Rob Swire
Robert Swire-Thompson (born 5 November 1982)[1] is an Australian record producer, singer, songwriter, and DJ. He is the founder and vocalist of the drum and bass and electronic rock band Pendulum, as well as DJ and co-founder of electro house duo Knife Party formed of Swire and Gareth McGrillen.
For the English physiotherapist, see Rob Swire (physio).
Rob Swire
Robert Swire-Thompson
Anscenic
5 November 1982
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- Singer
- songwriter
- record producer
- disc jockey
- Vocals
- synthesizer
- guitar
- bass
- keyboards
- percussion
- drums
- piano
1998–present
- Mushroom Group
- Warner Music
- Hardline Rekordingz
- Breakbeat Kaos
- Earstorm
- Xygen
- Pendulum
- Knife Party
Originally from Perth, Western Australia, Swire relocated to the United Kingdom in 2003 with fellow Pendulum co-founders Gareth McGrillen and Paul "El Hornet" Harding. Swire has since fulfilled a broad spectrum of roles as a member of Pendulum, ranging from songwriting to singing while performing live with an unusual guitar-like MIDI controller – Starr Labs' Ztar Z6S-XPA. Swire also plays guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion, and other instruments. He is sometimes referred to by the stage name Anscenic.
Early life[edit]
Rob Swire was born and raised in Perth, Western Australia. When he was a child, his family lived in Harare in Zimbabwe for five years.[2] During his residence, he created a song which was played on a local Zimbabwe radio station. He went to Scotch College, Swanbourne, graduating in 1999, where he first met bandmate Gareth McGrillen.[3] Over the next three years he worked as a record producer for several local drum and bass, breakbeat and metal bands, during which time he occasionally used the stage name "Anscenic". He also made a couple of independent releases with former hardcore techno label Hardline Rekordingz, including a collaboration with the label's founder, Animal Intelligence, which was titled "Fat American Bitchcore".[4] Only twenty lathe cut copies of the record were distributed, to help promote the label's 2001–2002 tour of New Zealand. Swire also produced a track titled "Electrodes on the Skull" which was released alongside three tracks by other artists signed to the label at that time.[5]
Music[edit]
Production[edit]
Swire has worked as a record producer since 1999, most recently for Pendulum while producing the album In Silico, during which he was required to create demos, record the tracks, and mix the album. He is responsible for mixing most of the band's material, although more recently he has avoided mixing vocals, stating that, "Since I was doing the vocals, it's a bit harder to keep the objectivity on the engineer's side".[15] To avoid spending too long worrying about sound quality, Swire drafted the demos for In Silico using Commodore 64 and Nintendo emulators, and basic synthesiser sounds.[16] To record the album, the band travelled to various studios where the live musicians, including Swire himself, recorded acoustic drums, guitars, bass and vocals. In addition to recording the various tracks that constituted each song, Swire recorded samples of the instruments used so that, if he was not happy with one of the tracks, he could then play the part himself using a keyboard sampler.[16] Swire has used Pro Tools for recording audio and Steinberg's Cubase for production, but now mainly uses Steinberg's Nuendo for production and post-production editing. Swire records tracks using both hardware synthesizers and virtual instruments.