"Swamp" by Mike Mains & the Branches [Content Warning: Discussion of Suicide], Friday, April 29, 2022
Closing 2019's heart-wrenching When We Were in Love , " Swamp " perhaps sums up Mike Mains & the Branches ' third album in a single song: love, depression, and religion. Like the songs " Breathing Underwater " and " Around the Corner ," Mike Mains gave an intimate insight into his writing process on Labeled . Mains talked about earlier Tooth & Nail releases from mewithoutYou and As Cities Burn which helped to inspirer him to write darker Christian songs and push the genre of Christian Rock lyrically in order to open an honest conversation about mental health, depression, and questioning one's faith. YOU HAD ME AT MERLOT. "Swamp" is the conclusion and the title-bearer of the album. Mike asks his wife, bandmate Shannon Briggs Bolanowski-Mains, "Do you remember when we were in love?" On the Labeled podcast interview, Mains talks about "Swamp" being about a fear that his wife were to leave him. Mains wrote