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Deb Never‘s “Swimming” is brutally direct. “Treat me like you give a fuck about me now / If I ever let up, will you hold it down,” Never sings to open the song. Her only companion is a lone, somber guitar riff. Then, as if to slightly puncture the melodramatic air, frenetic drums courtesy of Dylan Brady’s (member of the fantastic 100 gecs) suddenly arrive to add a semblance of chaos to the dourness.
“Swimming” is built on a sense of propulsion underscored by immediate breaks. Drums drop out as quickly as they appear. Small glitches and ghastly, reverbed ad-libs float in and out. The only constant for the two-minute song is Never’s raw voice and the simple, affecting riff, both asking all of the hard questions and providing none of the answers.
“‘Swimming’ was the last song that I made on this EP,” Deb told Rolling Stone. Her first project,House on Wheels, was released today via WEDIDIT. “After all these songs got made I obviously kind of paved a way, kind of had a better idea of exactly how to go about making these type of songs. So I made the riff. I wrote the song by myself with the guitar riff and then I brought it to Dylan [Brady] like ‘Yo, this idea, let’s make this.’ So I played the riff for him and then he added the drums, did his magic.”
“Dylan’s a wizard,” Never continued. “He’s so easy to work with and he’s so fast. He’s really efficient. You’ll tell him an idea and he somehow just gets it immediately. I don’t know if that’s like for everyone, but I just find that with him it’s like a really good synergy there.”
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