Released last March, I Wasn’t Born to Lose You arrived seven years after the initial reunion of vocalist/guitarist Adam Franklin, guitarist Jimmy Hartridge and bassist Steve George (with current drummer Mikey Jones entering the picture in 2011). Franklin’s been pleasantly surprised by the impact of the album, especially considering his preliminary reluctance to add anything to the Swervedriver catalogue.
“[When we got back together] everyone was doing other things and there wasn’t really time to think about putting our minds to a Swervedriver album,” he says. “But then when we finally did and we’ve come up with this album – which we’re very proud of – we think it’s a great record, so now it seems quite strange to think that we didn’t do it earlier.”
Swervedriver’s previous LP, 99th Dream, was released at the beginning of 1998. It was their fourth album and the culmination of decade’s work. Then, after six months on the road, the band members decided to go their separate ways. Franklin stayed visible in the ensuing years, making albums with Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody, Toshack Highway and Magnetic Morning. 2005 saw the release of the Swervedriver retrospective compilation, Juggernaut Rides ’89-’98, which helped to spark the band’s enthusiasm and attract plenty of new listeners.
“At our shows now there’s certainly the older people that were there back in the day, but also clearly younger kids who weren’t there the first time around,” Franklin says.
When making I Wasn’t Born to Lose You, Franklin was mindful of the expectations of their expanded audience base. “It was obvious that we couldn’t go off and do a completely left field album. But on the one hand, it’s the natural sound of Swervedriver anyway, so it’s always going to sound the way it does. But I suppose we could’ve been experimenting with synthesizers or something, but [it] would’ve been ridiculous to come back with something that wasn’t the Swervedriver sound.”
The new album was recorded in the midst of the Raise tour, which had the band performing their 1991 debut LP in its entirety. Revisiting this album encouraged Franklin to reacquaint himself with many of the band’s formative influences.
“[The first album] was when the first excitement about formulating the ideas and even the name of the band and the artwork and the song titles… It all coalesced into this one thing. I was listening to some music that I had been listening to when we first formed and re-reading things like Love and Rockets, the comic book that used to inspire me lyrically and just generally.”
A lot has changed in the world of rock music since 1991. Raise was released via Creation Records, a cult-like UK label that was also home to The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine (and later Oasis). However, despite the impacts of changing technology and trends, Franklin doesn’t see much of a shift in the fundamentals of album making.
“People say these days that artists don’t think in terms of albums, but I think most artists probably still do. Perhaps it’s just artists of a certain age, but you think of an album as a whole piece of art in itself.
“The week the album came out there were people tweeting things, one of which was somebody saying, ‘Hey I’ve just discovered this new band. They’re called Swervedriver.’ It appeared to be a teenager, and that’s great. I think [the album] definitely does stand alone and I think it’s my favourite album of the lot.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
