Experience Swimming Paul’s Depiction of Life on His Debut Album

On Swimming Paul’s debut album, Smiling Through The Pain, the enigmatic producer delivers a soulful record that details the human experience.

In early 2020, we were all optimistic about accomplishing our New Year’s resolutions. It was supposed to be another ordinary year filled with typical goals like more travel, saving money, or exploring a new hobby.

But as we now know, nothing was normal that year. We were disconnected from the dancefloor and one another. And although the efforts of virtual live sets brought a small comfort as the virus raged on, each lockdown day we yearned for the time when we could be dancing together again.

But a new sound emerged from isolation and social distancing, one that’s both haunting and euphoric. It samples real-life conversations about our pandemic experiences and desires, expressing our stories with wistful tones and melancholic soundscapes. Instead of dance music’s usual cheery lyrics of promised lands, these raw records acted as a personal diary note or as a voicemail from a close friend. Our craving for connection and healing grew loud, and four years later, this profound feeling still exists today.

In the past year, London-based producer Swimming Paul has been exploring this solemn frontier and expanding it to vulnerable, new territories. The producer first gained traction after Pete Tong played “Fading,” a heart-wrenching house record with an energetic four-on-the-floor beat, on his BBC Radio 1 program last spring. (It was the producer’s second single, and he was only a few months fresh into the project.)

Swimming Paul then followed his breakout hit with a slew of singles. He released about one every month, and each took on a life of its own.

His album debut, Smiling Through The Pain, features the 13 singles he released in the past year along with five new tracks, making the record an hour-long listen. The previously released music, however, is carefully curated, as each transition builds on the emotions and timbre of the previous song.

The album starts with an emotional thrust. “Fknow It,” originally released last June, is a voice note to a romantic partner. The flickering of chopped lyrics conveys the thrill of a new relationship as the thumpy bassline, snippets of recorded conversations, and spectral hues overload your senses.

A few songs later, the club-ready “Lost” calls you to the dancefloor. But you’re dancing with grief, not joy. The electrifying house piano melodies mask the vocalist’s tears. “It doesn’t matter anymore. / My heart is broken,” but the singer soon realizes that “It’s ok not feeling ok,” and that getting lost might be the remedy for a broken heart.

But the most surprising listen on this record is “Trouble.” It sees Swimming Paul paint such a dark sonic picture that not even the gentle vocalist can comfort the listener. The voice quickly dissipates, as a lone, tearful synth extracts any resemblance of warmth, conjuring a somber atmosphere with the power of an arctic chill. You hear faint voices reaching out to you, but you feel too empty to respond.

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As intimate and vulnerable as this record is, we still know very little about the producer. In the year leading up to his debut album, he has kept his face hidden, forgoing the standard social media plan of singing one’s music in front of a camera.

Instead, he leaned on his growing fanbase to submit joyful videos and photos to pair with the release of his singles, further amplifying the communal themes in his music. He’s played a handful of shows in Europe in recent months — but if you were to conduct a YouTube search to find a live performance, you’d find nothing. The only clue we have is that he’s from Paris.

But the point of this record is not to uncover more about the producer, but to listen to his interpretation of the human experience. The final song is a tuneful, poignant version of “Fknow It” renamed “Now She Knows.” Its piano ballads are expansive, letting the same lyrics breathe in between its uplifting notes.

But the vocals now carry a reflective tone instead of a romantic one. It’s the answer to how to smile through the pain, but the narrator realizes that they don’t need to spell it out, because now, “I guess she fucking knows it.”

Experience Smiling Through The Pain on your preferred platform, and follow Swimming Paul for his latest releases and shows.

Stream Swimming Paul – Smiling Through The Pain on Spotify:

Swimming Paul – Smiling Through the Pain – Tracklist:

Fading

Fknow It

Trust Again

2special

The Way It Goes

Lost

11 PM

Say Something

Tell You

Trouble

Vhs

Skrt

Focus

Your Song

Ring The Alarm

Smiling Through The Pain

Double Trouble

Now She Knows

Follow Swimming Paul:

Instagram | SoundCloud | YouTube