The Swamps Band

The Swamps are a nasty blues and rock'n'roll time machine created in Byron Bay by ex-Wellington musician Matthew Armitage on Guitar/Vocal and Byron local Matt Swan (Swanny) on the drums.

In early 2014 they first combined forces to bring their raw energy and love of heavy swampy blues to the Byron Bay music scene. Swanny started using a floor tom as his bass drum and Armitage began pumping his guitar through a bass amp, tweaking the EQ just so to give the sonic illusion of a third player. They started off performing the songs of Buddy Guy and Muddy Waters, but grew to include Armitage's original songs, surf tunes, 60's garage, rock'n'roll and 50's jumpin juke joint blues.

The Swamps quickly became in high demand around Byron Bay and Southern GC, gathering a cult following based around a residency at The Northern. They played the Blues Festival in 2014 and performed as support and backing band for legend Pete Murray at his Restaurant 'Frankie Brown'. They’ve even made the trek out to Mount Isa and down to NSW's Snowy Mountains for a week long winter residency at ‘The Man From Snowy River Hotel’ in Perisher Valley. The Swamps have made appearances in Sydney too at Frankie's Pizza and The Australian Hotel Beer Festival in The Rocks.

The Swamps released a single, “Treating Me Good” on Triple J Unearthed and you’ll find them regularly rockin the Northern in Byron and a few other venues from Brisbane to Byron.