BIOGRAPHY:
Swallow This came up with the name of their band from the classic horror flick, Evil Dead 2, specifically from the scene where the Evil tells Bruce Campbell that it will swallow his soul, and Campbell respond’s, “Swallow This!”, and proceeds to shoot the evil creature in the head using his shotgun which he purchased from S-Mart.......”Shop Smart, Shop S-Mart!”
The three young men who formed Swallow This had an obsession with horror movies, but especially horror movies that starred the legendary, Bruce Campbell. The members chose to surround the band with an Evil Dead and Army of Darkness vibe, which is clear to see when you listen to songs like, “Dead By Dawn”.
Swallow This formed in 1996, and the trio felt determined to do things right, and started off by writing a few songs, and then quickly entering the studio to record a demo.
The band chose to record at Westbeach Studio’s, and had their music engineered and mixed by the legendary Donnel Cameron, who had worked with several popular punk bands ranging from Bad Religion and Pennywise, to The Offspring and NOFX. The recording helped the band considerably, and they managed to get booked at several shows in their hometown of Vegas, and signed to Bad Stain Records in late 1997.
Bad Stain Records wanted the band to record a full length album immediately, although the members had their minds set on recording at Westbeach Studios with Donnel Cameron again, and the label couldn’t afford the high cost of recording at that time. Swallow This agreed to wait six months to allow the label to generate the funds required to record at Westbeach, and in the meantime, Bad Stain released the “Mr. T Versus Godzilla” seven inch record. The record was released in August of 1998 and had a limited press run of just 2,000 copies, with the first 500 copies on red vinyl, and featured 3 of the tracks from the bands demo cassette. The record sold over 1,000 copies in its first year, and Swallow This once again entered the studio to record their debut full length release in the summer of 1999.
Swallow This released their debut full length album, “Tell Me Vision”, on Bad Stain Records in September of 1999. The band had an amazing response, partially due to the fact that Bad Stain had been promoting the release of the album since the spring of 1999, by taking out dozens of ads in various fanzines across the U.S., sending full color postcard advertisements for the CD to the 3,800 people on the label’s mailing list, and printing 6,000 posters that were plastered throughout the cities of Las Vegas, Phoenix, Hollywood, and L.A.
In October of 1999, Swallow This hit the road and started their journey on a 3 week tour. The band had planned to do the tour with fellow Bad Stain Recording Artists, Dirty Laundry, although Dirty Laundry had split up a few months prior to the start date. The two bands had toured together twice in the past, and had developed a strong mutual fanbase across the southwestern U.S., and Swallow This was forced to replace Dirty Laundry with an unsigned and relatively unknown band from their hometown of Las Vegas. Despite low expectations, the tour started off great, with hundreds of fans attending their performances and strong album sales. Unfortunately, several later shows were very unsuccessful, with only a handful of fans in attendance, financially devastating the band. The final show of the tour was the “Welcome Home Swallow This” concert in Las Vegas, and over 700 fans showed up for the event. Unfortunately the money generated from that show was not enough to make up for the hundreds of dollars that they had lost during the tour, and the financial problems started to cause personal issues within the band.
In early 2000, the band announced that they were breaking up due to personal issues and creative differences.