As Memorial Day approaches the Sun City, music lovers from all around are preparing for Neon Desert’s 8th annual event. The downtown festival will have a lineup of 40 artists including the popular local band The Swell Kids, who will be returning to Neon Desert for the second time.
“Playing in the VIP lounge at Neon last year was a huge eye opener for us because there is so much that goes on behind the scenes,” said The Swell Kids member, Alexander Bejarano. “It really inspired us to step it up that entire year to make sure that we got a chance to play on an actual stage in the 2018 festival.”.
To prepare for the upcoming festival, The Swell Kids have been marketing themselves with the help of their manager and creative director, Adrian Correa. They have also been putting out new music, remixes and have even been hosting their own events at the bar Prickly Elder called “Swell Sessions.”
After releasing their full-length album Good Problems, they were asked to open for Cut Copy at Tricky Falls and other big names at venues like Lowbrow Palace, Later Later, Buchanan’s Event Center, Born and Raised and Club Here I Love You.
Before the duo began their careers as The Swell Kids, they were standing in front of a different kind of audience back in 2010. The pair originally began working together by teaching hip-hop dance lessons to people throughout El Paso after forming a friendship over their love of a group called Chiddy Bang. It wasn’t until years later that the twosome would think of pursuing a musical career over their already established dance career bringing them back to their shared love of music.
“What people don’t know is that The Swell Kids began as a choreography duo back in 2010, 2011,” said Bejarano. “Around 2015 or 2016, we decided to put dance on the backburner. That’s when we started experimenting with making music instead of just teaching dance classes.”
Although their dancing career was set aside, the two of them continued to use their musical influences to help create the sound they have today which varies from Indie R&B to Hip Hop trap music. Despite having a shifting sound, the two believe the overall energy and unique sound will leave the listener wanting more.
“Our sound is completely 2 different spectrums,” said The Swell Kids member, Eddie Vasquez. “I like to just say it’s like indie/R&B future-beats type of genre. It’s definitely different in the El Paso area for sure.”
Right now, The Swell Kids are focusing on honing their sound while making a name for themselves as they spread their music to the masses through every possible outlet available to them. They are currently working on hosting a music video release party on April 26, along with a “Fuck The Swell Kids” pop-up shop the following day, then a pre-party the day before Neon.
“We don’t really have an end game to things, we’re just going with the flow but as a manager and creative director, I feel like we built something big, and now my plan is to take them outside of El Paso and see what other waters are out there for us,” Correa said.
Words: Tanya Torres