COVER STORY .

After the Fire

The Swimmers


	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: Mar 7, 2007

Photo By: Michael T. Regan

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Read Michael T. Regan's commentary

Most people would not be happy to watch their piano and their house go up in flames. But the main character in The Swimmers' song "All the New Sounds" is at peace, almost grateful when it happens: "You awoke to a crash late last night that began the slow collapse/ A hole in your roof, the piano in ruins and the flames never felt so good." Meanwhile, a strong wind fans the fire and carries some unnamed "new sounds" through the air.

If you're familiar with The Swimmers, it's not hard to guess who that guy is, smiling as his old house burns down. Frontman Steve Yutzy-Burkey said goodbye to his longtime rootsy Americana band One Star Hotel in 2005, and with his new one, has shifted to poppy, catchy indie rock.

After One Star split, Yutzy-Burkey became wary of again devoting so much energy to something that could crumble around him. That's why his "new sounds" were only shared with his closest friends: Rick Sieber, his former bassist; Krista, his wife and a keyboardist; and Scott French, an old buddy and drummer. (Pictured, clockwise from left: Steve, Scott, Krista and Rick.)

And when they began playing together, "It didn't start out as being very serious," Steve says. "But the reaction to the first three songs was far better than we'd hoped."

The sonic pallet leaned toward '60s pop, but was expanded to a less era-specific brand of indie rock, somewhere between The New Pornographers and Paul Westerberg. But while the melodies are playful, even whimsical, Steve's somber, reflective musings are always lurking nearby.

That guy in "New Sounds" rushes from his smoldering house into town, invigorated by the song on the wind, ready to share it with everybody. The conceit is a public/private thing, says Steve, the way he first kept his new songs to himself after his old band burned out, and then later found himself wanting to share them.

The band takes its name from John Cheever's 1964 short story "The Swimmer," wherein the main character, drunk at a suburban pool party, decides to swim to his house via the backyard pools in his neighborhood. But when he reaches his destination, he finds that everything's changed, his family is gone, the world has moved on.

Though not quite as surreal, the head-bobbing "Heaven" also explores Cheever's "you can't go home again" theme. Guided by a staccato piano bounce, our narrator arrives in Steve's hometown of Lancaster twice: The first time to a warm reception from friends, and the second to find everything familiar gone ("All our favorite bands gave up the ghost/ And scattered with the friends we loved the most").

"During college, more of what I thought of as Lancaster was still there," Steve recalls. "That got to be less and less over the years."

He's not exactly pining for lost Lancaster, though, and Krista adds that most of their tight-knit group of friends has also moved to Philly over the years. "The changes that happen around you are out of your control," Steve says. "You don't realize [the difference] until you return home."