[2] While attending the Ontario College of Art, he produced his first multi-track recording of experimental music and used the tapes in improvised multi-media performances with slide projectors.
In 1990 the indie label Fringe Product released his CD PoMo A GoGo, recorded in a 24 track studio and which featured an array of musicians including Glenn Milchem (Blue Rodeo), Holly Cole, Chis Tait (Chalk Circle), Rebecca Jenkins, Hugh Marsh, Curtis Driedger, and Kim Deschamps.
Swinghammer's next album was Vostok 6 – an elaborate electronic-oriented song cycle about Valentina Tershkova, the Russian cosmonaut who was the first woman in space.
Guest appearances include Tyler Stewart (Barenaked Ladies), and the late, great voice of CITY TV, Mark Daley.
The next Swinghammer album was Black Eyed Sue in 2001 – a non-fictional song cycle set in Toronto and performed entirely on acoustic instruments.
The solo voice and acoustic guitar album Augusta was recorded live in 2004 by Ron Skinner at The Glenn Gould Studio at CBC Toronto, and was initially intended for radio broadcast.
Also that year, his ambient techno soundtrack to the cult horror film Ginger Snaps 2 – Unleashed, was released on CD on the Outside label.
He wrote a body of work that he recorded on 35 vintage electronic instruments from the CANTOS Collection including Ondes Martenot, Novachord, and a Raymond Scott Clavivox.
Selected guitar session credits include albums by Ani DiFranco, Serena Ryder, Royal Wood, Dragonette, Sarah Slean, Great Big Sea, and Rheostatics.
Some of the artists that Swinghammer has performed with as a side-man include Peter Murphy (Bauhaus), Gregory Hoskins, Sarah Slean, Lorraine Segato, Wendy Lands, Dan Bryk, Michah Barnes, Wild Strawberries, Tory Casis, Paul Linklater, Lori Cullen and Ron Sexsmith.
Film credits include McLuhan's Wake, The Falls, Trouble in the Peace, Acquainted with the Night, Noise, Youkali Hotel and Ginger Snaps 2.
In 1986 he exhibited a series of large-scale works on paper at the Trent University Gallery in Peterborough, and later that year sold a piece to the Canada Council Art Bank, which remains in their permanent collection.
Over a period of five years he created popular fundraising T-shirt designs and posters for the legendary community radio station CKLN.
These videos were extremely popular on Much Music, and the national exposure created opportunities for Swinghammer to art direct rap-oriented TV commercials.