Fishing for Fans

Last year, math-rock trio Swim Party sent a few of their songs and a brief bio to producers at Fuel TV’s action sports show, The Daily Habit. About six months later, a producer from the show contacted the band and invited them to come to Los Angeles on March 5 as musical guests.

The performance went well but was a bit uncomfortable, writes singer-guitarist Eric Temblay in an email. “Shooting a TV spot is kind of strange — the crew, the cameras, etc. — it was a new experience.”

Since the performance aired on March 25, Temblay says the number of people visiting Swim Party’s website and downloading their intricate indie-rock tracks on iTunes has grown.

In addition to more hits on their website and downloads from iTunes, representatives from Fuel TV have asked for permission to use additional tracks from the band’s last album (Pixie Dust on the Blood Range) for future programming.

The group has started to work on their next album and has added keyboardist Natalie Kardos to their line-up; she joined Swim Party just before the gig for Fuel TV.

“Although we’ve received great press from the Fuel thing, like Filter magazine and CMJ, the attention has been pretty gentle,” says Temblay. “It’s not heavy national buzz or anything. It’s very much the result of persistence — sending out CDs and emails — and some luck. Sometimes you win one.”