The ‘Swells’ dominate downtown

Within a year and a half of forming their genre-bending band, five San Jose State alumni, have gone from jamming in a garage to playing in local gigs of 40 people, and then to a crowd of 400. 

The core of the Swells and the Lunatics is their lead singer, guitarist and songwriter, Austin Avila. Joining him is lead guitarist Ryan Wall, bassist Mitchell Lacata, drummer Kristian Buenconsejo and keyboardist Mild Monk. 

“The band first started when Austin got a gig playing [Cafe] Stritch,” Wall said. “When he got the offer to do the show, he needed backup in order to perform his demos live so he approached Mitch and I, and [then-]roommates, Anthony and John.”

After a warm reception from the cafe’s audience, Wall suggested to the musicians, “Well, we should just be a band.” 

The Swells then played gig after gig across San Jose, with repeat  performances at Cafe Stritch, Hammer Theatre, Naglee Park Garage and The Ritz. 

“We’ve all been doing this for a long time on our own and I think we just wanted to get together and do something with it and play for people who want to hear us,” Wall said. 

The Swells describe their sound as genre-bending, drawing from influences such as Mac DeMarco and incorporating sounds from surf rock, rhythm and blues, soul, lo-fi indie rock and dream pop. 

The band said their biggest gig was at The Ritz last April when they opened for indie garage-punk band, Shannon & the Clams. 

Caleb Hodgson, public relations senior at SJSU, close friend and fan, said “My favorite time I saw them was when they opened up at The Ritz because there was so much buzz around that. They absolutely killed with the energy of the crowd and seeing them so versatile with their instruments was unreal.” 

“[Performing is] giving something to yourself and giving something to the crowd,” Avila said. “I just want to give something that’s mutually beneficial because the music I listen to is holistic in a lot of ways.”

The Swells released their 12-song EP in July with original hit songs “A Place to Lay Awake,” “Eat Your Heart Out” and “Broken Hearts.” 

 “ ‘A Place to Lay Awake’, I wrote that when I was literally living off 12th Street in my truck,” Avila said. “[It was] a time that was hard before I really met anyone in the band.” 

Avila described the therapeutic quality of his songwriting experience, going on to say that “music comes from hard times, like love specifically.”

Avila evokes emotional imagery in his songs with lyrics such as “It touches my soul like a strawberry field/ Oh no, you’re miles away/ My soul craves you like winter rain” in his song “Eat Your Heart Out.”

Hodgson has known band members Wall and Lacata since he was a freshman in Pi Kappa Alpha, though they were seniors at the time. 

“Maybe I’m being modest as a person, but they are all individually more artistic. They know who they are, they know what they like. That’s been prevalent for a while,”  said Hodgson. 

Wall is currently working on his own EP, written over the course of the past couple of years. It features four songs that he describes as, “a bit more heavy [and] a different direction than what we’ve been playing.” 

Wall also mentioned that bassist Mitchell is working on his second EP after the release of his first, “Canned Worms,” in January last year. 

While Wall and Lacata are focusing on their upcoming EPs, Avila said that he wants to devote more time to supporting local producers looking for a place to record by “building a platform for bedroom producers to hold the space.”

Avila is also working on beat-tape material, and has a side project called “Johnny Love Joy,” which he says will be more disco and dance influenced. Beat-tape material is a collection of instrumental productions designed to showcase a producer’s skills.

Although many of the band members are working on side projects, they are not planning on splitting up. 

“Once it simmers down a little bit, we’ll start writing again for our next album,” Wall said.