botany bay profile picture

botany bay

About Me

botany bay is the sometimes active side/solo-project of eric d. schwortz, youngest son of fern and jerome.

"[old age is for the birds], botany bay's sad elegy for all of our inevitable declines fittingly starts with an anxious bare bones strum... sad and rich vocal tones recall sad and dead indie icon Elliott Smith's... the guitars get choppy as if they've just had a sip of the hip new cola drink and are ready to rage up, arthritis be damned. But reality sets in, backs remember their knots, and slower, more deliberate playing resumes, anger melting quickly into regret."
- merry swankster

"[Eric] can usually be found violating guitars, singing sweet, sweet harmonies & occasionally drumming for local nyc indie rocksters, the secret life of sofia."
- Soft Communication

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 29/09/2006
Band Website: www.iamtheeric.com
Band Members: eric d. schwortz

vocals, guitars, bass, keys, percussion, etc


Influences: autolux, the beach boys, the beatles, bon iver, chavez, comic books, dan d'ippolito, death cab for cutie, fleet foxes, fleetwood mac, malcolm gladwell, jose gonzalez, michael jackson, michio kaku, frank matlack, nada surf, the national, nirvana, the notwist, tom petty, photography, radiohead, smashing pumpkins, elliott smith, star trek, superwolf, terminator, kurt vonnegut, weezer, wilco, neil young, and time travel
Sounds Like: the needs of the few (or the one)
Record Label: unsigned
Type of Label: Unsigned

My Blog

*NEW SONG* --> out of the ground

this year is going to be different. i will post new music.please listen to the new tune, "out of the ground", a letter to my grandparents who i miss very much.i hope to have more new music to share so...
Posted by on Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:47:00 GMT

new experiments to be performed in the laboratory

i just had a birthday. technically speaking, this will be my last year as a young man in my mid-twenties. after that, i will be a youngish man in my late twenties. i can feel my biological man-clock t...
Posted by on Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:18:00 GMT

*NEW SONG* --> six five seven

time has run out. the show is tomorrow. the cds must be done.please check out the new song, six five seven and new, final mixes of choice, and old age is for the birds.the kind folk at merry swankster...
Posted by on Fri, 06 Jul 2007 10:40:00 GMT

*NEW SONG* --> old age is for the birds

the first botany bay show is in exactly one month.i've been getting the set list together, and rehearsing with two great musicians who are also great people. one of them really enjoys the beer shakes ...
Posted by on Thu, 07 Jun 2007 18:18:00 GMT

CHOICE + blink by Malcolm Gladwell

I'm reading Malcolm Gladwell's new book, blink, and stumbled upon a passage that reminds me of why I wrote "choice":"Thirty percent of those who stopped by the six-choice booth ended up buying some ja...
Posted by on Fri, 25 May 2007 14:53:00 GMT

*NEW SONG* --> choice

a nice little birdy over at Neon Lights keeps asking me if botany bay will be ready to play one of their shows soon. i keep saying "no" but ask that she keep checking in on me, so that one day i might...
Posted by on Fri, 04 May 2007 20:56:00 GMT

*NEW SONG* --> a mute pioneer

just spent 6 hours working on this... hope you like it!eric
Posted by on Thu, 01 Feb 2007 22:03:00 GMT

niv

...is a cover (mostly) of a Man in Gray tune. It was recorded for Guitarded, a birthday present for MiG guitarist, Bryan Bruchman. I took it down a few notches (in tempo and volume), rearranged some t...
Posted by on Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:25:00 GMT

sunflower

...is a Low cover. it was recorded for Under Cover, a birthday present for a friend. it is the first song I have recorded on my home computer. I transposed the song down a key so that I could use my n...
Posted by on Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:21:00 GMT

shoulders and the toe

...is a rough mix of a song that will appear on the botany bay album. steven engineered the recording and also played the main synth part. he also helped me out with the hand claps and additional perc...
Posted by on Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:15:00 GMT