Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Swim. Søul. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Swim., looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?

I think one of the biggest misunderstandings about me as an artist has always been around, “What genre of music do you make?” and, “How are you getting a PhD if you are a rapper?” I think in both instances being misunderstood and/or mischaracterized can describe why these things are so puzzling to people. In my own life, I’ve never separated the journey of learning about the world from the experience of being an artist. I always say that the first philosophers I ever loved were Tupac and Kanye. These three things (art, music, and philosophy) are intimately connected to me in ways that are hard to understand unless you really sit and listen to the music, sit and read my writing, and sit and speak with me. Patience is a virtue of understanding; speed is a virtue of mischaracterization.

The fact that the world of music and the world of philosophy are so distant from one another at times is something I tend to think is a hindrance to both. My latest album project is called, “MUMBLE PUNK” because I feel like MUMBLE (rap) and PUNK (rock) perfectly describes my ethos, my style, and my philosophy as an artist. Energy that disrupts, art that inspires, incites, and generates emotion worth thinking about. Always, always energy!

This is what has grounded anything I’ve ever done. I like to say that I think with my heart and I feel with my head. This helps me as both an artist and “philosopher.” MUMBLE PUNK is my way of trying to move the world forward towards creation for the sake of creation, thinking, reflecting, mumbling, and more for the sake of thinking, reflecting, mumbling and more. A circular argument, but I really like circles. Ultimately, it is all about unleashing the energy inside of ourselves, no matter how misunderstood, mischaracterized or strange it might seem to others. In this sense, it is bigger than just suggesting that people, “Be their self…” It is more about going beyond whatever boundary the world and/or the culture and/or your self has imposed inside of you and allowing yourself to ‘be weird,’ in the face of other’s expectations.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am Swim. Søul: an artist, musician and writer. I started making music in Kindergarten, inspired by my pops who was also a musician. He used to host cyphers at my crib at a young age and I would join in with a lot of the older rappers when I was still young. He would take me to the studio with him as young as elementary school to record music and I recorded my first album ever in 5th grade. So I’ve been rapping, singing, and writing my whole life basically. I think what has set me a part from other artist that I’ve been around has been my versatility as a singer, rapper, and songwriter as well as my commitment to transforming my dreams into concrete realities.

I’ve released three projects since beginning my music career as Swim. Søul in 2018. All of them are consistent illustrations of my growth and interest as a musician; all of them have a Swim. Søul sound that fuses punk, trap, soul and indie into one and this is just a reflection of my own music interest which I try to have show up in my music as much as possible. It is hard for me to describe my genre sometimes because I create what I like to hear and I like to listen to everything and so I like my music to reflect that.

As far as my commitment to bringing my dreams into reality, this commitment has allowed me to experience things that most independent artist with no manager, no label, and no major industry or indie budget could probably imagine. For example, I’ve done tours and shows throughout Italy two summers in a row – off the strength of my connections and willpower alone. I’ve done shows in Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore, DC and Philadelphia all based on my organization and my own networks. This has allowed me to build a unique audience of fans that I call the “Weirdo Mafia,’ because they belong to so many different places, backgrounds, experiences, etc. that it doesn’t look like they should be able to come together. But they do, and they will for Swim. Søul.

I think that that is one of the things that sets me apart. I think I am a truly ‘global’ local underground independent artist. I am ‘internationally’ known in a very underground way.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most reward part of being an artist, to me, is when someone you know or don’t really know speaks on the impact your music has had on them. A lot of times, for me at least, writing and/or creating, can be a real personal process. Just looking inward and expressing whatever nonsense lives inside of you. When that nonsense can be picked up by someone else and embraced as a part of their story, I think there’s a real magic in that.

A lot of times it’s not even the ‘deep’ songs that will do this and this is why I don’t really f*ck with people who assume that music always has to have a ‘deep’ message. Sometimes, people need to return to surface of things because they are already in a hole to deep to get themselves out. They need fun. They need a ‘cheap vacation.’ And music can give them that. A good song about bubble butts or smoking weed or acid poetry can alter the mood of a day. And give people the energy they need to go on to fight another day. If anything that is the ‘message’ behind my music: By any means necessary… go on to fight another day.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think that society can start to look more at the way that the music industry: which includes social media and audiences themselves, are to blame for a lot of the ways that people feel about how “all the music sounds the same.’

At the underground level, on a global scale, I have encountered way too many experimentally interesting artist, with way too much talent to believe that the artist themselves are to blame for this. We live in an algorithmic culture: which means that people are being fed what a machine thinks they want to see based on what they’ve seen before. So this create repetitious cycles of the same because higher-ups in the music industry assume the same as the algorithm, namely, that people don’t really want to be challenged by music or art; they don’t really want nor really believe that something ‘new,’ is worth the risk of their time and money. And so, the drive to select artist that are ‘already successful,’ or ‘have a fanbase’ rather than selecting and developing talented artist who might not have as much of a buzz is a reflection of fear-based calculations that can only result in staleness in music, art, and culture.

I think we need to really kinda fight against this. Although, I don’t completely no how. It is not something artist can do alone and more than the industry itself, I think that ‘fans’ or ‘consumers’ have to get serious about their desire for ‘new sounds’ and instead of simply complaining about the ‘lack of options,’ in the mainstream – begin to uplift and build a creative ecosystem for the artist that are really out here doing something different. Because we are out here. We are out here in abundance, but a lot of that abundance doesn’t go to us because we are ‘risky.’

Contact Info:

• Website: https://open.spotify.com/album/1Jh7dOgZTdTmynUXwat0eO?si=EPNUZb6xSVCxaUKo9sTVzQ
• Instagram: @iamswimsoul
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swimsoulmusicpage
• Twitter: @iamswimsoul
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB_IQ2hkSRpgZblaSbl84eQ
• Other: MUMBLE PUNK: the album on Apple Music https://music.apple.com/us/album/mumble-punk-the-album/1706506288

Image Credits
Photos by @jt.crestwell and @senseofspyce