Swim School

Swim School were formed in late 2018 in Edinburgh.^[1] Initially comprising Alice Johnson, Lewis Bunting, Matt Mitchell, and Nairn Milne,^[2] they released their debut single, "Sway", in February 2019.^[3] Their debut performance was in Galashiels,^[4] which took place in 1 March 2019, which was a support slot for Indigo Velvet^[5], another Edinburgh-based band.^[1] In October 2020, Johnson stated that their set had been marred by a "40-something stranger" heckling sexist abuse at Johnson before and during the performance, prompting her to struggle to hold back tears while performing and to break down after leaving.^[4] They released their second single, "Take You There", the following June.^[2] Swim School spent around a year gigging until the COVID-19 lockdown, causing the band to break from gigs and instead concentrate on writing. Billy McMahon, former drummer of Indigo Velvet was invited to join the band in June 2020 after a period of him assisting with live streams.^[6]

The band released an EP, Volume 1, in 2021,^[7] and then the single "Let Me Inside Your Head" that March.^[8] By May, Milne had left the band. That month, they released the single "Outside", their first without Milne^[a] and performed a cover version of Taylor Swift's "Love Story"^[11] for a BBC live session.^[6] "Outside" was written about cutting toxic people out of their lives,^[9][12] while "Love Story" was added after the band decided to incorporate a cover into the set and rummaged through some Spotify playlists.^[6] The following month, they released "Anyway" and announced their second EP, Making Sense of It All, which comprised tracks about Johnson's mental state over lockdown^[13] and was released in August 2021.^[14][12]

After releasing Making Sense of It All, Swim School spent a period gigging.^[15] By June 2022, the band were signed to LAB Records;^[16] by that November, the band comprised Johnson, Bunting, and McMahon.^[17] That month, they released the single "Kill You",^[18] which Johnson had written the previous February^[15] about being comfortable enough in a relationship to show quirks.^[18] In February 2023, they announced their second EP Duality^[15] and released the single "Delirious".^[19] Duality, which had been recorded at Narcissus Studios in London and produced by Iain Berryman, took its title from the fact that it comprised love songs and angry songs,^[15] while Johnson wrote "Delirious" in a fit of rage after suffering from constant misogyny from sound engineers during festival season.^[19] A further single, "Don't Leave Me Behind", was released in April 2023,^[20] with Duality released in June 2023.^[21]

Two weeks after Duality was released, the band re-released that album's track "Bored", a more positive derivative of "Delirious", in an attempt to surprise their fans.^[22] The band supported Inhaler on their Cuts & Bruises tour in November 2023^[23] and were featured on Dork's "Hype List 2024"^[24] the month after.^[25] In January 2024, the band released "Give Me A Reason Why",^[26] announced their "Seeing It Now" tour for April and May 2024,^[27] and released their debut mixtape, Seeing It Now. The last of these featured a cover of Pixies' "Where Is My Mind" and a new version of their earlier track "See Red",^[28] with physical copies also sporting a cover of their earlier track "Anyway".^[29]

Swim School completed their "Seeing It Now" tour in May 2024^[27] and then went straight onto supporting The Royston Club on their Spring UK Tour ^[30]. Summer 2024 saw a jam packed festival line-up including a slot at Mad Cool ^[31] in July, and a supporting slot for The Charlatans at Queen's Park in June 2024. Swim School spent summer 2025 playing various festivals across the UK and Europe, including Pavilion Festival supporting James, Dauw Pop Festival ^[32]. In August 2025 Swim School hosted a secret show at the Mash House, Edinburgh, with Q&A hosted by Mark Hannah & played unreleased tracks from the debut album for the first time. The release of Swim School's self-titled album on 31 October reached No. 4 in the Scottish Official Charts. ^[33] Always On My Mind was written as a love letter to Glastonbury, Crimson Red, (previously titled Don't Know Why) is about longing to make someone proud but knowing you will never get there. To finish the year, Swim School did a headline set in their hometown Edinburgh, as part of Vitamin C's opening night of Edinburgh Hogmanay^[34] festival with Vic Galloway in December.

2026 kicked off in February with a Glasgow headline with Pretty Green Introducing ^[35] alongside Manchester band Arkayla. March 2026 sees Swim School supporting Suede across Europe as part of the Dancing With The Europeans tour.

The band have frequently cited Wolf Alice and Slowdive as influences^[b] and have described themselves as a "Tesco Value" version of the former.^[39] Johnson has stated that Wolf Alice's lead singer Ellie Rowsell was her inspiration for being in a band^[39] and idolised Taylor Swift and Beyoncé growing up,^[38] while Bunting has stated that he was a big Metallica fan growing up and wanted to be the band's James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett.^[40] For their cover of Swift's "Love Story", Johnson was inspired by a grungy take on Bon Iver she had seen on Triple J.^[6] The band have also cited as influences Jaws, Pale Waves, Palace,^[36] Foals, The Cure, Ben Howard, Boards of Canada, Paolo Nutini,^[37] My Bloody Valentine, and the Smashing Pumpkins.^[38] Writing in July 2021, Sophie Williams of NME described the band's works as indie pop,^[41] while Johnson's vocals were described by Skiddle in January 2024 as having a "Hayley Williams-esque delivery".^[42] Finlay Holden of Dork described Making Sense of It All as a mix of indie rock, grunge, and dream pop,^[43] while Mala Mortensa of Alternative Press described "Let Me Inside Your Head"'s vibe as "expect[able] from a Halsey-fronted version of Nirvana"^[8] and Andy Von Pip of Under the Radar noted that their rendition of "Love Story" "turned a sweet, romantic optimistic pop song into a heavy dystopian doom rocker".^[6]