Swans – Cop

Micky [Harris], the old Napalm Death drummer, got me into Swans. At the time, we were just tape trading, listening to a lot of fast hardcore music, all manner of stuff, but I wasn’t prepared for Swans! I was like, ‘What is this band doing with a beautiful name like Swans?’ and then you hear the record and it’s just punishingly slow. It just sounded really genuine to me, I thought it was really impressive. Micky would be blasting it really loud and his parents were getting pissed off and a bit scared, which was hilarious.

I think people always kind of pigeon-hole Napalm; ‘Oh well, they’re this, they must be into this kind of music’, but we always loved everything. We’d go, ‘Oh, we definitely need to do some stuff like Swans’. Of course, Swans changed musically, but I think even their acoustic stuff was – and is – dark. Even their latest album has that kind of dark monotony to it. That was a big influence for Napalm and for me. I never got to see them live, that was a big regret, especially back then. I know Micky went to see them live at a place that used to be called The Mermaid in Birmingham, and apparently the plaster was falling off the walls.