Scaling the ladder in rock music is a perilous climb alright, but there’s no disputing that three Piedmonters cleared a higher new rung last week.
The boost came courtesy of a giant new billboard lighting up high above New York City’s Times Square. The billboard is a Soundcloud promo and features the artists behind the Piedmont-based punk band SWMRS — brothers Max, Cole and Cade Becker. Beside plugging ‘New Horse,’ the band’s newest release, the billboard is an eye-catching statement that there is new life in SWMRS after multiple personnel exits, a nasty car crash, and the Covid pandemic nearly knocked them off the ladder for good.
SWMRS first broke out as a band in 2016 with their punchy album ‘Drive North’ which one critic called “one of the most impressive punk debuts from the last decade.” With brothers Cole and Max Becker on guitars along with drummer Joey Armstrong and bassist Seb Mueller, SWMRS built an enthusiastic fan base drawn to their cheeky lyrics and loud, driving live performances. They quickly conquered the Oakland alt punk club scene, moved out across California, and then beyond to Europe. Soon they were playing scores of live dates.
Then over the space of a year, it became undone. First, the band found itself suddenly on the hot seat when drummer Armstrong’s romantic dispute with a girlfriend brought down the wrath of SWMRS’ huge Instagram following. Armstrong soon left the band, as did Mueller. Not long afterwards while enroute to a gig in the northwest, the band’s touring van spun out on a patch of black ice on a Wyoming highway, leaving Max Becker with serious head trauma. He faced many months of recovery, and taught guitar on the side to keep his chops.
Over a few years, SWMRS reconstituted itself, and in a kind of amusing twist is re-emerging as family band, something you don’t see every day in punk. After a taking a crash course in bass guitar, youngest brother Cade joined the band. When SWMRS began booking multiple new dates in Mexico and Europe, they realized they needed someone to supervise their merchandise table. That’s when Tami Becker, the boys’ mom stepped in. “Max was working so hard to get himself back on stage,” said Tami, “his brothers were helping him heal, and I wanted them to help them get back to doing something they love. I love travel, I love to talk, so I said to them ‘take me on tour!’ And they did!”
One taste of driving the winding routes between cities like Amsterdam, Paris and Cologne –sometimes as much as 8 hours per leg — made them quickly realize they needed a driver. That’s where dad Mark Becker, stepped in, manning the wheel on the road as much as possible. “The boys are all great drivers but they’re better off in the back seat writing songs,” adds Tami. Sister Marki also kicked in by designing for the band album covers, t-shirts, posters, and graphics for social media hits.
In addition to the single ‘New Horse’, SWMRS will soon release a new album, as well as extend their 10th anniversary ‘Drive North’ tour across a series of US dates. Between gigs, each of the boys – and Marki — holds down a day job. Max recently moved back to Piedmont from Washington DC with his wife and joined the Corcoran real estate brokerage.
Tami, who now sets up, breaks down, and hauls around kilos of t-shirts, baseball caps and vinyl recordings between concert dates admits that no one in the Becker family ever imagined they’d morph into a family band — like the Osmonds, the Partridges, or the Hansons. “I drove the boys around when they were younger,” remembers Tami. “At least nobody’s embarrassed now when they pull up to a punk venue in the tour van and their mom gets out of the van with them! It’s really cool to go along with them.”