Having just released their highly anticipated debut album, Can't Swim are charting a steady rise to success off the back of a catalogue that previously contained just a single EP.

To mark one year of shows, and the release of ‘Fail You Again’, we had a chat with Chris LoPorto about how Can’t Swim is a little bit different to all the other bands out there.

Chris jokes that what really sets Can’t Swim apart is the fact that he has no clue what he’s doing really. “You would think as a 28 year old man I would have done my homework and maybe learnt something this last year, but I haven’t! I’m still very amateur on guitar and singing.

“I was fortunate enough to be able to start the band with a really talented group of young men, and women, so I can show them the structure and the demo I’ve written of the song, and they kind of put their two cents in and make it a bit more musically make sense. I guess most song writers are guitar players their whole lives, and singers their whole lives, with Can’t Swim it comes from an unorthodox way of writing. Maybe that’s why we kind of stick out a bit, I rely heavily on the rhythms.”

Having started to ‘goof around’ on guitar a year and a half ago, Chris explains that he has a somewhat left of centre way of writing, muddled together from a life on the road, with drumsticks in hand. “A lot of the times I’ll be in the car and I’ll think of something on the drums, then when I get home I’ll map the guitar or the bass part to the rhythm I had, and then the song stems from there, but yeah” Chris laughs, “I’m trying to learn! I’ve definitely made an effort to learn more about all of it.”

Listening to the way Chris describes Can’t Swim’s writing process is like listening to the leader of a new cult preach his ideologies. It’s a little bit intoxicating, and just a touch of crazy, but beautiful enough to capture their unique way of thinking about music.

“We don’t think of Can’t Swim as individual instruments, no one really has alot of pride in their guitar parts, everyone played everything on this record. I played half the songs on the drums and then Danny played the other half, I played bass on some songs and Greg played guitar on some songs. We definitely tried to cater to our strengths! It was a bit like okay, if Mike can play this bass part better than anyone else in the band right now then we’d just shoot the bass over to him!”

Expanding on their cross-instrument magnatism, Can’t Swim have reshuffled, with Danny moving to guitar, to welcome drummer Andrea into the fold. Chris explains that when they started looking for a new drummer it was because they wanted to have more harmonies and guitar parts on stage, and they didn’t have to look far, long-time friend Andrea ‘just made sense’.

“We don’t look at it for individual effort, and now with Andrea joining us too, no one is trying to be like Slash and write ripping guitar solos! It’s just about writing the best Can’t Swim songs possible. They’re a very talented bunch, I’m very lucky to be in a band with them for sure!”

“With our kind of music, we really strive on the making of the songs, I don’t think many people are interested in Can’t Swim for our rippin’ drum solos! We’re just trying to be the best band we can be.

“It would be silly to hog all the creative writing, especially if someone can come up with somehting better than me! It takes alot of trust to do what we’re doing. We have a lot of trust in each other, everyone has the same goals in mind, and the goal is to write the best songs – so whatever the formula it takes to get there that’s what we do.”

Chris’s formula for Can’t Swim definitely comes together on ‘Fail You Again’. It has a great depth of sound and having been written in the months immediately after they recorded ‘Death Deserves A Name’, it shows a huge amount of achieved growth in less than six months.

Chris describes it as less of a ‘science project’ than DDAN, less about him figuring out he could write songs, and more about making them as great as they could possibly be. “I started writing ‘Fail You Again’ right after I got the alarming email that we were going to be a ‘real band’ and sign to a record label. I kind of went into panic mode – I was like okay. I wrote five songs, I can write a sixth song – it was daunting!”

“We like the songs on Fail You Again more than on Death Deserves A Name. It’s more us, the first one was more just a science project. With Can’t swim we’ve been so lucky to have so much support early on. It’s been lovely, weve been incredibly blessed to be able to do this band, which is really at the end of the day just for fun! We still don’t take each other very seriously, it’s still coming from a place where we feel like we’re 18, and we get to write the songs we want, and play the songs we want. It’s been a dream come true to be honest, not to be totally cheesy!”

Having signed to Pure Noise, and toured the world off the back of just a single EP, with all his dreams coming true, what is Chris’s dream listening scenario for Can’t Swim’s debut album?

“I would say my ideal listening would be maybe in the car, and you’re like, maybe it’s Friday, you’re done with work, you’re going somewhere cool for the weekend, you put on ‘Fail You Again’, maybe by yourself, maybe with your girlfriend, maybe with your boyfriend, listen to the tunes and that’s that!”

‘Fail You Again’ is available now from Pure Noise Records, and Can’t Swim will be on tour in the UK in April alongside Real Friends.

APRIL
06 MANCHESTER Club Academy
07 BIRMINGHAM Asylum
09 NEWCASTLE Riverside
10 GLASGOW St. Lukes
11 LEEDS Stylus
13 BRISTOL Thekla
14 NORWICH Epic Studios
15 SOUTHAMPTON Engine Rooms
16 LONDON Electric Ballroom