Swoop were an Australian seven-piece rock, funk and disco band established in 1991 by mainstays by Joshua Beagley on guitar and keyboards and Roland Kapferer on lead vocals (rapping, MCing).
[1][3] Fiona Ta'akimoeaka joined Swoop on lead vocals before August 1992 and by November the other members of the seven-piece were Chris Brien on drums, Armando Gomez on percussion, Alex 'Gob' Hewetson on bass guitar and Breadman St Ledger III on keyboards.
[1][4] For their third single "Everybody Loves the Sunshine", which appeared in November 1992, they were briefly joined by Terepai Richmond (also a member of Directions In Groove) on percussion.
[1][3][5] Rebecca Lang of The Canberra Times described their sound, "Drawing on the '70s funk, dipping into '90s acid jazz and adding a blend of '80s rap.
[8] The Canberra Times' Liz Armitage felt, "it does embrace the spontaneity and spirit that makes a really good band.
"[12] Simon Woodridge of Juice Magazine observed, they "contrived a cheesy amalgam of funk/rock/disco/pop on [this album], and they've put it together with enough skill to make overlooking the amount of second hand riffage totally painless.
[1][7] At the ARIA Music Awards of 1996 they were nominated for Song of the Year and Best Video for "Apple Eyes", and Best Pop Release for The Woxo Principle.
[1] By 1998 latter-day members included drummer Calvin Welch and Japanese-born keyboard player Tetsushi Morita.
[16][21] Brien became a live and recording session musician, drum clinician and teacher; in November 2006 he relocated to Hong Kong.