First album you ever purchased: Dookie by Green Day — I saved my lunch money for a whole week.
First concert you ever attended: When I was three years young my parents took me to a Bellamy Brothers concert and I cried the whole time. My first pleasant (and conscious) concert was Radiohead around the time OK Computer came out.
The strangest thing in your record collection is: I’d say either The Okeh Laughing Record, recorded in 1922, which consists (mostly) of a man and woman laughing while the man messes around on a trumpet, or “4’33” by John Cage, which is a four-minute-and-33-second piece that consists of nothing but silence.
If I could write a song with anyone, it would be: Either Nigel Godrich or Phil Spektor.
Last song that made you cry: It’s a three-way tie between Devendra Banhart’s “My Dearest Friend,” Jason Molina’s “A Sad Hard Change,” and Bon Iver’s “Blindsided.”
Most embarrassing onstage moment: About halfway through a set I was playing, the stool I was using collapsed. I managed to catch my fall and stay on my feet and earn a round of applause from the audience. Maybe a 40 percent increase in anxiety; no biggie.
If you weren’t a musician, you’d be: A master chef or traveling food connoisseur.
Beatles or Stones? I love them both — ’60s Stones especially — but as a whole body of work, The Beatles.
When you play live, people can expect: Sad songs for happy people.
Listen online at swimlessons.bandcamp.com.