Swapmeet's debut album is named after a mountain range located between Adelaide and Melbourne.
Since they often passed the Mount Zero sign en route to Melbourne gigs, this landmark symbolised the band’s musical aspirations – their own Hollywood Sign, if you will.
All four Swapmeet members – Venus O’Broin, Maxwell Elphick, Jack Medlyn and Josh Doherty – are vocalists, songwriters and multi-instrumentalists. As such, much instrument swapping went down while creating Mount Zero, for which the foursome also shared production duties.
Swapmeet approach their music-making with abandon. Defying conventional song structures is in the band’s DNA. They’re no strangers to loud-quiet-loud dynamics, either. You better brace yourselves for that burst of riffage in the many-songs-in-one title track.
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During the standout, singsongy I Know!, riff melodies artfully echo vocal lines. “I drove all night to see you” – 2 C U throws caution out the car window to foster a connection. Then abrasive guitar noise kicks in like a dopamine injection.
Action unfolds in real time during Bonnie: “Act like you’ve got somewhere to go/ Promised you would come to the show/ I know you know I know you won’t” – a well-rehearsed avoidance dance between longtime friends.
“Why don’t you like me?/ Why don’t you care?” – bottled-up unrequited love crashes out in Seeds, with brazen distortion that dials up the drama.
Bold guitar figures, “crumbs in your pocket”, all-consuming romantic fixations – Swapmeet’s audio footprint is unforgettable.
Label: Winspear · Release: 17 July
