23-year-old TikTok micro celeb Nico Swan aimed to capture Philly’s DIY music scene in ‘Fly High DIY’
The Red Bull-funded documentary is about inventiveness, independence, rebelliousness, unwavering support, and community, all wrapped up in music.
The phrase “DIY,” short for “Do It Yourself,” isn’t just about going to the hardware store to pick out the right kind of nails and plywood for your weekend project.
DIY also describes the people and bands who put on small-scale music concerts in nontraditional venues, like basements and parks. It’s about inventiveness, independence, rebelliousness, unwavering support, and community all wrapped up in music, making Philly a ripe spot for its own flourishing DIY scene.
Once Nico Swan, a 23-year-old filmmaker from Detroit and TikTok micro celebrity, learned about Philly’s brand of DIY, he knew he had to come see it for himself.
“We gotta film this. This is like magic.”
Last month, Swan released a short documentary about it titled Fly High DIY as part of a program created by Red Bull and Ghetto Film School that supports up and coming filmmakers. The documentary is available to watch for free on Red Bull’s website.
Swan spoke with The Inquirer about his film, what makes Philadelphia’s DIY community uniquely strong, and why he believes Spider-Man 2 (2004) is one of the greatest movies ever made.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
How did you become a filmmaker?
When I was a youngster, I used to just watch the same two movies on repeat — Spider-Man 2 and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. And looking back, I think I knew I was a filmmaker because I wouldn’t reenact Spider-Man fighting. I would always reenact the character moments of him just being a regular person, eating hotdogs and stuff.
Spider-Man 2 is one of the greatest films of all time. He’s a hero, but he loses his powers. And he’s just trying to figure out his life. I feel like Spider-Man as a whole can just relate to anybody because he’s just a regular guy. Can’t afford his rent, having girl troubles. A Black kid could really relate to being in the Spider-Man mask, I guess.
I got my first camera when I was 11 and have just been making stuff ever since.
At the beginning of the film, you mention how you didn’t feel like you belonged anywhere until you picked up skateboarding and got connected with DIY through it. How would you describe that relationship and this community to people who aren’t familiar with it?
I feel like something’s wrong with me, but anytime music is playing, I can’t help but dance.
And DIY is a community of people who put on their own [music] shows in the most obscure places. A lot of times it could be someone’s basement, abandoned garage, or even like a skate park.
And these are just people that are creating art in the community. You’re not asking permission from anybody or you don’t need a sponsorship or anything from a big company. It’s people doing it themselves, doing what they want to do and making art.
It has origins from punk, but now there’s DIY shows where there’s rap and there’s R&B, it’s all types of music. Anything that you can make with some instruments, that’s what it’s gonna sound like. Everyone is for each other and they’re there for the right reasons.
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Skateboarding is that same counterculture of free spirits doing what they love. It’s kind of always been [hand in hand]. When you’re just out in your city square skating on a rail or stairs, anything you could find outside, that’s always been frowned upon.
You’re from Detroit, but picked Philly’s DIY community for this documentary. What about it was so compelling to you?
I’m so fricking blessed to even have discovered Philly. I don’t think I could have made the film without discovering the Philly DIY scene at all. It’s not even close, to be honest, how great the DIY scene is in Philly compared to everywhere else.
I would look at these Philly shows and I would see the same bands, playing the same shows, and they were all friends and they all had a film guy who would do stuff for them. It just screamed community when I saw it. And everyone seemed like they connected together. And it was more like a family.
I hope people will watch this and try to figure out where their local DIY community is, because every city has one. Every city might not be as cool as Philly’s, but every city has a small or big DIY community.
The highlight of the documentary is this moment where you’re at a DIY show in Cecil B. Moore Plaza, and between performances a concertgoer named Moo suddenly picks a microphone and starts rapping. The musicians and the crowd are really supportive and everyone gets into it. How did it feel watching that happen in real time?
I don’t have a million dollars, but if I did, I’d owe Moo like a million, trillion dollars because that moment really made the film and it was 100% unplanned.
There were the two bands, Friend and Dummy Pass, and it was a third band that was gonna play at the end called Glue.
And while they’re waiting for another member of their band to show up, Moo, the random guy who was at the DIY show, asked if he could just start rapping over anything. And before Moo even rapped, he offered his hoodie to help mend the drum set because Friend, they’re a little crazy, they actually broke it.
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I didn’t even know he rapped, I just looked over and there he was, randomly looking like he was starting to perform. And I was like, everybody turn the camera back on. We gotta film this. This is like magic.
That really was the moment that highlighted what DIY was. People doing what they can to make art and do it for the right reasons.