Featuring a blend of acoustic instruments, rural soundscapes, and wistful vocals, Great Lake Swimmers are a critically acclaimed indie-folk group led by Tony Dekker. Based in Southern Ontario, the group emerged in the early 2000s with a succession of heavily atmospheric albums recorded in old silos and rural country churches. The music developed in that pastoral warmth, performed and recorded in acoustically resonant and historical locales with a revolving cast of personnel. They are renowned for homespun folk and lush, intimate Americana in their live shows. 

Their newest album, Caught Light, released in October 2025, is their most immediate and instinctive album to date. Recorded in just five days in Ontario’s Ganaraska Forest with producer Darcy Yates (Bahamas) and engineer Jimmy Bowskill (Blue Rodeo), it draws warmth from early ’70s folk-pop while embracing a new spontaneity and directness in Dekker’s songwriting. 

Great Lake Swimmers have been shortlisted for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize and nominated twice for Canada’s Juno Awards, with the CBC calling them “a national treasure.” 

“A stunning variety of tones and textures… nothing less than both cerebral and sublime” – American Songwriter, 4/5 

“It floats from country to folk to indie rock and back again… a sharp-toothed but achingly beautiful portrait of the natural world and the human condition.” – New Noise Magazine

“Dekker’s preoccupation with the Canadian state of mind flourishes in his lyrics. Few songwriters are able to convey the country’s harsh beauty as well. …Canadian folk tradition personified in the 21st century” – Exclaim!

Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter was born of, and is the result of, an enduring musical  alchemy between singer-songwriter Jesse Sykes and guitarist Phil Wandscher, which began in Seattle,  Washington in 2001. 

Blending dark folk, blues, traditional country, orchestral pop, and various psychedelic stylings,  their sound culminates in what Jon Pareles from the New York Times once described as, “spellbound  music, rapt in fatalism and sorrow.” 

Known for her dusky, otherworldly vocals and lyrics that touch on the metaphysical, Sykes is  also known for her diverse collaborations, most notably for co -writing, singing and performing with  avant-garde doom purveyors, Sunn O))) and Boris (Japan), on their collaborative, monolithic album  “Altar.” The song, “The Sinking Belle,” became a cult classic and was called, “the album’s centerpiece and masterpiece” by Pitchfork. Sykes claims the lyrics were inspired by Joan Didion’s book, The Year of Magical Thinking, which she had been reading at the time of the writing process. 

That particular musical convergence of doom metal and spooky Americana, was seen as an odd  pairing back in the day, but it flourished into deep friendship, becoming a central part of The Sweet  Hereafter’s creative journey, inspiring the band to move out of the perceived confines of Americana/Alt -Country and explore heavier musical terrain, leading to their 2011 release, Marble Son, which SPIN  Magazine called, “a sprawling psyche rock vision.” 

This year, after a seeming 10-year hiatus, Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter released their long awaited 5th album, Forever, I’ve Been Being Born, on Sunn O)))’s label Southern Lord (USA) and  Ideologic Organ (Europe). Filled with themes of emotional dislocation, magical thinking, death and  rebirth, the album also features exquisite vocal contributions from singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler. UNCUT magazine called it, “Rapturous, psyche-folk melancholia” giving it 9 out of 10 stars and featured it as “Americana Album of the Month”. 

The band had recently toured in support of Sunn O))) in both the USA and overseas, and this  last spring headlined one more (of what have been many) of their own UK/European tours, including an  appearance at the Roadburn Festival in Holland. 

Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter share in a rich history of touring nationally and  internationally, paired with bands and artists spanning across many genres; this includes tours with:  EARTH, Sparklehorse, (aka Mark Linkous RIP) Bright Eyes, Iron and Wine, J. Tillman, Jason Isbell, Marissa  Nadler, The Sadies, The Great Lake Swimmers, Nicolai Dunger, Inara George, Laura Veirs, Black  Mountain and many more. 

Members have come and gone over the years, but the band still draws from the same collective,  which includes long time bassist Bill Herzog (Earth/Joel R.L Phelps) who is still an integral part, musically  and otherwise.

Sykes says of her relationship with Phil Wandscher; “We share the same heart, and I cannot  imagine life without Phil as my musical soul mate. Without him, there is no Sweet Hereafter.” 

So, with that sentiment, Sykes and Wandscher continue on their decades long musical journey,  lately touring mostly as a duo; her voice and his guitar, a call and response… “a dance”, she says smiling,  “across a sun lit room, up into the warm dark expanse that hovers beyond the night sky, tucked  beneath a benevolent cosmic shroud…If the music is needed, this is where you will find it.” 

She adds, “in the meantime, we are so excited and honored to be playing these shows with The  Great Lake Swimmers, an all-time favorite band of ours, for this autumnal run of the western United  States…. See you soon!” — V.M 

Some recent reviews (below) for Forever, I’ve Been Being Born: 

“Rapturous psyche-folk melancholia” —UNCUT 9/10 

Americana Album of The Month — UNCUT 

“Feels like both an elegy and a rebirth”— Son of Marketing, UK 

“A beautiful exercise in haunted contemplation, Forever, I’ve Been Being Born soothes the spirit  and heightens the senses at once.” — No Depression 

“Sykes is one of the most important lyricists out there; in the grain of her rootsy, gauzy, resonant  voice are emotional, psychological, and physical truths.”— All Music 

“This album is our attempt to create elegant folk and sometimes ragged, cosmic, heart rendered songs full of eulogies and laments. When we started recording this album, I remember saying, “Play the  songs as if the edge of a butterfly wing was brushing against your cheek in the dark, while you’re  holding a small child.” I wanted to connote tenderness and a state of grace in the wake of resolution— paying homage to the creeping knowledge of an emerging, menacing undertone forming in our  collective psyche at the time. In hindsight, the delay in releasing this record has been a bit of a blessing,  as the lyrics seem more poignant now, transcending our own internal voices and psyches. Maybe  because there is an innate fragility on this record, it almost feels like a form of resistance in these times,  as heavy handed as that might sound;) 

As the world shares its never-ending collective crisis, so we too, share our songs…And it is with  great pleasure and humility that we bring you, Forever, I’ve Been Being Born.” 

Produced by Robb Davidson with Jesse Sykes and Phil Wandscher. 

“Listen in the dark.” 

-J. Sykes

www.jessesykes.com 

“Gentle Chaperone” video, from the album Forever, I’ve Been Being Born: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DiUYtWRELP4&pp=0gcJCYsCo7VqN5tD&ra=m “Dead End Pools” Video, from the album Forever, I’ve Been Being Born: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8B-7TqJD0U8&ra=m 

Live footage Rabbit Box Theatre 2026: 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V7R_way29Ig&ra=m 

The Sinking Belle (Sunn O))) and Boris featuring Jesse Sykes: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RD4pSxvgtQM&ra=m