ARTIST TO WATCH: Sweekuh
1) Tell us something about yourself that your fans may not know about you.
A: I work a full time systems engineering job at Boeing on the V22 Osprey. When something goes wrong or breaks out in our fleet it’s my job to investigate what happened and how we can prevent it. In my free time when I’m not working or producing music I’ve been working towards my pilots license. I just solo’d for the first time and it’s been an awesome experience.
2) How did you get into music or more specifically, producing electronic music?
A: I’ve been into music my whole life. I played bassoon for 7 years up until college and was in rock bands from middle school until the same time. When I moved across the country for school I didn’t have anyone to play music with, so I recorded all of their parts on a program called Reason. That lead to me learning Fruity Loops and Ableton and the rest is history.
3) Does your family have any musical background or are you the first to get into music?
A: My mom encouraged me to get into piano at an early age, and I can’t thank her enough. My dad has always been a big music fan as well and has influenced me in ways I’m sure he can’t imagine. Everything from the beach boys to Andre Bochelli with Pat Metheny in between.
4) What brought you to Philadelphia?
A: I was born in raised in Southern California, but when my dream college (Air Force Academy) didn’t work out I picked my wildcard backup and moved to Philly to attend Drexel University. I did two internships with Boeing (Electrical Engineering Major) and got a job there upon graduation and have been here ever since.
5) Has Philadelphia had an influence on your music style or even your music in general? How?
A: My first ever show in Philly was at Mad Decent Monday, a show originally put on by diplo (who went to Temple) before his label was putting on artists like NGHTMRE, poppy and more... the amount of culture and diversity that philly brings to the table, from 160 BPM “philly club” to the dnb/dubstep scene here there’s really something for everyone. Phillys taught me how to play an open format bottle service club set but also how to really be yourself and dj as a tastemaker, playing stuff no one has heard before.. yet they love it.
6) What would you say your style is?
A: My style is “Sweekuh” but more importantly “Cwieka” my actual last name. I’m just making music I really enjoy and would listen to and hope others will do the same.
(Video: ENM/YouTube)
7) What's next for you as an artist?
A: For me, I’m just looking to grow with my music. I’ve been hunkering down and trying to make stuff I’m really proud of rather than just chasing the current trend. In today’s music industry artists are constantly stressing about releasing content and it sometimes leads to less quality releases. I think this intense saturation is just a vicious cycle that leads to more and more low quality releases as people try to keep up.
8) What plans do you have for 2019? Can we find you on tour anywhere?
A: 2019 should see loads of new music, and a whole new brand of live shows. I think EDM needs to bring back the guitar solo and i’m looking forward to doing my part. I’ve developed a live set consisting of all the instruments i’ve learned over the years that brought me to where I am today, everything from guitar and piano to horns and drum line... just working on making sure it’s perfect before the worlds sees it.
9) Have you ever performed in Canada?
A: No! But I hope to make an appearance or two in 2019.
10) How did you come up with your latest release 'Where Do We Let Go?'
A: It’s been a goal of mine to work with Love, Alexa for years now and we finally got the chance to get in a session back in September of 2017. We met up with her frequent collaborator Siren and a singer/writer I was introduced to as Matt and just started sharing stories of love and heart break. We were inspired by the constant allegory of the constant break up/get back together cycle that so many people go through in relationships. When i first walked in the room I could have sworn Matt was Matthew Healy of the 1975... and while he ended up being 10X better, I still had that kind of vibe in my head while working on the instrumental. Alexa and Matt went off into another room while Siren and I worked the instrumental and next thing we know we left with basically the song you hear today.
11) How do you get inspiration for coming up with a new song?
A: Anything from a daydream/melody to a new instrument or sound can spark inspiration. Since I’m normally away from ~the studio~ (read: my bedroom) when inspiration strikes, I keep track of stuff in voice memos or notes. It could be a new lyric or a way to design a synth but articulating that for my next chance to produce it out is key.
Follow Sweekuh:
Soundcloud - @Sweekuh
Instagram - @Sweekuh
Twitter - @Sweekuh
