Richard Swift

An in-demand producer and sideman as well as an idiosyncratic singer/songwriter, Richard Swift became an increasingly influential member of the indie music community throughout the 2000s and 2010s. A dedicated student of American pop music history, his sepia-toned style was most conspicuously influenced by the Tin Pan Alley era, Motown, and Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. Many of his songs also incorporated the freewheeling spirit of Captain Beefheart and the acerbic wit of fellow traditional pop descendants like Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson. Sometimes heartbreakingly earnest ...