“It’s 1995 and after a successful campaign promoting Flood Headswim regroup at their rehearsal room in deepest Essex to begin writing new material. Between epic bouts of pinball, tea drinking and Rizla-origami we began to write and record songs for our second album; the then as yet untitled Despite Yourself. Some of those songs like Hype and Devil In My Palm endured and went on to appear on the aforementioned album, while others didn’t.  

You see, between 1993 and 1995 the band had grown in confidence and began to explore the craft of songwriting. Dan, in particular, had developed as a songwriter and it was obvious he had enormous potential to write exceptional material. It’s telling that Flood’s Years On Me reappeared on Despite Yourself as its melodic structure and contemplative lyricism suit the tone of Despite Yourself perfectly. The bulk of the material on Flood, however, was written collectively; the band firing riffs back and forth until a Gone To Pot or Stinkhorn was forged from the white heat of volume. 

With the exception of No Ticket a total of seven songs from those early writing sessions were never formally recorded and until now have never been heard. Maybe when you hear them you’ll wish you hadn’t, or, as a fan of Headswim you’ll find them an intriguing addendum to a band with relatively sparse back catalogue. 

If there’s one question that Headswim are asked above all others it’s how come the two albums are so different? Well, we were a young band who’d grown in confidence and developed as musicians, we wanted to push the envelope of our creative powers and see where it would take us. It took us to Despite Yourself and a much wider audience, an audience that may include yourself, or maybe you were introduced to Headswim via Flood. Either way, these 4-track demo tapes are an indication of the seam we were mining before we found diamonds of a different kind.”

Clovis, Headswim March 14 2022