The Statement: SWTBRDS
when the idea for swtbrds first came up in 2008, it was a simple one. we were a group of friends all making art–music, design and illustration, photography, and film. around that time, the internet felt liver than it probably ever had, and we saw an opportunity to get organized…to get our act together. we decided to band all of our resources together to create a vehicle that could get our art farther along, and more importantly, allow us to create on our own terms. so we made a logo, told ourselves we'd do everything in-house, from the music to the videos, the album art…everything. we became known as swtbrds creative collective, dropped our first official release in 2009, and things started to unfold in amazing ways. since then, we've experienced life like we could've never imagined. we've traveled all over the country to perform in major cities like new york and la, at festivals like cmj and sxsw. never did we think we'd have the biggest media outlets talking about our music, our art. we were excited when we started to see our albums pop up in xxl, complex, the fader, pitchfork, the source, wax poetics…shit, even esquire. we've met lifelong friends along the way, and have strengthened our own bonds within the collective to the point of family. the funny thing is, we never sought out to be a label, but naturally, as a crew that was putting out quality music, that's how people understood us so we ran with it. however, at our core, we've always been an art collective, a group of friends making shit together. fast forward to 2014. here we are. we've all grown tremendously, as both artists and human beings. and now it's time to push that growth farther, beyond our current boundaries. we're gonna bookend this chapter of our lives as a collective as we take steps forward to create new chapters and redefine everything. with respect to that, we will be leaving up all of our music on bandcamp, soundcloud, youtube, and this website. the content we put out as swtbrds will live on as an archive, with everything still accessible online via our website, youtube, soundcloud, and bandcamp. stay tuned in with everyone from the collective as we all take steps forward in our paths. let us be clear–this aint no ending, just the next step in our ongoing story. new creations are on the way, sooner than you think. peace to everyone who was a part of this chapter, especially the fans. thank you, we love yall. -- the collective