Part-time Vancouver musicians Swank write songs that show an unhealthy interest in banjo-driven, alcohol-induced acoustic punk and hollerin' country, writes Tony Clayton-Lea

Be truthful - you haven't heard of this Vancouver-based outfit before. There's a reason for this - they're not at all well known. Doug Liddell, Swank's picking/flicking multi-instrumentalist says all five members of the band have remained completely independent from the beginning of its life. Together for around the 10-year mark in a weddings-funerals-anything mode, all band members have careers (grocery store management, graphic design, pyrotechnician - the usual), while three have families; with the exception of a short tour in and around London last summer, they have never left Canada. According to Doug, playing music has been something of a self-perpetuating thing. Gaining attention has been a slow process, says Doug, but good reviews and increasing internet awareness has woken them up to the possibilities of life beyond the nine-to-five work ethic.

So it's not a hobby, then. Is it a boy's club that has continued for over 10 years? Probably. Doug admits to being in a perpetual state of arrested development.

"Playing music certainly keeps us young," he says, "and it's a far more joyous and productive way of hanging out with your friends than playing darts or poker. But it's so much more than a boys' club - it's nice now that we've become bigger fish in a small pond."

Being the opposite could have seen them eaten by the sharks, of course, which is perhaps another reason why the safety valve of a monthly pay cheque means more to the late-30s and early-40s members than being a quickly-chewed-out flavour of the month. The music they play has helped to define them in a good way, reckons Doug.

"Genres are difficult to hook into. I like the Louis Armstrong quote, where he says there is good and bad music, and nothing else. You've got to describe it some way, however, and I suppose our influences are from country and punk, which in my opinion are both sub-genres of folk music. That's a relatively fair description - I mean, I grew up with The Clash and the Sex Pistols in my early teens, and they were the answer to my teenage alienation. Then I picked up on Johnny Cash, and sometime later was introduced to Hank Williams - that, in particular, was a life-changing event."

The mixture of traditional (some might say hardcore) country with Doug's post-punk influences (Lenny Kaye's Nuggets albums, The Cramps' psychobilly fire power and Gun Club gigs) formed his musical worldview. What about a band such as Jason and the Scorchers? Nah, says Doug - "at that point in my development, they were a little too country for me". Rank and File? "God, yes, they blew my mind, so it'll be interesting being in the same town as Alejandro Escovedo."

Swank's latest album on this side of the Atlantic (released in North America late 2004) is The Survival Issue. It's a fine mixture of acoustic punk and hollerin' country, a record invested with sweaty attention to detail and an unhealthy interest in banjo-driven, alcohol-induced songs with titles such as How Fucked is That? But there's something else about The Survival Issue that is very, very good - it's one of the few CDs this writer has seen in recent years that dares to treat cover and inside art as something to be nurtured, advanced and suitably treasured. A throwback to the days of vinyl's visual art, it was designed by band member Spencer McKinnon. Is this visual-cum-artistic appreciation element of listening to music slowly disappearing? Seems so.

"We missed that part of the music experience," says Doug. "Everyone says it was more tactile back in the '70s and '80s, and they were right. There was something tangible about the packaging. So we missed that, and we got the sense that other people missed it, too. We wanted to do something a bit more special, and we've certainly achieved that, I think."

It seems clear, however, that Doug would like to achieve even more; as the sole band member who willingly admits to suffering from arrested development, he says he would love to give up the day job. "It's not a thing that we're dependent upon, and we're not that young, hungry and driven anymore, to be honest. For me, personally, the music is a brilliant first, but I'm very fortunate in that I also love what puts food on my table."

But what if push came to shove? Doug answers in a heartbeat. "Yes, I would love to play full-time, and I'm sure if I pestered the others hard enough they would admit the same." Would it be hard to say goodbye to his job should the opportunity to play full-time arise? Yes, he says, "but I'd certainly walk down that road without a thought."

Finally, there is a serious question that needs to be asked: is Swank's pyrotechnician drummer really named Kirk Douglas? Indeed he is.

"The Canadian music licensing company, Socan, sends out music royalty cheques, and there was, apparently, a Western made in Canada that the actor Kirk Douglas starred in and sang a song around a campfire. Based on video rentals, our Kirk earned around $3 a year. He tried to send it back to the actor Kirk, but the postage alone would have made it a non-viable thing to do. He hasn't been required to change his name yet."

The Ticket suggests that Kirk Douglas could always change his name to Michael Douglas, who to our knowledge has never once in a movie performed a song around a campfire.

"Hmm," says Doug, "we'd kick him out of the band if he did that!"

The Survival Issue is on release; The Hollow Tree EP will be sold at Swank's gigs at the Carlsberg Rhythm & Roots weekend, April 28th - May 1st. Swank play Kilkenny's Paris Texas pub on Sunday, April 30th and Monday, May 1st www.kilkennyroots.com