For SWMRS, their debut album Drive North feels like a portrait — each song capturing memories from a defining, chaotic and absolutely incredible chapter of their lives. Recorded in their early 20s as they exploded out of the East Bay punk scene, the raw energy of Drive North represents an era of big dreams, van life and embracing the fact that they were still “figuring it out.”

A decade later, life looks a little different for brothers Cole and Max Becker. It’s calmer. More stable. But whenever they play tracks like “D’You Have a Car” or their biggest hit, “Figuring It Out,” they’re flooded with emotion. Suddenly, they feel like those 20-year-olds performing on TV for the first time and living out their wildest wishes. Though SWMRS has since released more music, Drive North will always hold a special place in their hearts.

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, SWMRS announced a highly anticipated tour with dates across the U.S., Europe and the UK. Fans will have the chance to relive their own Drive North memories alongside Cole and Max, as well as their brother Cade Becker, who joined the band as bassist a few years ago.

Ahead of the tour, PopHorror chatted with Cole and Max about the whirlwind journey sparked by Drive North, finding perspective in their 30s, staying true to their Gilman roots and the ease of forming what they jokingly call a “punk rock Hanson.”

PopHorror: First off, I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since the release of Drive North. It feels like yesterday that I was blasting that album on my commute into work. How are you both feeling about the anniversary?

Max Becker: We’re stoked!

Cole Becker: We’ve been doing shows lately, and those songs are always people’s No. 1 requests. So it’s cool to just take a moment to appreciate how much of an impact that album, for whatever reason, has had and give it another round of celebrating.

Max Becker: We made something that stands the test of time, which is a cool feeling as an artist. It’s meant something to people.

Cole Becker: We did that album when we were 20. We’ve made other stuff and we’re really proud of it all, but it’s so random which things really connect.

PopHorror: You announced the 10th anniversary run on social media and the fans seemed so excited, even requesting you to come to more countries. Did you expect such a positive response?

Max Becker: We were hoping for a good response and we’re happy that we got it!

Cole Becker: We kind of had a feeling just based on how everybody seems to really connect with this album. We’ve been planning it for a while, like, “OK, we’re going to do some shows around this and see what happens.” I’m sure you are dealing with how to get stuff across social media and get people to see it — you never know who’s gonna see what you post anymore because you could have however many followers and they might not. So to see those comments, it’s like, “Oh, my God, alright, people really want to come to these shows.”

Max Becker: It’s also a testament to how much work we did in 2016-2017 to go to all these countries. So it’s cool feeling the effects of playing, like, 145 shows in 2016. We were all over.

Cole Becker: Some people are holding that against us, like, “That’s not very ‘drive north’ of you to not come to Birmingham, England.” Like, hey man, we got lives to live! [laughs]

The Anniversary Tour

PopHorror: What do you have planned for this anniversary run? Will you be playing Drive North in full?

Cole Becker: We definitely want to try and play everything as true to form as possible.

Max Becker: Yeah, and for us, true to form, it’s not necessarily how it sounds on the record, but how it’s supposed to feel live. So we’re really excited to start working on songs like “Ruining My Pretending,” which we’ve never really played live.

Cole Becker: I think we did play it a few times, but we abandoned it really quickly because a lot of the songs are super glitched out, electronic kind of influence. It’s funny because that was always something we were going for, but it wasn’t something that we were doing live ever. We were always a live rock band, but we knew some of the songs wanted that. So we went there, but playing them live is a different story.

Max Becker: We’re going to try to play it front to back. We also found a bunch vintage pieces of merch that were stored away, including a couple of things that people have really been asking about, so that’s been nice to see. It’s going to be good.

PopHorror: You mentioned “Ruining My Pretending,” but are there any other songs that you haven’t really touched much in the past decade that maybe feel a little weird to dive back into?

Max Becker: That’s probably the one. We don’t play “Uncool” that much anymore, but it’s such an easy song to play.

Cole Becker: Yeah, that one’s in the wheelhouse of stuff we like to play live.

Max Becker: We just haven’t played it in a couple of years. But we never really played “Ruining My Pretending.” We played “Miss Yer Kiss” — that’s a glitchy song, but we figured out a way to do it. We just didn’t play “Ruining My Pretending,” so I’m actually really excited.

Cole Becker: “Hannah” is another one that we’ll do, but it’s always like, we’ll play half of it at the beginning or the end and go into another song. So we’ll revisit it and maybe try arranging it a little more precisely.

Max Becker: And there are certain songs that are crucial for our live performance that aren’t on Drive North. I’m so excited to go through Drive North, but that’s not going to be where it ends. We’ve got to play “Lose Lose Lose,” we’ve got to play “Trashbag Baby.” For a live SWMRS show, it’s just necessary.

An Incredible Journey

PopHorror: Are there any songs off Drive North that have changed meaning for you over the past decade? When you wrote those songs, you were in your early 20s. Personally, I know I’m a completely different person than I was in that era of my life.

Max Becker: Oh, so are we!

Cole Becker: That’s a really good question because a lot of this album is like a big swing toward a dream. We had made other albums with our previous band Emily’s Army and we were always just doing pretty straightforward pop-y punk stuff. With this, we wanted to make something with a bigger feeling that’s more accessible. And something like “Figuring it Out,” when we were making it, we were like, “This is the song. We want to play this on TV,” and then we played it on TV. So now when we play it, it’s like, “Oh, my God, I can’t believe that this song actually worked.” I don’t think they have a different meaning, but they just conjure so many memories of the whole journey we’ve been on. It’s pretty cool. Sometimes we play them and it’s really emotional.

Max Becker: Some of the songs are a foreshadowing, which is kind of creepy in a weird way. Like “Silver Bullet” happened after “Silver Bullet” came out. We experienced the music industry for all of its good parts and its bad parts. I only wrote a couple of the songs, but Cole — I’m going to say this about you, man, I’m sorry — his lyrics are amazing. I think songs like “Figuring It Out,” “Silver Bullet” and “D’You Have A Car?” hit even more now. They hit very intensely. Those three songs are very emotional. Sometimes on stage, we’ll play “Figuring It Out” and I shed a tear. I have to turn around because I’m crying because it’s just so cool that we got to experience all this stuff with all these people we love. That’s such a dream.

Cole Becker: And the other thing that I appreciate more about those songs now is, they’re not songs that I could write or Max could write now. They’re such portraits of a specific time in life, when everything was so uncertain, the future is all ahead of you. You don’t have everything figured out. It’s like this searching that really animates a lot of those songs. It’s hard to recreate that authentically when you kind of have figured things out a little more. You have an apartment, you’ve got a life.

PopHorror: Sequel — “I Figured It Out.”

Max Becker: It’s a different set of problems now.

PopHorror: Definitely! You talked about how you vividly remember playing “Figuring It Out” on TV. Are there any other favorite memories from that era that you can share?

Max Becker: Absolutely. The day we got signed by Fueled By Ramen was an incredible experience. Going to Japan for the first time as a band and playing this festival was like an out of body experience. That was insane. Going and playing bigger rooms with All Time Low and the way those guys took us under their wing. Incredible. Some of the FIDLAR concerts we played were insane.

Cole Becker: Also, I really now appreciate just how we were full send on the lifestyle. We didn’t do anything except play shows for three years — that was our whole life and we had so much fun. Just traveling around with your friends in a van, playing games to pass the time, cards, dice, looking for places to swim, eating terrible food.

Max Becker: Driving through natural disasters.

Cole Becker: It feels like a singular purpose when I think back on it. You have this calling toward this feeling. You want to make something great. You want to make music and shows that really connect with people, and it’s so cool to have experienced that drive, that singularity of purpose.

Finding Perspective

PopHorror: Does being on the road hit differently now than when you were in your 20s? You’re both married and have lives outside of music and touring.

Max Becker: In a way, it’s better because our understanding and gratitude of the situation is way, way higher. When we were in it, we didn’t really have a chance to absorb what was going on. And now, we’ve sat with it and been like, “Whoa, this is really special.” Now, every time we play a show, we really feel that connection with people in the present. We’re very present with it, and that’s changed. In your young 20s, you don’t really have time to let it sink in.

Cole Becker: I don’t think we realized how lucky we were, too, that things just fell into place so seamlessly, one thing after another. We just kept getting these support tours. Everybody wanted to play with us. And people were really loving the album. We were going to Germany and there was a minor little Beatlemania happening around us, people were following me to the park. I was like, “Whoa, what’s going on?” That’s your reality, so you don’t think it could be different. But then you get a little more perspective. You’re like, “That was crazy.” I’m so lucky that things broke through like that. We got to be in that element for a while.

Max Becker: It’s amazing. And I think the fact that our personal lives are actually both really good is allowing us to look back and not look at it like necessarily the glory days, but more like, “Hell yeah. We had this. That’s awesome.” We’re not chasing that. I’m 32 — I’m not trying to live in a van, but it’s really cool that I got to do it.

@official.swmrs

Nothing beats a max solo 🤷🏼‍♂️ #phoenix #swmrs #fyp #rockshow #punk

♬ Harry Dean – SWMRS

PopHorror: For anyone who did get to see you a decade ago, do your live shows still have that same energy?

Cole Becker: We definitely still go super hard on stage. I think the median age of people at shows is slightly higher, so on our end, we do work a little harder to get people to that place where it’s full release. I remember those shows — you start playing and all of a sudden, everyone’s crowd surfing, getting on stage, jumping off, everybody’s sweaty, it’s packed.

Max Becker: It’s also a different time, we’re post pandemic.

Cole Becker: Yeah, we didn’t have the level of concern about germs that seems to be a thing now.

Max Becker: It definitely changed shows. Even in the UK — I love playing the UK — but they used to be way crazier. They became similar to America with their shows, which is great. I love America. But they used to be unhinged out there and they’re a little bit more hinged.

Cole Becker: Maybe that’s just what it’s like at our shows, I don’t know. But in general, I like to go to shows a lot and I haven’t been to many that have given me that feeling that I used to see, kind of all over the place. Another thing I think about a lot, what a cool time we got to experience in music. It was so many good bands, so many good shows. Everybody was about it. I loved being 20 in 2015.

Punk Rock Hanson Vibes

PopHorror: You’ve had some lineup changes over the years and, fairly recently, your third brother Cade officially joined SWMRS as the new bassist. How did that come to be?

Max Becker: Cade is a really awesome, talented young individual. We were looking for a new bassist and I was talking about it, and one day he was just like, “What if I did it?” I was like, “I mean, yeah, is that what you want?” He didn’t play music!

Cole Becker: He knew, like, three chords on acoustic guitar.

Max Becker: I was like, “Dude, I would love that, but you’ve gotta be into it.” He’s like, “I’ve actually always been into it, I just was scared to tell you guys.” I was like, “OK, so that’s solved.” I called Cole like, “Hey, I think it’s going to be Cade,” and he’s like, “What?” Then we had a show six months later, our first show back, and we had to get to work. He’s really showed a lot of awesome work ethic and it’s fun now for us because we’ve pivoted into a mini punk rock Hanson vibe. It’s a brother thing and our mom sometimes tours with us and sells the merch. So it’s allowed us to transition into a next phase, which really works for us.

Cole Becker: It makes it easy making logistical decisions. We all grew up sharing a room, so it’s not hard to figure out things. And we’re always all going to be in the same place on Christmas and other times of the year. And the other thing that’s crazy, he got so good at bass so quickly, but he got really good at playing our songs. Now, as a mentor, I’m wanting him to be able to play other songs, which he can. He didn’t know anything about gear and didn’t care, so he’d just stand there at the beginning of the show with his bass on like, “Can you set me up?” I’d dial in his pedals. It’s great because Max and I are both really obsessive about the overall sound, and sometimes people are really cagey when you touch their gear.

Max Becker: Cole and I have been playing shows since we were 12 and 14 years old. We did our first tour in 2010, so we have this experience. There’s no way Cade’s going to get that in such a short amount of time. Oftentimes we’re like, “Oh, yeah, I guess he never played Watertown, New York.” The first time we did a support show since having him in the band — we had only done a few headline shows here and there and then we were doing a support tour — he was like, “What’s different about opening for people?” I was like, “You’ve never had to open for anyone in your life!” But we love it.

PopHorror: That’s amazing that he picked up everything so quickly. Is Cade excited for this tour?

Max Becker: He’s stoked because he was a fan during the album cycle, and so now he gets to be on stage. He’s also into acting, so he likes being on a stage and feeling the energy of people, which is good because you need to like that attention and kind of energy when you’re up there if you’re going to perform. So he adds to the show completely.

PopHorror: SWMRS released the album Becker in 2024 — was that the first one he was part of?

Max Becker: Yeah, it was rad. It was cool to have him play bass in a studio, which is also a learning process, getting the take right. Because we’re still kind of old school and we want to keep it that way. Especially since we’re working on another new record right now and that’s even more old school. We recorded a lot of it live and that’s just in us, so it’s been cool for Cade to learn that stuff, too. And we had to call it Becker, it was just an existential thing for us.

True To Their Gilman Roots

PopHorror: Since Drive North, you’ve released Becker and several other albums. How would you say your sound has evolved over the past decade? And has anything not changed, maybe something that gives SWMRS its essence that you didn’t want to lose?

Cole Becker: Always with us is an openness to bringing in different types of music as influences. That was the blueprint when we made Drive North. Something that we were really drawing influence from was The Clash. We were always trying to figure out, “OK, what would The Clash do if they grew up now and they had YouTube and Spotify and all these things, and they could listen to any music they want, but with this foundation of years of playing in a punk band.” That’s been a consistent theme, and it’s morphed over the albums. Sometimes that shows up more in how we produce the songs, and in other albums, like Sonic Tonic, it shows up more in the way we write songs and then we produce them really simply and more straightforward. It’s been cool because every album’s been different. Drive North is still the best encapsulation of all that because it has this raw energy that then we chopped up into different pieces. And Berkeley’s On Fire is kind of the opposite, where we made a bunch of little pieces and put them together. Then Sonic Tonic is raw energy, not chopped up at all. Becker is somewhere in the middle of all three of those. And the new one is also kind of in that realm.

Max Becker: I’d say another thing that is a theme throughout is no matter what, we have to be able to play all of our songs as if we’re playing Gilman Street, which is a venue here in Berkeley, where it’s drums, bass, two guitars, amps, monitors. We don’t play the tracks, we don’t play with in-ears. There’s nothing against that kind of stuff — it’s just we can’t really be ourselves if we’re playing with those things. And so the songs always have to be able to be played that way.

PopHorror: Looking ahead, what are your hopes for SWMRS over the next 10 years?

Max Becker: I hope we get to have music as much a part of our lives as it is still. It’s our identity and I love it. We all love it. We are loving the balance we have in our 30s. We want to keep the balance. We want to live a somewhat normal life as well. But doing the art and having art stand the test of time, like Drive North, is really the only goal we ever really have. It’s like, can you make something that lives beyond you? We’re going to keep trying to challenge ourselves to do that.

Cole Becker: Just keep making stuff that’s really good. I feel like when I’m 40, I want to be able to — if it feels right — never write a song again because I will have created the best possible work, and I want to be happy and satisfied with that. I think a lot of people that we know or see are never satisfied. And that’s good — that’s a good thing to drive you as you work. But it creates this situation where sometimes, you’ve got to own the fact that you already did it. Maybe it’s time to start farming or something.

Max Becker: Or even getting into a different kind of music. You really don’t want to dilute your repertoire that much because it kind of makes the rest of it less and less important. I’m not saying we’re close to that, and no judgement being thrown. This is just how we want to approach our creativity.

Cole Becker: Didn’t Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots do a Christmas album that was all Christmas standard jazz tunes? That’s the energy I’m feeling when I’m 40.

Max Becker: Luckily, that’s 10 years away.

Cole Becker: Yeah, we got 10 years to make it happen.

Max Becker: I think what it’s starting to look like for the next few years is really nurturing our international fan base, which is small but very special, try to grow as much as we can and travel to see these people. Finally go to Indonesia, go to Australia again for the first time in 10 years. These are all places we really want to go, and we know that our music that we’ve made so far has been part of the lives of a small group of people that we’d love to connect with because wow, what a cool human accomplishment.

Cole Becker: I found out yesterday that the Goo Goo Dolls were in their mid-30s when they made Dizzy Up the Girl, which has “Iris,” “Slide,” “Broadway,” all these incredible songs, and that was so inspiring to me. They’re similar, actually, where they had a whole 10 years of doing punk records.

Max Becker: And then they became the Goo Goo Dolls!

Cole Becker: I was like, “Shoot, so I guess ‘Iris’ is still yet to be written for us.”

Max Becker: I mean, we’re open to it. There’s just no expectation.

PopHorror: Ozzy was in his early 30s when he started his solo career and released Blizzard of Ozz, which has “Crazy Train.” So totally possible!

Cole Becker: It makes sense because you really don’t know anything in your 20s. You’re just kind of existing like a jellyfish or something. You get so much perspective at the end of that decade of your life, of course you’re gonna make something good with all that. Or at least one can hope.

PopHorror: Since we’re PopHorror — what’s your favorite scary movie?

Max Becker: The one that was the most scary at least for me was The Strangers [our review].

Cole Becker: Oh, yeah, I was going to say that. Oh, my God, I watched an amazing, really C-level horror movie the other day called Surf Nazis Must Die and it was so funny and so bad. It was all in Malibu in the ’80s, an apocalypse happened and these Nazi surfers were taking control of the beaches, and there’s these battles and it’s super gory. It was so good. Wait actually, I want to change my answer to The Lost Boys.

Max Becker: Paranormal Activity, we used to watch those all the time in high school. Those are classics.

PopHorror: Do you have any final words for your fans?

Max Becker: We’re stoked and we love being able to share this experience with whoever has fond memories. We’re just so filled with gratitude. We love that it happened at all. And we haven’t done much promo, but we did an acoustic version of “Figuring It Out.” We’re going to release one for “Lose It” as well that we did — we recorded it to tape. We’re thinking about recording all of them, so we’ll see. It’s fun for us.

Thanks for speaking with us, Cole and Max! Keep up with SWMRS at swmrsmusic.com/ and on social media.