Tatjana Harrington-Steward speaks to George Rawlings (synth, guitar) of Brighton four-piece Safe to Swim about BIMM, the competitive local music scene, and getting into music through School of Rock.

Rawlings uses the intriguing term ‘glam-grunge’ to describe his band’s sound.

Have you guys had a busy summer?

Yeah, it’s been good fun. We’ve played a few festivals, a few gigs and in any free time we’ve just been writing and recording a lot.

What inspired you to start a band?

To start with, we were mainly just playing together for assessments at BIMM Brighton, and we had our own separate projects, but after a while we realised that we had the most fun and made the music we enjoyed most, together. In terms of each of us individually, we all had relatively musical upbringings and, as is always the case, the bands we grew up with made us want to do it ourselves. For me personally, it was School of Rock. I always dreamed of shredding a solo to a thousand people on a weekday afternoon.

How does BIMM inspire you guys as a band?

It’s nice to be able to spend all day focused on music. If you spend your days studying it and then the evenings and weekends you’re gigging, it feels like you’ve already hit that level of it being your life. It’s good to be surrounded by somewhat like-minded people, at least more so than the ones at school or a less vocational university.

What do you think of Brighton’s music scene?

Brighton is a great place to find a good gig happening any night of the week. The more music in the world, the better. But it does mean you’re somewhat diluted. You’ve got to work hard to try to stand out, which I guess is good in some ways, because it motivates you to do all you can to make it happen. But sometimes the level of ‘competition’ can make it tough.

Where is your favourite place to play and go to gigs in Brighton?

We’ve played quite a few times at Sticky Mike’s, so that sort of feels like home to us. The staff are always nice and there’s generally a good crowd up for some fun. Green Door is great on a good night. It was also a personal ambition of mine to get on a gig at Concorde 2 in our time here, so when we played there last year supporting Built to Spill it was a definite highlight.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with the band could you describe your sound?

Glitter-Slacker/Glam-Grunge. Think 90s slacker rock and 80s pop had a baby and dropped it headfirst into a tub of glitter.

Who are some of your biggest influences musically?

We each have our own individual influences which I think helps to form a slightly more ‘different’ sound. Joe is into his surf and grunge and garage rock. Jim’s into anything with a hook. George has an unhealthy obsession with The 1975. As a band, those influences combine to make a general answer of “The Strokes, Pixies, Joy Division, Magazine.”

As an upcoming band, what makes you stand out from the rest?

I don’t know if that’s up to us to decide. The thing with Brighton is that there are a lot of Grunge/Emo/Post-Punk revival bands, whom we all love; and there are a lot of synth-pop bands; ditto. I’d like to think that we bridge that gap and dip our toes in both pools.

Do you have any upcoming shows or releases?

We’re doing a show at The Finsbury in London on the 1st of October with Young & Aspiring for Blogtober, which should be fun. We’ve played there a couple of times, and it’s always packed out. And then we’re playing at The Hope & Ruin with All Tvvins on October 18.