{"id":23681,"date":"2014-11-12T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T20:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=23681"},"modified":"2014-11-09T13:01:40","modified_gmt":"2014-11-09T02:01:40","slug":"nick-diener-of-the-swellers-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2014\/11\/nick-diener-of-the-swellers-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Diener of The Swellers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>\u201c\u2026that\u2019s the thing, people are already talking about our legacy saying we deserved better or we deserved to be bigger or whatever, which is nice, but I would hate to be remembered that way because it makes us look like we were so shitty *laughs*\u201d<\/p>\n

From Bio: THE SWELLERS got their start in 2002 when brothers Nick and Jonathan Diener and a friend got together and recorded some demos in their basement. Next thing you know the band is playing shows around Flint and word of their performances starts spreading like wildfire around the the region and eventually the country.<\/p>\n

After releasing 5 albums and 2 EPs, and touring countless worldwide, on their twelve-year anniversary the guys decided to call it a night. Friends and fans across the world were a major factor in keeping the creative juices flowing for so long. Having travelled to five continents and eighteen countries, the band felt it was the best time to go out with a bang. The final tours begin<\/p>\n

Before the band leaves us forever, well, eventually\u2026 we chatted to Nick of The Swellers to fill us in on the reasons behind the breakup, their forthcoming Soundwave appearance and much more\u2026<\/p>\n

So to start, simple question\u2026 Why are you leaving us?<\/strong>
\nOh man, that\u2019s one of the weirdest questions to answer because it was just time. It\u2019s like the weirdest thing it\u2019s like when you\u2019re a little kid and you have to explain like why did Grandpa die? It\u2019s like it was just time, it just happened, not saying we\u2019re as cool as Grandpas or anything, but I think we just wrote our last song, we just didn\u2019t really realise it and then yeah, everybody was on the same page and we were having a great time and I think we just wanted to end this streak on a high note instead of becoming one of those miserable bands that was just like \u2018hey we\u2019re doing a ten year anniversary of this record that no one cared about in the first place\u2019 and just keep playing and playing and playing and begging to get on tours. So yeah we were just kind of like let\u2019s just go out with a bang, the way we want to while we\u2019re still happy and loving it, because yeah, I feel like if I just kept it going for a little bit longer and things didn\u2019t go well I would just be super bitter and we might not even do a farewell tour and just fade into obscurity. So it\u2019s just kind of the way we wanted to do it I guess, luckily we left behind a lot of records so hopefully people can still dig \u2018em *laughs*. I just hope people can still appreciate it, and maybe some of the young people who don\u2019t know who we are can think we\u2019re some cool old man veteran rockers one day.<\/p>\n

You’re coming for Soundwave, how pumped are you to be heading back to Australia as part of this festival?
\n<\/strong>Oh it\u2019s gonna be amazing, we\u2019ve always said it\u2019s one of our favourite tours to do, and if they\u2019d ever have us back we would come, and we probably wouldn\u2019t be coming back to Australia if we didn\u2019t get that offer, just because it\u2019s so expensive and it\u2019s a lot of time and travel and plans and things like that, and we\u2019re just trying to make everything easy and stress free and thankfully Soundwave was one of those things, not to mention it\u2019s an awesome festival with some great bands, so yeah, it kind of worked out perfectly.<\/p>\n

Anyone you’re excited to be sharing the tour with?<\/strong>
\nYeah I mean there\u2019s a bunch of friends we\u2019ve toured with before, so it\u2019ll be good to just hang out with them, like the Fall Out Boy and All Time Low guys, can\u2019t wait to watch Lagwagon, they\u2019re one of my all-time favourites growing up. I mean it would be sweet to see Judas Priest and stuff like that and I don\u2019t really remember who\u2019s on the day 1 vs day 2, I don\u2019t really have it straight buy I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a tonne of bands I\u2019ll want to catch even if they\u2019re doing a sidewave maybe we can go catch one of those, even if we\u2019re playing them, I don\u2019t know. We\u2019re still kind of waiting to figure it out, then King810, those guys are from Flint, MI, they\u2019re old friends of ours and it\u2019s kind of crazy to be playing on a festival with them across the world. So yeah, it\u2019ll be nice, I\u2019m just looking forward to hanging out.<\/p>\n

OK, so you’ve been here a few times before, what’s your favourite thing about Australia?<\/strong>
\nI think my favourite thing about Australia is just the fact that it really does feel like home, so like going there it just feels like Bizarro America, everyone\u2019s just a little bit friendlier you know, and everything looks nicer and it\u2019s like, oh man if this place was just a little bit better, and unfortunately it\u2019s a little expensive too, that\u2019s the downside for us, but yeah, it\u2019s just super easy, love coming over there, we\u2019ve made a lot of good friends over there so I love it.<\/p>\n

Can we expect maybe a Sidewave show when you’re here?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m hoping so, we asked if we can get on some sidewave stuff, we just might happen to be one some; we put our name in the hat for it though and said we\u2019re down for whatever. If we don\u2019t have any sidewave things then we\u2019re probably going to ask them if we could book some stuff on the side, just us. We want to play as much as we can, I think it\u2019s like five days between the first part of the festival and the second part, so hanging out for five days in Australia will be a lot of fun, just getting to hang out, but I\u2019d rather play a show every night that we\u2019re there, get more bang for a buck I think.<\/p>\n

Well you mentioned a couple of bands before that would be great, I think people would love a Fall Out Boy, All Time Low, Swellers show\u2026<\/strong>
\nOh yeah, I mean put us in front of as many people as possible, we\u2019ll be happy *laughs* that\u2019s totally cool, it would be totally awesome if they would put us with King810 because everybody would be super confused, but I\u2019m pretty sure they\u2019re going to be out with Slipknot or something which will be pretty cool. Hopefully we\u2019ll be able to catch them if we can.<\/p>\n

I have one request as it is your farewell so it can\u2019t hurt to ask, can you please play ‘Inside My Head’ when you’re in Sydney as that’s hands down my favourite track of yours…<\/strong>
\nYeah pretty sure we can do that, we\u2019re going to try and play the big rockers and more of the sing along songs as those are much better for festivals, so yeah I\u2019m thinking that will make it.<\/p>\n

Now earlier you said you\u2019ve written your last song, but you released B-Sides and Rarities earlier this year, can we expect any further releases or is that it?\u00a0<\/strong>
\nAs of right now I think we\u2019re done. There\u2019s still stuff we\u2019ve always wanted to do like acoustic records, live records things like that, but at the moment *laughs* as lame and as lazy as it sounds, we\u2019re just trying to put as little effort into it as we can to have the maximum amount of fun on our way out. Even just dealing with little things like the Australian immigration papers, renewing our passports, like that stuff is just stressing me out a little too much, like goddamn it, I don\u2019t want to be doing this but the cool thing is once I get it done then I\u2019m like sweet, it\u2019s just smooth sailing. But, I don\u2019t know, there\u2019s could be something eventually but right now I don\u2019t think we have any plans to release anything.<\/p>\n

Not even filming one of your farewell shows for a DVD or something?<\/strong>
\nI think if we do that it will probably just be something for free on YouTube, but yeah, I would love to document it somehow, it would be great, even if it\u2019s just footage that we put together ourselves, but yeah I think that would be a lot of fun, just having some kind of little keepsake to remember it.<\/p>\n

Looking back over your career, is there one moment that stands out for you as something you’ll never forget?<\/strong>
\nOh man, I was actually just thinking about it, but pretty much anytime we\u2019ve been in the same boat as one of our idols or a band we grew up listening to. There was one moment when The Swellers got to go on tour with Only Crime and Wilhelm Scream, Wilhelm Scream being one of our favourite bands and some of our best buds, this is in 2007. Only Crime is a band made up of Bill Stevenson from Blag Flag and Descendents, and Russ Rankin from Good Riddance and Arron from Bane, kind of a supergroup if you will, and we played a show that not many people came out to and the promoter handed us a handful of money and said here it is, split it up how you want. I\u2019ll never forget it because Bill from Descendents handed me $18, he took $18 and then he gave A Wilhelm Scream $18, like at that moment we were all equal and it was nuts, it was the most punk rock thing I\u2019ve ever been a part of, like this veteran was like these three bands deserve to get equal pay and I was like, man that\u2019s so cool. Then later on we got to record a record with Bill Stevenson, he\u2019s kind of the mastermind behind \u2018Inside My Head\u2019 sounding so huge, so we kind of came full circle with that.\u00a0 We\u2019ve had some really cool moments, I like the full circle stuff, like getting to be friends with \u2018Saves The Day\u2019 because we kind of grew up and started the band listening to the band, then they made a record in our home town, so we made a record in the same studio, just crazy stuff. Like that\u2019s the stuff I live for, that\u2019s the stuff I really love about being in a band.<\/p>\n

How do you want The Swellers to be remembered?<\/strong>
\nOh man, that\u2019s the thing, people are already talking about our legacy saying we deserved better or we deserved to be bigger or whatever, which is nice, but I would hate to be remembered that way because it makes us look like we were so shitty *laughs*, like \u2018oh dude The Swellers, they were so great but everyone else thinks they sucked and ignored them\u2019 like I don\u2019t want that to be the legacy. I want it to be, that band loaded on stage and then loaded off stage really, really fast, like that would be a cool way to be remembered *laughs* just that punk band that didn\u2019t talk between songs sometimes, but you know, whatever, as long as we can be remembered as being part of it, just being part of the punk rock thing for as many years as we did it, that would be great.<\/p>\n

So what’s next for you?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve got a bunch of stuff going on, I\u2019ve got two puppies now, I\u2019m married, got a house, making records in a studio for other bands I\u2019m an engineer producer guy, I\u2019m studying to be a personal fitness trainer, and watching a lot of pro wrestling and that\u2019s pretty much it. I\u2019ve just got like nine things that I\u2019m in to *laughs* playing in a cover band with my brother, that\u2019s kind of fun, but yeah just doing a little bit of everything that I can so I don\u2019t go insane just sitting at home doing nothing.<\/p>\n

Lastly, let’s go out with a prediction, so finish this sentence for me, in 2015, The Swellers will…<\/strong>
\nThe Swellers will probably play way more shows than we should, and our fans will start saying, wait, are you actually breaking up, this is stupid\u2026 *laughs* so I think that\u2019s what\u2019s going to happen next year, we\u2019re just going to keep getting offers to come to different countries and just keep going, and going, and going, and then we\u2019re going to be like \u2018this is our last show ever\u2019 and then a week later it\u2019s going to be like \u2018actually no, we\u2019ve got to go to Arkansas\u2019 and play there. So we\u2019ll probably just annoy people with the slowest breakup every, but hopefully someone out there enjoys it at least\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Catch The Swellers as part of Soundwave 2015 at the following dates:<\/strong><\/p>\n

SATURDAY 21 FEBRUARY & SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY, 2015
\n<\/strong>BONYTHON PARK, ADELAIDE & FLEMINGTON RACECOURSE, MELBOURNE<\/p>\n

SATURDAY 28 FEBRUARY & SUNDAY 1 MARCH, 2015
\n<\/strong>OLYMPIC PARK, SYDNEY & BRISBANE SHOWGROUNDS, BRISBANE<\/p>\n

For tickets and more information head to<\/p>\n

soundwavefestival.com<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0facebook.com\/soundwavefestival<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0twitter.com\/soundwavefest<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> Flint, MI, USA<\/p>\n

Band members: <\/strong>Nick Diener – Guitar \/ Vocals, Jonathan Diener \u2013 Drums, Ryan Collins \u2013 Guitar, Anto Boros – Bass.<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> http:\/\/www.theswellers.com<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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