Background
Wes Swing was born in Fairfax, Virginia, and lived there through high school.
Wes Swing was born in Fairfax, Virginia, and lived there through high school.
Upon graduation he briefly moved to Boston, where he completed a piece for eight cellos.
His first album, was released in early 2011. At age 4, he began to play the violin, and was performing in orchestras in the second grade. After dabbling with rock in high school, he returned to classical music studies, especially the cello, at the College of William and Mary, while pursuing a major in Latin.
He found work as a Latin teacher in Charlottesville, but soon decided to leave teaching to focus on performing live music and recording his first album.
He established himself locally from 2006 onward through performances at smaller venues like the former Gravity Lounge and Nelson County"s Rapunzel"son Meanwhile, he recorded tracks for at his home, at the time a small cabin in Nelson County.
He began collaborating with several other locally known artists, including Devon Sproule who provided backing vocals for several of Swing"s tracks, and Brian Caputo on drums. In January 2011, was released.
A tour in support of the album is forthcoming, with dates to be announced on the west coast of the United States and in Germany.
Swing"s first album has been described as "highbrow popular", reminiscent of Radiohead. Cello and violin feature prominently alongside guitar and drums. The lyrics have a "strong literary component", with poetic influences.
Two tracks, "In a Station of the Metro" and "All Other Love", are (respectively) Ezra Pound and Thomas Stearns Eliot poems set to music
In general, both the music and lyrics have the sparse repetition characteristic of Swing"s minimalist influences, while making use of more modern popular instrumentation and production techniques.
