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By Adam Gonshor - andPOP.com
Mad Child calls “Monsters in the Closet” the second and a half album by Swollen Members.
Why? Because it is an in-between album of sorts to satisfy fans before another album is released that includes all new material. “Monsters in the Closet” is made up of some older songs, a few remixes of previous hits, and a bunch of fresh sounds.
Some of the older songs were left over from their last album, “Bad Dreams.” It’s not that they lacked in quality, but they didn’t fit quite right with the other material.
“A lot of these songs didn’t necessarily fit the message of what we were trying to accomplish with Bad Dreams,” Prevail tells andPOP. “They were still songs that we thought were great, and stood behind and took some different steps in the production and experimented, so we though people should hear these songs.”
Although some of the songs are a few years old, they still represent what Swollen Members stand for.
“It really shows the chronological progression of the group,” he says.
One of the most recently recorded tracks is “Breath,” a collaboration with Nelly Furtado, a long time friend of Prevail’s. The music video was just released, and directed by Todd McFarlane, the creator of Spawn. Furtado was on her way to Victoria, British Columbia to visit her family, and made a stop in Vancouver.
“We went out for dinner and rolled to the studio and we stayed at the studio from 11 or 12 at night until 6:30 or 7 in the morning,” explains Prevail. “I’ve never seen anybody go into the studio and lay that many variations on one melody.”
Prevail has a lot of respect for Furtado.
“She’s incredibly talented and a super good friend. I’m so proud of her for everything she’s doing and everything she’s going to accomplish.”
Another highlight of the album is “Rockapella,” a brief acapella track laid down by Prevail that mentions many different rock bands. It was originally supposed to be a verse on a song with Dilated Peoples called “Canada 3000.”
“That song ended up getting changed and transformed,” he says. “I rewrote my verse but I was really hyped on doing ‘Rockapella.’ I thought it was a cool way to approach trying to get a message across. The real message is about revolutionary ideas by using band names.”
Prevail and his partner Mad Child recently added Moka Only and Rob the Viking as official members of the group in August.
“Moka was pursuing and exploring his solo career,” says Prevail. “Moka’s not only a talented singer, producer, and an MC, [but] he’s one of my oldest friends. He’s my mentor. He taught me how to rap. It all made sense. It’s just family sticking together.”
“Rob the Viking had been producing beats for us for a while and touring with us on the road, just helping out and hanging out before we asked him to become our official DJ. We just felt it really added a lot of dimension to the group having Rob’s ideas on production and knowing that you have someone strong behind you spinning the music and playing the tracks.”
One piece of advice when seeing the Swollen Members perform live: do not try to copy their head banging rituals. If you try to copy them and head bang even half as much as they do throughout their set, your neck will hurt for days. So how do they do it?
“It’s an exercise on to itself,” Prevail reveals. “Fortunately for us, the vodka and beer help us nullify that situation.”
He says performing live and recording the tracks “translate very well together.”
“I think we try to capture the same energy on stage and take that to the studio with us and vice versa. I think one of the most disappointing things is when you go see a band live and they suck. We try to make those bridges parallel.”
The group plays a mix of rock and hip hop shows, and it doesn’t matter to Rob the Viking what kind of show it is.
“I like a bit of both,” says Rob. “It depends on what kind of crowd you’re in. If you’re in an all hip hop crowd, then great. If you’re in an all rock crowd, then great too. We kind of cross over to both of them now.”
With the troop stronger than ever, Swollen Members are ready to conquer the United States. They recently signed a deal with Virgin Records.
“It’s a huge territory. We’re definitely going to attack it very heavily this year and the next years to follow. [We must] keep up our work ethic. I think if we can do that we will be happy with the results.”
They expect to release a new album sometime this year, and will be touring Canada in April, opening up for Avril Lavigne.
January 26, 2003 [andPOP.com]