Sierra Swan has been one of my preferred voices to listen to for a long, long time. My journey began about twenty years ago (TWENTY YEARS!) when I first picked up the Cold record ’13 Ways to Bleed on Stage’.
To this day I still listen to that album with complete concentration but the first song I ever heard was the killer track, ‘No One’. I specifically remember saying to myself, “who is that singing along with Scooter Ward??”
Sierra had the perfect harmony voice and I felt like I was hearing something extra-special. She had this Grace Slick-like quality to her sound and I couldn’t get enough.
I’ve been a fan ever since.
Swan has continued to release music and is back with a new record – Tangerines. This six-song EP stretches her eclectic and diverse catalog even further. It has moments of melodic movements as well as the power of the 808. You can get a good taste of these elements on a song like, ‘In the Long Run’, which is my personal favorite.
The album also includes a song written by Billy Corgan, whom she tours with when the Smashing Pumpkins are playing shows to packed houses all across the world. ‘Peaches’, the last song on the EP is a haunting and brilliant piece of music.
When I spoke with Swan, we talked in depth about ‘Peaches’ and the writing process for the lead single, ‘I Want All Of My Shit Back’.
Swan tells me, “I always remember how it began. A lot of songs I don’t, but that song I remember well. I was sitting in my living room and I messing around with my drum machine. This old drum machine that my Dad (Billy Swan) had, actually, that I loved.. so I took it. :laughs: I was just messing around with the headphones and I came up with this beat and I was like, God, I really like that. I’d better go record that right now or else I’m going to forget it.”
Swan continues, “I went downstairs and programmed a beat then programmed another beat over it and I was just really into the vibe. Then I started messing with my effects for the beat because I knew I didn’t want it to sound like it was coming off of the machine. I wanted to add some plug-ins and see how big I could get this very small beat. And I got it to this really fantastic sonic sound. And honestly, right when that kind of sound happened, I just immediately went.. I want all of my shit back. It just came real easy.”
She also elaborates on how she was at a point her life where she was over, thinking too hard about music and just wanting to have more fun with it. It’s evident on the tracks on ‘Tangerines’. There’s playful sections to compliment some deeper and sometimes somber moments during the record. Oh and there are those harmonies that provide the listener with some great payoffs especially when listening in a good pair of headphones. I highly recommend this method when listening to ‘Tangerines’.
I asked Sierra about the outro-track – ‘Peaches’ and how this song, written by Billy Corgan, was to be included. Swan says, “I was at the tail end of it and I just couldn’t find a song that I was liking and I knew that I needed six. So, on a whim I texted him and said, do you have any songs lying around that you’d let me have? And I wasn’t really expecting him to say yes but he was like, actually there is one that we didn’t put on, one of his solo records that Rick Rubin had produced called, ‘Ogilala’.”
Swan continues, “So they didn’t use the track and he found it and sent it to me and I was floored on how beautiful it was. I think I even texted him, are you sure you would let me have this? It’s really pretty.” And he said, “yeah!” I said, do you have any preference of how you want me to produce it? He said, “No, I totally trust you.” Which is amazing.”
As Sierra said that I was thinking the same exact this. Amazing.
You can hear my entire conversation with Sierra Swan by clicking on the link to your favorite place to listen to podcasts.
-Tommy Marz
You can find Tommy on Twitter
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