Black Swedes

Over the course of their recorded catalog, Black Swedes revealed a capacity for both intimate folk and bombastic guitar work. The band was Ian Bell (voice), Matt Benham (guitar), and Jon Wooster (bass). Michael Knight (Transmissionary), Michael Schorr (Death Cab For Cutie), Adrian Van Batenburg (Gems), Andy King (Dustmoth), and Kaanan Tupper (The Intelligence) all contributed drums along the way. Their influences, including Nick Drake, Television, and Joy Division, inform their pop-tinged jaunts through rock’s darker fringes.

Benham and Bell began working together in the spring of 2007 after their previous bands, Argo (Benham) and Sea.mine (Bell) had called it quits. Having already booked studio time and written material for what would become 'Things I've Tried to Misplace', Bell asked Benham if he would join the session. After the session, they quickly made plans to pare down the sound even further for their debut 'Tempest'. Once released the Swedes worked with local string quartets to bring the sound to the stage. Missing the energy of a band they brought on bassist Chris Brummel for the 'Call' session, while still keeping the orchestral elements that ran throughout their debut.

Left feely that they couldn't consistently bring the orchestral sound to the stage the Swedes began working on material that would have them shed their acoustic sound. With Wooster flushing out the new sound, the Swedes, along with long-time producer Josh Evans, churned out 'Phase'.