario; instead, the band trekked through independent music scenes all the way to the Prairies, reaching as far West as Edmonton.
Ongoing from July-September with two short runs and a small break in between, Swimming kicked off the national tour in July with their annual show at charmingly dingy Mainlanders’ Pub in Little Catalina alongside emo band Customer Service from Halifax. Just a couple hours outside town, this show is an eccentric tradition of theirs that starts any tour off with goofy, good vibes.
Unexpected success with Old
Swimming’s tour follows the success of their second album, ‘Old,’ released in February earlier this year.
Since the songs on ‘Old’ had been workshopped for years, some band members felt it was a matter of getting the recording process out of the way to pursue new things, but to their surprise, the album has become a fan favourite. Nearly every subsequent show venue has been packed to the brim.
“It’s been actually surprisingly good,” said bassist Nick Hunt when asked about the record’s reception. “When we were doing this album, we were kind of just throwing whatever songs that we hadn’t recorded yet into it. It almost felt like…okay, this is going to be one that’s gonna come out… and then we’re gonna move forward.”
“We kind of already wrote it off a little bit in our heads … and then we put it out and people seemed to enjoy it, so it was kind of a pleasant surprise to be like, ‘okay, cool, people are still into this,’” Hunt said.
Anticipation & excitement for ‘Swimming Across Canada’
Though Swimming planned to visit some familiar cities, a nationwide tour is bound to bring any musician to places they’ve never visited before.
“I don’t even know what [the West Coast] looks like,” Hunt joked in a pre-tour interview. “I’m not googling a single thing, it’s gonna be a surprise.”
Cherwick, who was born in Edmonton and has family in Winnipeg, expressed excitement about visiting as an adult with his own project. “I haven’t been back much since I’ve lived in Newfoundland, so I’m excited to go back. This is the first time I’m going back with my own band… I’d like to see those places where I grew up through the lens of what I do now. I’m excited to see what the scene is like,” he said.
Swimming’s influence locally has established the band’s reputation as somewhat of a pillar of the St. John’s alternative music scene, so traversing the unfamiliar music scenes of other Canadian cities/towns was bound to be an intriguing experience.
One of Nick Hunt’s favourite things about going on tour, however, is being exposed to new music.
“Everyone struggles to find new music, even people who are into music,” he said. “Playing with all these other bands essentially forces you to listen to their music, but at the same time, you get to meet them and then form relationships with them. And then you can listen to this band later on and be like, well, they were awesome, and hopefully we can bring them here sometimes.”
The band placed a lot of faith in show organizers and festival board members from other scenes, which appears to have turned out quite well, as they played a plethora of venues with countless Canadian bands throughout their summer tour.
Avoiding the United States on tour
With a tumultuous government, mass deportation, and countless other dangers, it’s no wonder that any prospective traveler, including musicians planning a tour, would avoid our neighbors to the South.
Following President Trump’s re-election, many Canadian artists have canceled the US portions of their tours. Most notably, Montreal-based transgender musician Bells Larsen was forced to cancel his US tour dates after being refused a Visa due to his passport’s gender marker.
Though they initially toyed with the idea, Swimming deliberately decided to avoid the States on this tour, explaining that it “very quickly became not the vibe” in an Instagram post.
“We don’t belong to any type of marginalized group or anything,” Cherwick expanded on the band’s decision. “So it would be relatively safe going to the States if we tried to, but even for us, it would be a risk, so it’s pretty scary thinking about somebody who’s already at risk going and having to deal with that now.”
Hunt and Cherwick also discussed the headache of acquiring Visas for multi-national touring, and figured they were better off simply hitting as much of Canada as they could instead.
Success on tour
Swimming is a band that champions the power of DIY, entirely embodying the resourceful, community-oriented values of alternative/indie music. ‘Swimming Across Canada’ allowed other provinces to get a taste of Newfie emo, and the band got an intimate window into other unique music scenes across the country.
Landmarked by a first-time appearance at Toronto DIY-punk-fest New Friends, and ending off with a bang at Edmonton’s coveted Purple City music festival on September 6, Swimming’s biggest tour yet seems to have been a great success, hopefully paving the way for more up-and-coming Newfoundland bands to tour the country in the future.
