Christopher McVicker has inspired his fellow songwriters in the Bay Area for a long time. Although the average music fan may not know who he is, the albums he’s released under his musical alias, Swiftumz, have made waves in the local musical community since an early song he wrote, “Don’t Cha Want Me Back,” became an underground hit for Hunx and His Punx.
“In the early 2000s, I was around a lot of people in bands,” McVicker said. “I knew basic guitar chords and some music theory, so I started playing in bands. Around that time, my roommate Seth Bogart was working on his Hunx and His Punx project. ‘Don’t Cha Want Me Back’ was released as a single and on the Gay Singles album. John Whitson, who runs Holy Mountain Records, heard ‘Don’t Cha Want Me Back’ and offered to put out an LP.”
That deal led to the first Swiftumz album, Don’t Trip. McVicker’s second effort, Everybody Loves Chris, came out in 2015. Then he hit a snag. “We lost a former bandmate to suicide,” he said. “We lost a bit of the drive to play, but it motivated me to quit drinking. We got a new guitar player who became unable to play anymore, so the band lost a bit of momentum.”
Despite the setbacks, McVicker and his band’s bass player and drummer, Marie Davenport and Nick Makanna, kept working on songs that appear on Simply the Best. It took three years for songs to get recorded. “I was working six, sometimes seven days a week,” McVicker said. “Everyone I play music with has jobs, families and their own creative pursuits. Recording with a limited budget, I have to rely on my talented friends to donate time and effort to get it done.”
Kelley Stoltz, Alicia Vanden Heuvel (Aislers Set,) Brian Hamilton, Chris Guthridge and other friends produced the songs on Simply the Best in their home studios. “A lot of the tunes were done in one take,” McVicker said. “I’d send it to the other players and we would record it on guitar, bass and drums on the day of the recording. One thing that ties all the songs together is I used an acoustic Martin guitar from the 1800s, a family heirloom, on most of the recordings. That gave the songs an anchor.”
The tunes on Simply the Best cover a range of styles. “Finally Through,” produced by Stoltz, calls to mind an R&B hit from the ’50s. Its rhythm is grounded on basic rock triplets played on McVicker’s acoustic, highlighted by Stoltz’s chiming keyboard textures. McVicker’s vocals describe the pain at the end of a relationship. “It’s semi-autobiographical, with the emotion ramped up for the art,” McVicker said.
Chris Guthridge produced “Unconditional,” a high-speed punk-rock tune, with Brian Plaskett, his bandmate from the Fleshies. Guthridge’s distorted electric guitar, Davenport’s dynamic bass line and Nick Makanna’s drumming keep the energy high as McVicker pledges love to an indifferent paramour. Guthridge brings a haunting guitar hook to the opening verse of “Almost Through.” There’s a hint of Memphis soul in the arrangement, with its solid backbeat and McVicker’s vocal pleading for mercy.
Marie Davenport wrote “Never Impress” and plays the rolling bass line that keeps this rocker moving. Chris Guthridge wrote and played the 12-string guitar hook. McVicker softly sighs his pledge of love, with producer Vanden Heuvel’s backing harmonies adding to the song’s romantic yearning.
After the album’s completion, unforeseen delays beyond McVicker’s control prevented it from being released for almost four more years. “I put the guitar aside for a couple of years, when everything was in limbo,” he said. ”Marie and I are practicing and working on putting a setlist together. We’ll be playing live in the coming months. I’m confident in my music, but talking about it and promoting it seems a bit over the top for me.
“I work a fulltime job,” McVicker added. “I do music for fun and enjoyment. I’m good at banging out rhythms on the guitar. I don’t identify as an artist. I appreciate having a creative outlet, and I’m lucky to have an opportunity to put out records. It would be great to be successful enough to have more time to spend on music, but I make a decent living at my day job. I have no plans for a musical career. To me, that sounds like a nightmare.”
Listen to ‘Simply the Best’ at: swiftumz.bandcamp.com/album/simply-the-best.