Fame eluded Swervedriver, but fans can’t forget group

March 31, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Selling out was never a consideration for ’90s U.K. act Swervedriver, which never attracted a hint of mainstream attention from the then exploding alternative nation.

Looking back at the entire experience, frontman-guitarist Adam Franklin doesn’t seem bitter for lost opportunities, just confused. Specifically the conversation turns to why the band’s heavily melodic and groove-driven music was never considered by advertisers for commercial use. The one head-scratcher for Franklin is Swervedriver’s tune “Son of Mustang Ford,” which, ahem, at the time seemed perfect for a certain company based in Detroit.

Franklin said it wouldn’t have taken much for the guitar-based band known as a shoegazing bellwether to have agreed. He joked a free stickshift would have done the trick. Whether a calculated comment or a subconscious slip, his use of the stickshift surrounding Swervedriver couldn’t be more apropos in describing the wind-in-hair feeling of the band’s music which seemingly shifts gears, builds up speed and breezes through lush soundscapes with ease.

“Exactly, you can work through the gears, you know,” said Franklin, calling from his Oxford, England, home. “That’s the whole thing. You build it up, arms working hard to get it fired up, while watching the road ahead.”

Franklin’s latter comment about looking up seems directly aimed at the band’s shoegazing tag, which was created in the late ’80s and early ’90s to describe a slew of effects pedal-based guitar bands creating a wall of sound at their feet. Add in the fact the music was a bit emotionally disconnected or aloof, and shoegazing was born.

Forerunners of the scene included The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins, as well as Sonic Youth and even Dinosaur Jr. However, the genre is defined by ’90s acts such as Swervedriver, Ride and Curve. You’ll notice the latter bunch enjoyed only a small pocket of attention stateside.

As for the shoegazing tag, Franklin said its meaning changed over the years.

“Initially it was a derogatory term,” Franklin said. “It kind of sounds a bit ridiculous having a musical genre with the word ‘shoe’ in there. I’d say the main architects would be My Bloody Valentine, but I think we were more rock ’n’ roll sounding. There was kind of more of a grungier element to what we were doing. Today shoegaze has a whole different meaning. People don’t think of it as derogatory. Now it’s like a musical genre of guitar bands playing loud and heavy, almost like a punkish guitar sound but also getting more kind of exploratory as well. Where the guitars don’t sound like guitars.”

That description fits Swervedriver through its four studio albums – 1991’s “Raise,” 1993’s “Mezcal Head,” 1995’s “Ejector Seat Reservation” and 1998’s “99th Dream” – and decade’s worth of concert performances. A record industry casualty, the band called it quits in 1999 only to reform for its diehard fan base in 2008.

That reunion continues today with Swervedriver returning to Northeast Ohio for a Monday show at the Grog Shop. Franklin said originally the reformation was supposed to be a one-off tour but, well, here we are years later. So does that mean fans could be getting new music from the shoegazing act?

“People are always asking if there will be new stuff, and we say we haven’t thought about it, but I think if we’re going to carry on playing shows it’s always fun to play new material,” Franklin said. “I guess we’re looking at doing something but we don’t know what. It wouldn’t necessarily be an album. It could be an EP of instrumentals. Whatever. We’ll see what turns up.”