Cisco Kids Recorded ‘Swamp Haus’ in the Swamps of Awendaw

With roots reaching back as far as 2013 in the College of Charleston dorms, four-piece jam rock act Cisco Kids has just released their debut EP. Drummer J’Dian Bennett met the current members of Cisco Kids when he was a freshman at CofC. That year, J’Dian and Carter Holland started a short-lived band called Husk Tales with Harrison Carr of Friend Chips and Brennan Clark, who would later go on to play bass in Whitehall. Husk Tales would get together and jam in rapper Anfernee’s McAlister dorm room. Husk Tales played a handful of gigs, but eventually the band broke up and the members found themselves immersed in other projects.

J’Dian went on to play with Pierce Alexander, while Carter was jamming with the dudes from Wildisiak. They stayed in touch, but never really got back together to make music again until J’Dian met Parker Howard through a mutual friend. From there J’Dian, Parker, and Carter linked up with bassist Josh Butler for a jam session that today stands as the band’s first practice. It was during this first practice that they came up with “Daphne”, which is track 3 on the new Swamp Haus EP.

You may have heard the first two demos from Cisco Kids, “Daphne” and “Sexi Thighs” when they were released in November of last year. These tracks were recorded on Carter’s Macbook.

Cisco Kids kept on jamming and playing shows around town until they met Eddie White of Awendaw Green through their friend Julius Siler. Julius works for 98 Rock and 1055 The Bridge, and he introduced the boys to the Awendaw Green crowd, where they played in a Barn Jam series. Eddie has a solar panel-powered cabin in the swamps of Awendaw that is lovingly referred to as “Swamp House”. He let Cisco Kids use the cabin for a weekend to record this EP.

Eddie gave them directions to his cabin, which is quite literally in the middle of nowhere, and after spending some time lost in the woods they found it, and immediately knew this would be there perfect place to record their EP. The band spent some time drinking and exploring the land to get them in the zone before getting down to business. Surrounded by nothing but wilderness and alligators, Cisco Kids recorded most of the Swamp Haus EP in one take. The solitude of the Awendaw Swamps provided them with inspiration, and they wanted to get these songs recorded before the inspiration was lost to drunkenness or hungry gators.

The songs on Swamp Haus were not recorded with lyrics, because the band decided that they weren’t quite ready to put them in the songs. They chose instead to let the music speak for itself. J’Dian quotes Jim, the owner of AC’s in saying, “Don’t fix what ain’t broken.” In 2018, Cisco Kids plan to record more music both as a four-piece and in collaboration with lyricists in Charleston and the surrounding areas.

And now, before you stream the EP, a statement from Cisco Kids themselves:

We named the EP ‘Swamp Haus’ to give credit where credit is due. Thank you to those who have helped us along the way, we would not be the band we are without their support. So thank you to Julius, Eddie White, and those at Awendaw Green. They call it the Swamp House so behold you know have the “Swamp Haus” EP. It was truly a blessed experience and we hope to record music there in the future. Please come out to a show in the near future to hear the EP. We will have merch for sale soon, so be on the lookout for that and you are now able to stream our EP on our Facebook or on our Soundcloud. Thank you all for the support and extra thanks goes out to our friends at Extra Chill. Catch us at our next show!!

-Love from the boys in Cisco Kids, Charleston’s Premier Boy Band