SWMRS :: Hate Drugs :: Soft Palm
December 3, 2024
The Roxy, Los Angeles
Written by Alaina Romero
Interview by Esteban Allard-Valdivieso
If you were anywhere but The Roxy the night that SWMRS performed, I feel bad for you. But donβt worry, Iβll fill you in on what you missed. The three brother rock band from Piedmont plays in their own style, a blend of various types of punk rock.
Cole and Max Becker take the lead in guitar and vocals, with Cade Becker on bass. With a powerful unceasing energy, they started the show at a ten, and ended at a twenty. Never have I seen someone up in the air as many times as Cole Becker, and with him on stage, there was never a chance for the excitement to die. On lead guitar, Max Becker exuded just as much intensity in his hands alone, and whether he was adding vocals or not, it was evident his focus was on maintaining his absolute best performance. The band played several of their beloved classics including βDβYou Have A Car?β, βMileyβ and βLose It,β mixed in with songs from their latest album Becker, like βEmo Kids.β While being the newest addition to the band, you wouldnβt have guessed they ever played without Cade Becker, the three of them combine their talents for a perfect fit, and the on stage chemistry is undeniable. It doesnβt matter if they hate Los Angeles, because Los Angeles loves SWMRS!
Music Forever Magazineβs Esteban sat with SWMRSβ Max, Cole and Cade Becker to discuss music, the Bay Area and of course, aliens.
Nice to meet everyone, I was just gonna say, everyoneβs from the Bay Area yeah? Like Piedmont? You guys grew up there?
Cole: Yeah, our parents still live there. We all go back for the holidays and stuff, but weβre all scattered because Max and I are both married and live on the East Coast. And Cade lives in Orange County.
Yeah I heard you guys moved out to New York because your wives were highly successful.
Cole: Yeah, they have careers, weβre still, you know, doing day jobs and trying to make records.
Hey man, whatever [laughing]. I wanted to talk about the name. I was looking through the Wikipedia page, whatever I know, I see Raining Souls, Clocks, Emilyβs Army, then Swimmers. I liked Emilyβs Army, I thought that was very cute. That was your cousin?
Cole: Yeah, yeah.
Have you read John Cheeverβs The Swimmer?
Cole: Actually I have, but I donβt remember it that well. Itβs like a short story right?
Yeah, itβs a short story about a guy who just somehow is going from pool to pool and itβs kinda like his whole life. He doesnβt know when time has stopped and he jumps from pool to pool and he can connect all his neighbors in this sorta WASP-y community without getting out of each pool and swimming laps and whateverβ¦itβs a weird journey.
Cole: Thatβs kinda like what being in a band is, I guess.
Yeah, just hopping from pool to poolβ¦
Cole: Yeah, jumping from pool to pool, swimming, getting to know people in different cities, playing songsβ¦
Cade: Going scene to sceneβ¦
Exactly. And then inspirationsβIβve heard everything from Blink-182, Miley Cyrus, The Clash. With the new album, Iβm picking up a lot ofβ¦everything from The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeah, to AC/DC, The Clash, a real smattering. Is there anything you guys grew up with or grew up listening to?
Cade: Those were greatβ¦
Yeah, the Miley Cyrus one is really good, because it is kinda about triumphing over whateverβ¦victory over odds.
Cole: So we like a lot of different stuff that sneaks its way in. And I think thatβs why we like the Clash so much because they kinda gave us this blueprint as a punk band when we were younger to think βoh be outside the linesββ¦[sirens in the distance]β¦soβ¦sorry I got throw off by thatβ¦[laughing]
β¦The Clashβ¦
Max: The Clash! Yeah, we have a heavy influence from them. Like what Cole was pretty much saying. At our core weβre a punk rock band, but we love everything, so it helps us make our own brand of that.
Cole: In the time weβve been SWMRS too, we were lucky when we were younger, it was like 2010 to like 2014, there was all this indie music that came out that was really kinda cool and underground. Even in the Bay Area, you had Girls and Sunny & The Sunsets and Shannon & The Clams. So there was all this other stuff, it had a punk ethos, but it was really kinda across the board, it was like either psychedelic or had some dance elements, so it was cool.
Thereβs some silliness now. Itβs ok to be silly, like whatever you wanna doβ¦
Cole: Speaking of Blink-182β¦
Right exactly. Not not taken serious, but it just doesnβt have to be super serious, directly political, or have a particular agenda.
Cole: Totallyβ¦
Alright, speaking of Delongsong: aliens.
Cade: Speaking of sillyβ¦
Exactly, speaking of silly and speaking of aliens, has anybody seen a UFO?
Max: Youβre looking at one right now, just so you know.
Cade: I thought I did, but it ended up being Starlink and it was really weird. Just seeing little dots across the skyβ¦
Yeah..
Cade: And then just disappeared. Spooky.
And where did the song come from? Where did that come out of?
Cole: Just being silly, really. A long time ago Max and I made that in a songwriting session and it was veryβthe instrumental that the guy made was very slow and beautiful and then, it wasnβt quite clicking, the lyrics were so silly that it almost needed a hard edge to it. And thatβs where we kinda revisited it.
Was he part of it at all? Thereβs no connection to Tom DeLonge with you guys?
Cole: Noβ¦
Max: We wishβ¦We were like, hey, hereβs a little bit of a love song, a Delongsong. You know weβve kinda done that in the past too, like βMileyβ years ago. You know, weβre always open, whenever theyβre ready, weβre here, weβre ready to give them the love that they deserve. Itβs on them. Weβve made our claims. [laughter]
So then 2012, The Warped Tour. Was that a breakthrough? Or had that been building up?
Max: Actually it wasnβt a breakthrough. Or really, it was a breakthrough because it wasnβt a breakthrough. I think we expected it to be a breakthrough. We were called Emilyβs Army at the time and that was one of the last years of our existence. I mean, 2012, 2013, we did part of Warped Tour both years and we learned so much. And all these awesome bands, we became really close friends with some of them, we learned a lot, thatβs what the breakthrough was. But as a band, it was kinda eh, I think thereβs another scene out there for usβ¦
Cole: But I will say, to that point of learning a lot, it was where we learned, sorta, how to manage ourselves and like, tour, and sell our merch and sorta be a βprofessionalβ unit.
Max: Bootstrap mentalityβ¦
Cole: Yeah, thatβs where we met Rise Against, they were telling us how to be prosβ¦
Right, because this is like 8 years in? You started in 2004?
Max: You really read the Wikipedia page. [laughing]
[laughing] Yeah, Iβm reading the Wiki page, but Iβm reading other interviews as well. To me itβs coolβitβs interesting when a band has a couple different iterations. Itβs interesting, because so much of rock βnβ roll was changing at that time. To see a band morph and have a couple different phases and still have come from like I said, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, The Strokes, Arcade Fire, this whole Nu Rock Revolution, but take that in a totally direction, itβs cool to see, even with different names, different lineups, different things. Itβs interestingβ¦
Max: Can I just say, youβre awesome.
Thanks [laughing]
Cade: You really know how to make these two really happy.
Cole: This is the kinda stuff I think about every day. Not necessarily about us, but just generally. Like, we have been musicians through this insane timeβ¦
Max: β¦For 20 yearsβ¦
Cole: Yeah, specifically like 2012, thereβs like a turning point for us [at Warped Tour]. Like Max said, itβs like your shedding the emo world and thereβs this new kind of indie sleaze thing thatβs like reviving in California.
Max: That was huge for us.
Cole: It was cool permission to think outside the box. Because we did come from Gilman, which had this connection to Warped Tour and the emo world. But it was just a pigeon hole, there was this whole other world emerging at the same time. It was cool for that.
Max: And we didnβt really identifyβwe liked some of the music, but we never really identified fully as emo, which is funny because we have a song called βEmo Kidβ
I was gonna sayβ¦
Max: Itβs more just like, weβre just Californians. We like rock music, but we also like indie music, specifically those early 2000s, those bands you keep naming, they really speak to us. But we were born in a time when we were too young for that to be our era. So over time, weβve searched, ok whereβs our time where weβre gonna do that thing? And in the process, we got to step foot in: a little bit of Warped Tour, little bit of Southern California, actually a little bit back into pop-punk, weβve gotten to do all sorts of things, trying to cultivate. And then we ended up just making our own thing, out of all that.
In terms of this album, BeckerβI was reading about your idea of brotherhood, keeping it in the family, a new identity as a new kind of trio, which is cool. That is to say, in keeping with what youβve said, is the process actually no process? You just send each other sections of songs. Is that really how itβs coming together now? Do you see that as the way youβd like to do it going forward?
Max: Honestly it is. The process is no process. We just care about do we like it or not. So whatever gets us there is how itβs gonna be.
Do you ever have to be like, βuhhhhβ¦I dunnoβ?
Cole: All the time.
Cade: Oh yeahβ¦
Cole: I feel like the process is just like creating stuff and then shooting each other down [laughing] until we build it up together.
Cade: I just joined the process and I shoot them down a little too much, I think. Iβm used to hearing when itβs finished.
When did you join Cade?
Cade: Two year ago.
Cole: Before Cade joined the band, Max and I were trying to figure out how to move on from our two band members quitting basically and we were writing songs as a duo. And it was cool, it was like a stool, you need at least three legs to stand. And so adding Cade and having him be our brother, this person thatβs automatically gonna be on equal footing with us, all the legs of the stool are the same height. So itβs a perfect stool now.
Cade: I had to grow into the same height, a little bit.
There you goβ¦Thereβs always gotta be one leg thatβs a hair shorter.
Cade: My favorite line from my first session in the studio with them, I was going head-to-head with Max and he said, βWell, Cade, one of us has been doing this for twenty yearsβ¦β [laughter]. Now he listens to me though. Itβs great.
Max: No comment.
Howβs the tour been? L.A. was the wrap-up right? Thatβs the end of this leg?
Cole: For this year, yeah.
How has the road been? Like post-pandemic-wise?
Max: It was magnificent. It was literally a dream. We came out of it being like, for the first time I think, in those twenty years, I felt likeβ¦I felt success. And I think it was because Iβve had a lot of time to think about what this band means and how it means to people. When you go Prague or somewhere and sell out a show and all these people from a different country are singing back your lyricsβ¦thatβs the dream. So weβre living the dream. That as easy a way to put it: weβre entirely just grateful to be here and I canβt believe we just got to do that.
Did you go to that church made of bones in Prague?
Max: We had no time to do anything. We had 12 shows in 13 days.
Oh wow. You werenβt hanging out.
Max: We kinda have a basic rule now for a lot of reasons, we donβt drive very far after the show. We tend to stay in the city that we play. Which means, we get to keep somewhat of a normal schedule, but it also means that most of the driving is done during the day
Right. Besides Europe was there any new stops state-side?
Cole: We went to a bunch of shows in the Southeast this year, which was awesome, because we hadnβt really done that before. And it was just great. We played in a lot of college towns. Like Gainesville, people were just there to have a good time. Like, it felt like, in the same way, when we go to Europe sometimes, it feels like wow, this is cool that like rock isnβt just a niche thing, itβs like, this is just party music to them.
Max: Yeah, and post-pandemic places forgot how to be in a mosh pit. Europe did not forget. The southeast did not forget.
Right, great.
Cole: I was just going back to the question before, how the tour is generally, adding on to what Max is saying about being grateful to be there. I think, before we got to do so many cool things before the pandemic. We opened for Muse in a stadium and everything was great, and it was like almost out of our control though that it went as well as it did. And then, boom, pandemic.
Max: We were young.
Cole: We didnβt have the maturity to appreciate itβ¦
Max: We were just young and it all happened so fast.
When was Muse?
Cole: 2019
Crazy. Thatβs huge. Oh, so I wanted to go around, whatβs everyoneβs first concert?
Cole: Rugrats On Ice
Yeahhhh.
Max: Mine was NβSYNCβs No Strings Attached tour
Perfect. Obviously.
Cade: Mine was Green Day
Awesome. So whatβs next? New tour? New album?
Cade: Working on an album in January.
Max: So this is off the record, but weβre announcing a tour on Friday. Itβs to a country that weβve never been and is one of our largest listener bases. So weβre really really excited to go.
Algeria, here we come!
[Laughing]
Max: Itβs awesome, weβve got our first festival that we havenβt played since 2019 thatβs about to be announced. Thatβs a big one. Yeah, the plan is to work strategically all next year.
Cade: That was actually all on-the-record [laughing]. He didnβt actually say anything. So off-the-record, weβre gonna record an album.
On the record, off the record.
Cade: Off the record, Iβm going home for Christmas.
Thatβs right, what are the holidays looking like?
Cole: Weβre all getting together in Piedmont.
Sweet.
Cade: The Family Stone.
The best movie ever. So good. Who cooks?
Cole: Max and I help. Actually we all help.
Cade: You and Max help? When do you guys help?! [laughing]
Max: Well everyone in our family cooks, except for our dad, so we all have to be βavailableβ. He is extremely helplessβ¦when it comes to food. He is so capable of so many things, but he couldnβt exist on his own.
Do you come from a family of musicians? I mean, obviously you guys, but do you have musicians in the family?
All: [shaking heads] Noβ¦
Cade: Our crazy Greek uncle, thatβs not our actual uncle.
Oh a family friend?
Cole: It was a person who visited us every year. Mihalis and he played music in our house. So weβd play with him and thatβs kinda how we started guitar.
So he gave you your first instrument?
Max: He was the first.
Oh wow.
Cade: A baglamas.
Max: Itβs this little Greek, itβs a mini-bouzouki essentially. Not to be confused with baklava.
β¦Or a balaclava.
Max: Exactly. [laughing]
Is there anything you wish people would ask you?
[pause, everyone thinking]
Max: Iβm going to say no. I can typically run my mouth, but Iβm going to go here [hand up].
I just wonder if thereβs anything you havenβt been asked. With these kinds of interviews, it feels like you get asked the same stuff, but Iβm wondering if thereβs anything thatβs new?
Max: Well, itβs not very new, but a word of advice for everyone, just in life: the sooner they pick up mindfulness and meditation, the better.
Cade: I thought you were going to say, βthe sooner they pick up an instrument, theyβre life will be betterβ. I thought you were going somewhere like that.
Max: Iβm just saying, anybody can meditate, not everyone can buy an instrument.
Pick up a baklava and start playing.
[laughter]
Cole: One thing I think about, I donβt know if it ever comes up in question form is like, what it feels like to be on stage. I donβt actually have firm memories of being on stage in shows and to be thatβs sort of evidence that something transcendent kinda happens psychologically. And I think that when a show is really goodβand this has happened to me as an audience member tooβwhen a show is really good, you do get transported in this really amazing way. I think that that feeling, that presence of mind you get from that is something thatβs definitely forms the spiritual undergirdings of everything we do. Itβs all about that experience.
Max: [snaps] Itβs about that moment. Being in it.
Cole: And the recordings. When recordings can make you feel that, thatβs crazy. Live shows also. But thatβs why we do what we do I think.
Being part of something bigger than yourself. Well, gentlemen, Iβm going to let you go. I really appreciate your time. Nice to meet you!
Hate Drugs had no problem warming up the crowd. Straight from Bakersfield, this band of talented performers knows how to show you a good time. βYou guys should be crawling home tonightβ¦β words from guitarist and lead vocalist David Caploe encouraged us to make the most of their set, and we did. Beginning with βAfterimageβ off of their 2017 album Tsunami Soul II, the 4 piece ensemble brought the energy that would carry us through the rest of the night. Lead guitarist Norman Lee shredded with expert precision that was kept consistently fluid with every song. βRUSSIAN ROULETTEβ and βIF ONLYβ from their newest album DAUGHTERS were two beautifully bittersweet pieces that made the set list. John Love contributed bass and vocals, taking the lead in singing βMAGICIANβS SECRETβ. On drums, AdrΓan DΓaz PadillΓ‘ kept a cool rhythmic flair, capturing your attention and making it difficult to keep your eyes off of him. Each member of Hate Drugs contributes something special that you must see live more than once, and I will not be missing their next L.A. show.
First to take the stage, Soft Palms set the standard Tuesday night for killer music and great energy. Long Beach residents Julia Kugel and Scott Montoya kept us captivated, the two possess a chemistry unlike any other. Released in 2020, their self-titled album takes you on a gentle vacation to another dimension. Combining the beautifully executed percussion provided by Montoya with Kugelβs sweet and airy vocals, as well as her smooth guitar, a transcendent experience is born. One song off of the same album, βBone Dryβ made the set list, and is the kind of music that doesnβt leave your head for days. Soft Palms makes music like youβve never heard it before, and once you listen you wonβt believe what youβve been missing.
