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Steve Swaby is the lead singer and guitarist of the popular Wirral band Refrain. He discusses Refrain's formation among friends who discovered they played instruments. Their inspirations include Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Swaby also writes lyrics and finds songwriting challenging but rewarding. Both Refrain and Swaby's solo work keep him busy, as he balances the bands, solo performances, and school. While some see talent early, Swaby worked hard at guitar and piano over years of practice. His solo work differs from Refrain in having an upbeat, pop dance sound without drums.
Article write up
- 1. Seeking the lime light Steve Swaby joins us for a live exclusive interview about his solo work, his future and his musical inspiration. Steve Swaby, lead singer and guitarist of one of Wirral‟s most popular band Refrain talks to Rogue about his music inspiration and his solo work he‟s now working on. Refrain began when friends Steve Swaby, KaanCengiz, Pete McDonald, Jake Byrne-Smith all discovered they played musical instruments and decided to play a few songs together and thought it would be great to form a band. “We were looking on the internet for like musical terms and we came across Refrain and we were like „wow that really stands out‟” and the band Refrain were formed. Refrains musical inspirations are bands like Rage against the machine and the red hot chilli peppers. On their webpage http://www.reverbnation.com/refrainband it states that their music most sounds like Muse, Biffy Clyro and The Smashing Pumpkins. Steve takes the role of lyricist “I sort of look at Danny Jones from McFly he‟s such an inspiration to me.” When asked about if he finds writing songs difficult he replies “At times, yes but others, no, You can drop back into repetitive situations so it‟s trying to find something new to do that can slave a challenge but once you get it going it‟s really easy.” Refrain perform a lot in Liverpools O2 academy so check out on the website for their tickets which cost around £4-6. Steve claims the best gig he has ever done was his second O2 headline “We took out topless, we just thought we‟d mix it up a bit. It just went really well, it was hilarious, it was really fun.” And it‟s up to the audience whether the gig goes well as seeing the audience can be a confidence booster. “You go on stage and you proper shake and think „will they enjoy it?‟ and once you go on stage and see like a few people smile and laugh and have a good time it really does lighten up your night, it‟s good.” However Steve has big plans for Refrain his plans for over the next year is for them to branch out to Leeds and Manchester hoping to gain more fans for his planned future of “big fame”. As well as branching out with Refrain, Swaby is planning to also perform in pubs and clubs with his solo work. Steves advice for aspiring singers/bands would be to find something you enjoy and work really hard and it‟ll come. And Steve definitely works hard when talking about how he fits all of his work in his busy schedule he states that refrain and his solo work is his main priority “It (my schedule) is very unbalanced; it‟s like Refrain, solo work, social life, school. School takes up about an hour each weekend so it‟s not very good.” Music is obviously Swaby‟s talent in life but when asked about when he realised he had talent he said “I wouldn‟t say I have talent; I like to think I have talent. At a young age singing in the shower is always the one everyone decides like “oh yeah, I‟ve got talent” and yeah, it just sort of blossomed from there. My dad used to teach me guitar, and I just taken it on from there.” As well as being taught guitar by his dad, he tells Rogue his first instrument he learnt to play was the piano “my sister used to play piano and we had a piano in the back rooms we used to go in there and mess about with it for a while and then I‟ve just like years and years of practice has gone into it”. One of the most striking things about meeting Swaby was him talking about his solo work, he describes the sound as “upbeat and poppy” relating more to the genre Dance music than Rock. It seems that Swaby shows hard work and variety could get his dream wish to „big fame‟. When talking about how his solo work differs from his Refrain music he tells Rogue “Obviously it‟s just me so it‟s completely stripped so there are no drums or anything like that. Right now I‟ve got a mixing desk at home so I‟m like working out a load of beats. It‟s more like dance music than it is rock music so it‟s more upbeat and poppy.”