Dayton Swim Club

By Sean Maldjian, Contributor

Dayton Swim Club circa 2021. Photo by Alicia Echevarria. 

Meet Dayton Swim Club

Some questions with Dayton Swim Club

Tell us about Dayton Swim Club. How did this supergroup come together?

Nick: Dayton Swim Club began as the natural evolution of my solo project Nick Flessa Band. I had been touring and performing my songs with an ensemble lineup for several years when a consistent group clicked in 2019 during a strong run of shows in Los Angeles. During that time we started writing together, which led to the formation of the new project.
In addition to playing guitar and making our flyers/photos/artwork, Mario writes and produces the majority of DSC song ideas, either via home demos or practices with our drummer Jess. I write lyrics in response to these ideas and we form the songs in tandem. Dominique co-fronts the band with me, and our newer members Daniel and Scarlett contribute to the live show.
Mario, Scarlett and Daniel all play in Daniel’s project St. Francis, among others. Dominique is a solo artist specializing in extended technique and experimental songwriting (her recent solo record The Instruction Manual also came out on Perpetual Doom this year). Dayton Swim Club is a sort of conglomerate of these artists with distinct personalities and interests, all brought into the sound of the band.

The name you chose for the project "Dayton Swim Club". Is there a story behind it?

Nick: The name for the project comes from the viral YouTube video “There is Something Fishy at the Dayton Swim Club,” posted in 2006. In this grainy homemade video we follow Chris, a man wearing an ornate Bruce Lee button down who sports a bleach-blonde mullet and mustache. He gives a ten-minute tour of the Dayton Swim Club to prospective members. In a slow burn, we realize this is not a typical swim club, but a gritty swingers’ club with numerous low-budget kink rooms.
“There is Something Fishy at the Dayton Swim Club” was a piece of internet lore straight out of Southern Ohio, where I’m from, made at a time when I still lived there. Mild shock value aside, I always thought the video had strong cultural and poetic resonances. There was something subterranean and clandestine about this otherwise nondescript strip mall in the evangelical Midwest. As the video progresses we descend deeper into a place that feels like both a den of iniquity and community center. What we see in the video no longer exists; the building is now a Metro PCS store. Even so, people looking for the original club frequently message our band Facebook page asking if they can join.
In terms of the band, our song DSC is more or less a lyrical reinterpretation of the video. It was one of the first we wrote as a group, after which we chose Dayton Swim Club as the project name. I think the reference flies over the head of anyone who isn’t familiar with the video, but adds a lot of meaning to those who are. “Club” was an apt descriptor because we had transitioned to a highly collaborative project with members who all had their own interests and solo projects. Dayton Swim Club reads like a general indie rock band name, but there’s also a hidden meaning/reference. Thematically, it works – the stories in our songs dive into subject matter that is often repressed or hiding beneath everyday surfaces.

Still from “There is Something Fishy at the Dayton Swim Club,” YouTube, 2006.

Your 2021 album HANGMAN is out now on Perpetual Doom records. How does it feel being almost a year out from the release?

Mario: We’re really proud of the work we’ve done surrounding the release with several videos, shows and an additional 7” split with Austin Leonard Jones. Releasing music during the pandemic was definitely a learning process, on top of the normal challenges of launching a new band and record. We still exist on the fringes of any conventional music industry trajectory, but there is a sense of pride to be had in carving out our own space. I’m not sure what will change for the follow-up but putting on a memorable show will always be our top priority.

Nick: Agreed! It was really exciting to see this release through. It generated some amazing opportunities and experiences. I’m happy we got to support the record with a great run of shows, and eager to work on new material. I learned a lot from the experience and am ready to apply that knowledge in service of our next record.

How has it been getting to perform tracks from the album live?

Mario: Our shows have been really fun and rewarding with the exception of a few experiences with uncooperative venue-owners and Covid surges. We were lucky to debut our new material at Zebulon in September 2021. It was one of our best shows despite having just a couple of weeks to put a band together, after not having performed in almost two years. We were in good hands that night and had amazing turnout – a big, enthusiastic crowd. Special shout out to Jeremy Katz, who ran sound. The addition of Daniel & Scarlett has also elevated our live shows greatly, allowing us to incorporate some of the more atmospheric/affected elements of the record.

Nick: Dayton Swim Club’s live shows are powerful and cathartic for me, and probably the truest way to experience the project. Everyone in the band is an excellent performer, which has kept things lively no matter what the show. In some ways I feel our record is more a representation of the live show than the other way around, even though certain tracks existed in the studio before they were ever performed.

What was it like putting together the album artwork for the record? Was it a collaborative process?

Mario: The first element of the artwork was inspired by an LP cover of
The Everly Brothers. I have no recollection how I came across that record but I loved the deep contrast and placement of members. I approached Nick & Dominique with this reference and put together a photoshoot with our friend Campbell Logan providing lights/assistance. We shot everything in red in a garage. The color choice was a nod to The Birthday Party Live 1981-82 and the final design elements were semi-inspired by tattoo flash.

Do you have any musical touchpoints that guide the music you are making as Dayton Swim Club?

Nick: It’s tough for me to talk about influences or touch points since everyone is bringing something a little different to the table, but I will try! It’s important for me to mention that my approach is multi-disciplinary. I have a background in filmmaking, writing, fine art and performance. Bertolt Brecht’s work is a major touchstone as a performer, and I view fronting Dayton Swim Club as a certain type of acting. It’s an elevated character that also carries a certain thought process or reflection on me as a person embodying that character. My writing for DSC is grounded in a lot of ideas that came from the New York School of art and poetry. There’s a level of abstraction, refracting otherwise banal details into new thoughts, sounds, and imagery. But as a filmmaker I’m always inclined to tie it back to something narrative. This all sounds serious, but there’s a level of comedy and lowest common denominator humor woven through everything.
Speaking of narrative, the music that I probably listen to the most is rap and country. I am drawn to direct-address and storytelling that uses an unreliable or extremely subjective narrator. A lot of that music delves into a sort of performative autobiography where you think about the line between the writer/performer and them as a person. Though I love and also make experimental and free form music, I have a strong taste for the accessible and easily understood. Music that is simple on the surface but complex in other unexpected ways.
On a musical level I feel pretty genre-resistant. Dayton Swim Club has been asked to DJ a handful of times in the past year. For these sets I will source a playlist with contributions from the rest of the band. It ends up being pretty eclectic, sort of riffing on whatever event we’re DJing. Our first DJ set was for Grady Strange’s residency at the Echo, with Shannon Lay and Austin Leonard Jones. Some of the selects included Judee Sill, The Bats, George Strait, The Fall, Sisters of Mercy, Unwound, Ennio Morricone, Junior Brown, Liz Phair, Charlie Smalls, The Gun Club, U.S. Maple, Ministry and the Succession theme song.

Mario: Instrumentally we are creating music that contains some kind of cinematic feel, reaching for something larger than the conventional assortment of guitar band instruments. There is a strong visual aspect to how we approach things. I have access to a stock footage library we often use as a sort of mood board to pair with tracks. Earlier this year we worked in a studio with all blue lights and slow-motion dolphin footage in the background. A few nights ago, for a heavier track, we looped some cinematic clips of fire, thunder and lightning striking behind a suburban church.

What attracts you to the darker, more atmospheric side of americana music

Nick: Like I mentioned earlier, I’m really drawn to direct, elemental music. I’m a big fan of the Louvin Brothers’ record Tragic Songs of Life, which I think could be characterized as “dark americana.” Even though I think DSC’s sonic palette extends far beyond country music, it does have a kinship with the suburban American landscape. Vocally, it’s also what makes sense for me. It’s a space tied to my life and well-suited to the vignettes and stories I write for our songs.
All of that said, we are very much a Los Angeles band in form if not content. Four of the six members grew up in Southern California, and within that there’s a level of diversity to everyone’s taste and experience. I’ve lived in Los Angeles County for twelve years now, but there’s still something fundamentally “Flyover Country” about my voice and background, or at least how it reads in public. I resisted that early on but have learned to lean into it as a performer, navigating and re-working whatever audiences might superficially project onto me.

Do you have a favorite venue to play in NYC? Why?

Nick: Although our label is based in Brooklyn, Dayton Swim Club has never actually played NYC! We’d love to get the chance sometime soon. As of now we are a firmly local Los Angeles band (the furthest we’ve strayed is Ojai, about 90 minutes away).

I did have a great experience screening one of my films at Spectacle back in 2019 – it’s a DIY microcinema with excellent programming. Prior to that I did a reading at Wendy’s Subway, another incredible space more geared towards art and poetry. Years ago Nick Flessa Band had good experiences playing at IDIO Gallery, which is unfortunately no longer operating.

What's next for Dayton Swim Club?

Nick: We are emerging from summer hiatus and now in the process of working on a follow-up record. There will be a new single and some fall/winter show announcements soon.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

Shout out and thank you to everyone who has supported and continues to support this project! It’s a privilege.