Sechs Jahre nach Negative Space melden sich Swain mit ihrem neuen Album Infinite Child zurück – einer kraftvollen, introspektiven Auseinandersetzung mit Identität, Veränderung und der Suche nach kindlicher Unbefangenheit. Im Gespräch mit Frontstage erzählt Sänger und Gitarrist Rob von der neu gewonnenen kreativen Freiheit, der intensiven Arbeit mit Produzentenlegende J. Robbins und davon, wie alte Sprachmemos, Kindheitserinnerungen und Pandemie-Erfahrungen den Sound und die Themen des Albums geprägt haben. Das Resultat: ein Werk, das sowohl größer und vielschichtiger klingt als je zuvor, dabei aber seine rohe, ungeschönte Energie bewahrt.
Frontstage: “Infinite Child” is finally out — congrats! If this album were a snapshot in time, where would you say Swain are right now?
Swain/Rob: Thanks! Almost 6 years has passed since our previous album Negative Space. A lot of things have changed, everyone went through Covid, everyone got older. There’s been a lot of space to reflect back, and a lot of time to distance ourselves from the band and to ask: who are we really? With Infinite Child we had the opportunity to approach the writing process with a certain disconnect from the past, and a freedom to step away from a preconceived notion of how we could express ourselves. Because of that, I think this album is the most authentic and pressure-free piece of music we ever wrote.
Frontstage: There’s a real sense of personal weight to these songs. How much of yourselves did you actually put into this record?
Swain/Rob: How does one not put everything they have into an album? Doing anything other than that is a waste of time. We’ve never been an entertainment act, we write to express ourselves. If you cannot be authentic in your writing, how can you be authentic in life?
Frontstage: You worked with J. Robbins again — clearly a strong creative connection there. What does he bring to the table that feels essential for a Swain record?
Swain/Rob: It’s always a joy to work with J. We have a very complimentary approach to songwriting and with the 20 days that we had in the studio there was plenty of time to dissect the music and work on the production. There’s nothing more enjoyable than to sit in the live room with him while figuring out a harmony or key change that ends up changing the entire vibe of the song. And honestly he just always manages to get the best out of us. The way he listens during a recording and essentially guards the quality of the album has been instrumental to every album we recorded with him. Even after days of studio time and at the final hour of the day, he’s still there making sure we got the best take we could get on tape.
Frontstage: The sound feels bigger, more layered — but still raw. Was that an intentional shift, or something that just happened naturally?
Swain/Rob: There were definitely some intentional changes. This is the first album we ended up mixing ourselves. I always believed that the mixing process is as creative as the recording process, and one could say I like to edit while I write. Mixing this thing at home allowed for additional layers to be added later, recordings to be modified and sampled, and generally allowed us to have more creative control over the final output. I’ve had the chance of producing a ton of music privately during Covid, and I wanted to take the opportunity to take that experience into Swain’s creative process, from the early writing process all the way to the moment where you send out the album for mastering.
Frontstage: A track like “Sugarblind” hits differently than something like “Comedown.” How do you think about contrast and flow when you’re shaping an album?
Swain/Rob: We started out with a bunch of old recordings, demos and voice memos from the last decade, took those and turned them into proper tracks from April till October in 2023 as well as write a bunch from scratch. Once we had a decent amount of tracks roughly worked out we kinda started having a sense of where this thing was going and we started thinking about the dynamics and flow of the album. We cut and added a few tracks to make it feel whole and then spent the entire time in the studio recording and connecting the pieces. This has generally been the preferred approach for us ever since Howl, it feels better and makes more sense to us when the tracks flow into each other and the entire piece is a coherent experience that takes you through unexpected turns. The best albums are the ones you keep listening to and discover new secrets and connections in our oppinion.
Frontstage: The title track feels like the emotional core of the record. Can you walk us through how “Infinite Child” came together?
Swain/Rob: This one started from a voice memo from a couple years back. Just the opening guitars with the vocal line. Around this time I received a big old box with my childhood memorabilia. Old photos, diaries, and a really old poem I wrote at 9 which I later disussed intensely with my psycho-analyst. This started the process of thinking about the thematic concept of the album and the title track at the center of it. Over the years I’ve been looking back as if in search to find that part of my childlike self that was still naive, fearlessly authentic, non-judgemental and infinitely inspired by the world around him. Taking this element of my former self and rediscovering it in my adult life has been the main thing on my mind for some time now. The album is an expression of that quest.
Frontstage: What do your live plans look like for the rest of the year?
Swain/Rob: While for the rest of 2025 we don’t have a lot planned because we’re all based in different countries right now, we have a lot more time in 2026. We’re working on some plans right now and hope to announce something soon.
Fotocredit: Noam Cohen
