The Act: OLI SWAN

The Release: MILLENNIAL PRESSURE

The Format: DIGITAL MINI-ALBUM

The Release Date: SEPTEMBER 30TH 2022

The Tracklisting:
1) 'Millennial Pressure'
2) 'Be Kind'
3) 'Networker'
4) 'Midnight Phase'
5) 'Still With Me'
6) 'Night Fright'
7) 'Whiplash'

The Digital Link:orcd.co/millennialpressure_album

The Truth: 'Millennial Pressure' is the brand new mini-album from music industry dreamboat OLI SWAN. Last time around in the spring of 2021 the singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist, originally from East Anglia and now based in London, was fronting up the exuberantly fragrant live band the Dangerous Creatures. With them, he delivered the impeccably-titled 'All My Friends Are Lonely' EP, a five track sprint through the kind of soft pop which radiated across the summers of the mid-'70s.

Now 'Millennial Pressure' finds our hero fast forwarding through to a time when the best pop is perky and pert and sparklingly precise, as evinced by the title track and the gorgeous radio follow up 'Be Kind'. So it's electronic, but a tonic for the ears, a little bit like Tame Impala taking style tips from Harry Styles. Throw in echoes of Thomas Dolby, 10cc and the odd trickle of Tears For Fears, add a couple of utterly cosmic interludes and set the controls for the heart of the melodic sun. Fittingly, the album explores themes of anxiety and coming-of-age in an online world, set against a backdrop of late-night synthesizers & drum machines. Or, in Oli's own words...

“'Millennial Pressure' is a concept album. It didn’t start out that way but the more I listened to the songs during the recording process, the more it seemed as though they were circling around the same themes... relationships & anxieties in an online-world. At the height of the pandemic it felt like you could really see the transition to living more of our lives online intensifying. It was a weird feeling & I think that informed a lot of the music. We started to push the concept thing more in the production etc. after noticing the themes in the music.

“The album was recorded in a fairly short period of time during the second UK lockdown. The pandemic meant that I was able to gain access to a bunch of cheap studio downtime, as most recording studios were forced to close. It was self recorded & produced with two people that I am very close with (Jean Stevens, Billy Foster) and we were able to work in quite an insular way without the usual distractions of other work or projects. I wanted the record to have a particular kind of futuristic feeling... I was into using a lot of vocoders, drum machines, & digital synthesizers at the time. I think we got pretty close to what we set out to do. I don’t think I’ll ever make anything like it again”

Since the last EP, when not writing and recording, Oli has been busy rejuvenating a decommissioned studio in the wilds of the Suffolk industrial hinterland, opposite a sugar factory. This labour of love will become the hub of his many future sweethearted projects. Oh, Oli has also struck up a sensationally unlikely creative lockdown bromance with Robbie Williams, who thinks he’s “incredible!” and who took it upon himself to tweet out about the previous Swan songs last year. The bromance has developed to the point where they have collaborated on each other's latest records.

The end result is a resoundingly empathetic sound which has already received the highest of praise and the airiest of plays from Jack Saunders (Radio One), Tom Ravenscroft (BBC 6Music), Gary Crowley (BBC London), Angelle Joseph (BBC Introducing Suffolk) and Shell Zenner (Amazing Radio), as well as support from indie heroes The Magic Numbers, The Graveltones and Ren Harvieu.

More gig news soon...

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