Though they’re technically only one-year old, Oakland-based surf punk band SWMRS is more than a decade in the making. Brothers Max and Cole Becker founded the band in 2004, which until 2014 went by the name Emily’s Army. Since officially changing their name last year, they’ve toured with Wavves and Twin Peaks, released a new album and even modeled for Yves Saint Laurent. In anticipation of SWMRS’s concert at The Studio at Webster Hall this Thursday, WSN talked to lead vocalist Cole Becker about their new album “Drive North,” the zine he created and hating Los Angeles.

WSN: Can you talk a little bit about how the band got started? I know you guys used to go under a different name.

CB: Yeah, so SWMRS started kind of out of the embers of an old band, Emily’s Army. SWMRS started about a year ago because we were approaching adulthood and we had done some lineup changes. Emily’s Army had Max [Becker], Joey [Armstrong] and me in it, but we added Seb [Mueller] to the band and we decided that SWMRS was the new thing, so we started writing SWMRS songs, and that’s kind of how it all started.

WSN: What drove the decision to self-release the album under your label, Uncool Records?

CB: It just kind of made sense. When you’re a band that’s just starting out, labels offer you contracts that aren’t really in your best interest, but they help you build [the band]. But we were lucky because we did that Saint Laurent thing where we signed a publishing deal, so we had enough money to kind of be ourselves, and it just made a lot more sense because of that. We’re kind of following the rap model. With rap, there are a lot less overhead costs because you’re not recording in a studio. We didn’t record a lot; we got pre-recorded tracks. So we followed the rap model because it’s much more geared towards 2016. And the rock model is very much built around the 1970s idea of rock and roll.

WSN: The album has elements of punk, pop, rock and hip hop on it. Were there any artists that helped to influence those choices?

CB: Yeah, there are a few. When we were writing that album, I was listening to a lot of De La Soul, and early alt rap stuff. And then also ‘90s alternative music like Dinosaur Jr., Pavement, that kind of thing. But equally, modern bands like Wavves, Together Pangea, FIDLAR. All those bands were a huge influence.

WSN: Can you talk about your zine, Boyzine?

CB: Basically, I just wanted to create a space with the zine that takes feminist thought and tries to bring it to young dudes. I’m not trying to create any new feminist thought because it’s not my place, because I’m a white, cisgender heterosexual male. I think that sometimes, the prevailing ideologies of feminism aren’t being brought enough to young boys, and because I’m someone who has some influence in that area, I’m trying to use that influence for positive change, and help people be more cognizant of the systems of power at play in our everyday lives.

WSN: You’ve been pretty outspoken about politics. Do you think your politics have at all influenced your music or vice versa?

CB: I think, as much as art can be political, our art is political. I think it was bell hooks that said, “All art is deeply political, whether you think so or not.” We’re lucky to have benefitted from a specific set of circumstances that allow us to be artists and allow us to travel and make a little bit of money doing this. So, our art is political in that respect. But also, we don’t write political songs because there’s enough politics in the world to be able to avoid putting it in music. I think a lot of people need music as a safe space to escape from how awful the world can be. So our music is political in its apolitical nature.

WSN: Is there anything in particular that you’re looking forward to about the show in New York this Thursday?

CB: Yeah, it’ll be cool because it’ll be the first show in a while that we’ve played [in New York]. It’s always nice to come back and see how your music has affected the people that were there before, and whether it’s growing. I’m really excited to go back to New York, and it’ll be cool to be in civilization. We’ve been in the South for two weeks now and it’s starting to drive me nuts.

WSN: Is there any significance to the fact that the last song on the album, “Drive North,” is about hating L.A., and L.A. is the last stop on this tour?

CB: I didn’t even think about that. You know, we don’t even route the tour. If it were my choice we would end in Oakland, so that we can just go straight to bed and sleep for ages when we’re done. Sadly, we have to be in L.A. for a few days, and then we’re going to Tucson, Arizona, and then we’re going home.

WSN: Will you play “Drive North” at the show?

CB: Oh, of course. People in L.A. go nuts for that song because they hate it there too.

WSN: There’s a song on the album called “Uncool” and your label is called Uncool Records. What does being “uncool” mean to you?

CB: It means doing whatever you want to do, and following your passion, whether that’s Pokémon cards or pop songs. There’s too much concern with what other people are doing, and especially in California and especially in the rock scene, people are trying too hard to be cool, and they’re not creating enough original music. They’re getting put in fashion shows and forgetting that they have to write good songs first.

SWMRS plays The Studio at Webster Hall with The Frights, Surf Rock Is Dead and Slonk Donkerson at 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 3. Look for a review of the concert from WSN this Friday.

Email Mandy Freebairn at [email protected].