Christopher Brown and Jayson Gerycz formed Total Babes in Medina, Ohio in 2010 as a pop-punk alternative to their acid rock band Swindella. Gerycz played drums on early recordings by Cloud Nothings, and Total Babes had a similar approach to driving, youthful alternative pop/rock. The group's debut full-length, Swimming Through Sunlight, a collection of gleeful, distorted love songs, arrived on Old Flame Records in 2011. Follow-up Heydays arrived in 2015 on Wichita Records (Cloud Nothings' European home) and was a significantly more mature effort, featuring clear production and more accomplished songwriting and musicianship. The album featured synthesizer contributions by John Elliott (formerly of ambient trio Emeralds and founder of the Spectrum Spools label), bass playing by Nathan Ward of Smooth Brain, and saxophone by Cloud Nothings frontman Dylan Baldi. ~ Paul Simpson