Biography

The Swellers started as a trio in 2002. The group moulded its sound—a cross between classic punk and ’90s rock—at the Vehicle City’s local music incubator, the legendary Flint Local 432, an all-ages, volunteer-supported club that also produced the band Chiodos. After cutting their teeth at “The Local” for a few years, the band hit the road to support their first release, a 2005 EP entitled Beginning of The End Again on Ann Arbor label, Search and Rescue Records. The trek has not let up for more than a few weeks at a time, and yet the band still found time to write, record, and release My Everest. “I think that was probably the best choice we ever made,” Jonathan says, noting that touring fulltime not only made them better performers and writers, but afforded them eye-opening experiences they wouldn’t have had otherwise.

“We saw a pickup truck flip over and stopped to help the guy out, waited for EMS to come. We don’t know if he ever lived,” the drummer says. “We’ve played everywhere in the United States, and on top of that we’re meeting other bands in every city, making new friends every day, and living a bare minimum lifestyle. If the venue has peanut butter and jelly it’s the best day of your life.“We signed to Fueled by Ramen (Atlantic) because of our relentless touring schedule and hard work, sure, but we’re still sleeping on floors at buddies’ houses. My philosophy is: Do what makes sense. We tour because we’re not good at anything else. We love our songs and we want to play them all night and see our friends, so we go on tour."

Following in the footsteps of other hard- Flintites who've made their name on the world stage—film provocateur Michael Moore, ’70s hard rock pioneers Grand Funk Railroad, ’80s grindcore/deathmetal pioneers Repulsion, and the late rapper M.C. Breed—The Swellers have forged a hard-edged, yet accessible style of punk over the better part of a decade, the last three of which have been spent touring non-stop with the likes of Less Than Jake, Set Your Goals, Four Year Strong, A Wilhelm Scream and Streetlight Manifesto, among numerous others.

Now, with their debut, Ups and Downsizing, the Flint-area four piece manages to expound on the rollercoaster of life they’ve experienced on the road and in that perpetual hard-luck area just north of Detroit while expanding the poppy punk sound they've been honing since their mid-teens.

In true punk tradition, their album Ups and Downsizing is the outraged cry of a band that has seen its world on the precipice. It’s also the sound of a band that sees hope in the most hopeless of situations. “Our last album, My Everest, was pretty pessimistic. It kind of had a negative view, it was a bummer but the music was uplifting,” explains singer-guitarist Nick Diener, referring to their critically acclaimed first album, released in 2007. “This new one I'd say is expanded musically and
lyrically. It’s got a certain ‘looking-up’ kind of feel to it. Here’s where it is now, it’ll just get better, but you’ve got to work for it.”

Nick describes it as a kind of diaspora in the band’s home state. Many friends and family members have been pushed out of state for a multitude of reasons. Though the Diener brothers decided to stay in Michigan, their parents moved to North Carolina after dad landed a new job there. “It’s about ups and downs, taking off and moving somewhere else because you lost your job. Our parents, everyone’s parents, friends, and family in our state have had it rough. It’s hard to deal with but that's life,” Nick says. “It’s cool. Toward the end of the song you get the vibe that if you look at our parents’ example, they are much happier where they are now."