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Swindle’s danceable, melodic tunes prove there’s far more to grime than “hoodies in a garage chatting crap”.

Words: Seb Wheeler
Photos: Tom Horton

Swindle’s debut music video comes with an epilepsy warning. ‘Mood Swings’ is a 140bpm blitzkrieg that inspired illustration duo Karimo & BDID to create a seizure-inducing animation of psychotropic proportions. Warped basslines and lightning bolt synth riffs come crashing down around a quick-fire succession of tripped-out images and intense jolts of bright white light. It’s a suitably electrifying way to get acquainted with the 24-year-old producer, who’s taking grime in an explosive and downright danceable new direction. 

In the flesh, though, Swindle cuts a pretty restrained figure. Amid the hectic rush of a midweek lunchtime in a busy part of north London, he looks relaxed in a grey blazer, jeans and white trainers while sparking a cigarette and rocking George Clinton on fat WeSC headphones. He’s laid back to the point of not being able to decide where to eat, so Mixmag ushers him into the nearest Mexican joint for a gut-busting burrito, and talk soon turns to that tune. 

“Musicians can get quite frustrated, and that’s where I was at,” he says of ‘Mood Swings’. The canteen we’re sitting in turns out to be an apt choice, as the vibrant décor echoes the video’s neon universe. “I was like, ‘I don’t know what to do, people are telling me I’m too jazzy, people are telling me I’m too ravey, what do they want from me?! I’m getting sick of this!’” 

‘Mood Swings’ lives up to its name, veering between distorted grime attitude and red hot P-funk sensibilities, paying homage to respective scene godfathers Terror Danjah and Parliament in equal measure. It’s a mutant dancefloor bomb that has got everyone in a spin, marrying scenes that are normally miles apart and causing arguments in the Mixmag office about the very nature of underground bass music. That’s the brilliant thing about Swindle; he’s dumbfounding critics, DJs and clubbers alike. 

Having got ‘Mood Swings’ out of his system, he’s solved the peer pressure issue and is more than happy to carry on. “I stopped thinking about it and now I just go where I want,” he says. “When you’re at a point where you have to think about your next move in music, it takes away from the creativity.” He’s quick to avoid pigeonholing himself and, apart from admitting to sticking to the 140bpm tempo that is the bedrock of grime and dubstep, he’s happy to let the music do the talking. 

And the jams that Swindle invents in a studio on the periphery of Croydon are potent enough to speak for themselves. Productions like ‘Spend Is Dough’ (featuring Roses Gabor) and his ‘Playground’ EP are rib-rattling but utterly soulful, with big slabs of bass and kick/snare clatter offset by melodic synths and super-smooth keys. “You need to just wake up in the morning and make whatever you want to make,” Swindle goes on. “The more you can get away with doing whatever you want, the better the music.” He’s ignored outside influence, and is better off for it, his approach resulting in a distinct style that has earned releases on dedicated underground imprints Planet Mu, Rwina and Butterz.

Although he won’t be drawn on genre, there is one driving force behind his music that even he can’t deny. “The only thing I pledge allegiance to is funk,” he confesses. While that might sound like a line straight out of the Bootsy Collins school of cliché, Swindle says it with such seriousness that you can tell he’s not messing. “It’s just something I’m in love with. It’s something that I can’t help but do,” he continues. “The minute I touch the keyboard I just start funking out.” He and contemporaries like Rustie and Joker are developing bass music with an irresistible and accessible instrumental edge. ‘Unlimited’, a recent collab with dubstep soulboy Silkie, is a brilliant case in point. It’s a stone-cold groove, the perfect antidote to the waves of vacuous wobble currently drowning dancefloors. Even better, it’s the type of track that makes existing bass-heads call for a reload while also enticing new listeners to explore the scene.  

It’s not hard to see where Swindle gets it from once he reels out the names of his heroes: “George Benson, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, BB King, Micheal Jackson, Earl Klugh, Stevie Wonder…” He’s got a stash of their records at his studio, a collection passed on by his father who taught him the ways of classic funk, soul and jazz. He grew up in a house littered with instruments, and got used to playing from an early age. “I never really had many toys, just keyboards,” he remembers. “Me and my older brother would play old jungle tunes on them. We used to sit there for hours playing ‘Super Sharp Shooter’ and dancing around.” A member of his dad’s band would drop by on a Saturday morning to teach him how to play scales, and from there he was away. The break into making beats came when he and his brother saved up enough pocket money to buy a soundcard for the family PC, and Swindle finally settled into making grime once he reached college,enrolling on a media course that he was soon kicked out of. His mates were obsessed with watching tunes like Lethal Bizzle’s ‘Forward Riddim’ on music video station Channel U, and they encouraged him to produce in the same kind of way. 

Although that’s where his roots are, he’s broken well away from aggro grime riddims, preferring to employ style instead of swagger. He’s now one of the leading producers for Butterz, the label set up by Rinse FM DJ duo Elijah & Skilliam to push forward- thinking, new-skool grime. “[Swindle] was one of the reasons it all started in the first place,” Elijah tells us. “There weren’t any outlets for talents like him, so we set up one ourselves.” Butterz has since become one of the hottest labels to watch, putting out both ‘Mood Swings’ and ‘Unlimited’ and assembling a crew of producers who fuse experimentalism with dancefloor appeal. They’re anchored firmly to the underground, but prove that grime can be more than “hoodies in a garage chatting crap”, as Swindle puts it. 

As he finishes his food, he cracks open a bottle of apple juice and leans back in his chair, happy to be spending an hour in a packed schedule of business meetings and studio slots waxing lyrical about music. He’s just finished a bumpin’ remix of Estelle for Atlantic, and is on the cusp of releasing ‘Ignition’, a certified rave hit complete with vocals from Footsie and Nadia Suliman. Swindle’s ear for a killer hook and stunning use of synths means he can go back and forth across the commercial/underground divide without losing any of the natural vitality that makes him such an exciting prospect. 

But his impeccable touch is all down to the records that his dad first played him, and their influence is still strong. “Jazz is a hundred years old now,” he muses. “It’s gone through so many phases and sounds, so what’s the next step? We live in an electronic world, so there’s got to be electronic jazz, right?” With that he puts his headphones back on and heads out into the city, the ‘Mothership Connection’ guiding him on his way. 

‘Ignition’ is out Jan 20. ‘Unlimited’ is out soon on Butterz