Steve Queralt - Swallow

Ride bassist Steve Queralt’s debut solo album, Swallow, is a beautifully brooding nine-track collection that blends the darkly textured soundscapes of early M83 and Sigur Rós with an electronic sheen reminiscent of Boards of Canada. The album also features guest vocals from Sonic Cathedral labelmate Emma Anderson (formerly of Lush and Sing-Sing) and Verity Susman (Electrelane, MEMORIALS).

Swallow was slowly but steadily pieced together between Ride albums and tours over the past five years. Perhaps as a result, it carries a slightly dystopian, Blade Runner-esque atmosphere that reflects the liminal spaces in which it was created. Although most of the album is instrumental, it’s rich with emotional power—moody, moonlit soundtracks that convey a quiet intensity. When lyrics do appear, they introduce a sense of anger and political urgency that heightens the album’s dark tone. This is especially evident on the closing track, “Motor Boats,” where Steve overlays lines from Julie Sheldon’s polemic poem The Same Boat: “We’re all in the same boat they say, but I would disagree.” According to Steve, these words “capture the reality of our times perfectly.”

The collaborations with Anderson and Susman were crucial in shaping the final album. “After a few false starts, I had started to doubt the project altogether—it was going nowhere,” says Steve. “Then, out of the darkness, Emma got in touch to tell me she’d found her voice and asked if I could send her some tracks. A few files back and forth and an afternoon in the studio later, and we had ‘Lonely Town’ and ‘Swiss Air.’” Around the same time, Verity contributed vocals to the track “Messengers,” completely transforming the song. Her bandmate in MEMORIALS, Matthew Simms, later mixed the finished album.

“Swallow has turned out so much better than I had hoped,” Steve enthuses. “I’d fallen out of love with it so many times, I was thinking of calling it Loveless. But then—well, that wouldn’t be the whole story.”