No More Normal

“Black music has always had the greatest restrictions,” Cameron Palmer, aka Swindle, tells Apple Music. “Especially in the UK. But now artists are able to create their own industries, work with their own kind of people, sell to their own crowds directly. We're able to shine in a new way.” The South London producer/multi-instrumentalist’s second album is testament to this confidence. A bold, intelligent, and hugely engaging culmination of a three-year project that takes in UK rap, jazz, soul, and a diverse array of guest vocalists, it’s an album capturing the multiculturalism of modern Britain. Swindle explores his album’s themes and sounds here, in an exclusive track-by-track guide.
“What We Do” (feat. Rider Shafique, P Money, D Double E & Daley) “I was in LA and had D Double E and Daley in the same studio. We were just chilling on a night off, and the penny dropped that if I didn't make a tune with the pair of them at that time, the opportunity might not ever come up again. It also really inspired me to kind of chase this unlikely collaborative spirit and concept across the whole album. So it's the first track on the album, the first thing recorded for the album, but also one of the first moments of inspiration.”
“Get Paid” “This track marks a couple of things. It explores how becoming a musician is a dream: being able to do what you want and using your creativity to create your own platform. Your biggest asset is your imagination. And then you get hit with the first reality of financial anxiety.”
“Drill Work” (feat. Ghetts) “‘Drill Work’ paints a picture of an option many people take when faced with the day-to-day financial struggles. When you choose to do music with your life, you're almost guaranteed to be skint for a time. But I never planned to get Ghetts on a tune. He walked into the studio as I began work on it and the whole thing came together naturally—as soon as he heard the beat, he just started freestyling in the pattern that the song took. Within 24 hours I had the strings and the horns in and we were away. But the reason it is so important is because it's a direct look at the violent realities of what's happening in London right now. The album is to be inspiring, and is to show you that people’s lives are changing through music—and someone like Ghetts is included in that. But many of us are coming from quite dark, violent, and intense places, and ‘Drill Work’ allows me to show that in a way that I can't just with my other music.”
“Run Up” (feat. Kiko Bun, Knucks, Eva Lazarus & Nubya Garcia) “This is the album’s fork in the road. ‘Get Paid’ is, like I say, about your financial anxiety, and asks what you’re going to do. Will you go down the ‘Drill Work’ path, with the gunshots at the end of that track? ‘Run Up’ takes you to what could have been—or what still could be—if you take that different path. Knucks tells his story of being the hot new kid on the block, where he’s surrounded by temptations but is able to start finding his path through music.”
“Coming Home” (feat. Kojey Radical) “This is about making it, you know? Kojey and I had just come back off this great show in Russia and felt like we should take a rare moment to celebrate. ‘We're out here, we're making these people dance, we're nicking a living. Let’s celebrate.’”
“Reach the Stars” (feat. Andrew Ashong) “Andrew is just the kind of man who can pick up a guitar or open his mouth at any point and something amazing will happen. Super talented. I don't know when he will, but I won't be surprised when, one day, he presents this classic album that no one saw coming.”
“Knowledge” (feat. Eva Lazarus & Kiko Bun) “Eva’s beautiful part at the top of the song is one of my favorite verses. And it acts as part of our narration. The intro of ‘What We Do,’ the end of ‘Coming Home,’ the beginning of ‘Knowledge,’ and the end of ‘Grateful’—that’s the album’s arc. The song is about having faith in what you know. Looking after your own self, and contributing what you can, as opposed to wasting your time, say, arguing with random racists on Twitter.”
“Take It Back” (feat. D Double E & Kiko Bun) “D Double E, Kiko Bun, and an orchestra is my happy place, man.”
“California” (feat. Etta Bond & Kojey Radical) “This track is escapism, it's fantasy. Kojey actually suggested having Etta on this one and told me she’d love the hook. He knew that I was having Etta come in, so out of nowhere I've got a session with both of them and we're recording that track. And he was really, really right. It’s also cool to have a love letter to LA on the album.”
“Talk a Lot” (feat. Eva Lazarus) “It’s maybe a strange thing to say, but I really like how there are hardly any words. We were having downtime in the studio and everyone was just on their phones finding all sorts of horrible stuff. When someone says something outrageous, it's so easy to bite at it. But the problem with these people is that they have nothing to say, and they're saying it too loud. So we came up with the line ‘You talk a lot, but you're saying nothing/Say something.’ And we decided not to add anything else.”
“Grateful” (feat. Kojey Radical & Rider Shafique) “Rider Shafique’s verse on the end here was the last piece of audio recorded for the record, which felt important. ‘What We Do’ was literally the first, and this is the last. At the end of all of this, where we start dreaming of something, then getting through the struggles of ‘Drill Work,’ moving somewhere positive and celebratory with ‘Coming Home’ before trusting in your own intuition with ‘Knowledge.’ At the end of all of that, I wanted to end with a feeling of gratitude.”