The Swimmers on purevolume™

Indie / Rock / Pop

Steve Yutzy-Burkey awoke that sunny September morning to begin a journey of questionable judgment. Leaving the up-and-coming band One Star Hotel just off a successful European tour, he set to work on an obscure project inspired by John Cheever's The Swimmer. In the short story, a man attempts to swim home from a party via a stream of neighboring swimming pools. Along the way, the sunny day turns stormy, old friends turn against him, and he finally arrives to find that no one has lived in his ruined house in years.

Steve began his own quest in a similarly idealistic fashion: he wrote an albums worth of ambitious material without a band to perform it. Fortunately, familiar faces joined in along the way, including ex-One Star Hotel bass player Rick Sieber, fellow pipe-organ tuner Scott French, and wife Krista Yutzy-Burkey. The band finally reached Brian McTears Miner Street Studios in December to begin recording the album. All the New Sounds, Heaven and Pocket Full of Gold are the first songs to emerge from those sessions.

Traversing the same streams as fellow travelers Spoon, The Shins and the New Pornographers, the Swimmers bring their own loose, autumnal sensibility to the time-tested 60s pop tradition. Their first release on High Lonesome Sound is quickly garnering serious attention, as the songs of Yutzy-Burkey are inclined to do: "Steve Yutzy-Burkey conveys torn-apartness without even trying" [Tom Moon, Philadelphia Inquirer..."]a serious contender for delivering unto us lucky, lucky people a bona fide masterpiece" [Whisperin and Hollerin, UK]..."Steve Yutzy-Burkey's songbook [is] loaded with four-star numbers" [PopMatters]. Members of The Swimmers have shared stages with Wilco, Sufjan Stevens, Joan of Arc, Cat Power, Richard Buckner, Pedro the Lion, and The Mekons.

The Swimmers will embark on their maiden voyage from Philadelphia, USA this spring with their self-titled EP in tow.