Entertainment

Musician and content creator Emi McSwain has grown her following exponentially after sharing fun things to do in the city — and recovering from a devastating accident.

Emi McSwain loves Boston. The musician and content creator saw many of her Berklee College of Music classmates move to Los Angeles, New York City, or Nashville to start their careers, but she decided to stay. 

“I was so tired of people complaining about Boston, because I think this is the coolest freaking city,” 25-year-old McSwain said.

Since September, McSwain has posted videos on Instagram of herself visiting underrated cafes, taking pottery classes, volunteering at food banks, and sharing her life as a musician and grocery store worker who lives in Allston.

She grew into an unofficial guide for young Bostonians and, when she was injured in a serious bike accident in April, she shared her recovery journey and received support she never expected.

How she got to Boston

McSwain moved to Massachusetts in 2009 when her family was stationed at Hanscom Air Force Base. Before then, she lived in New Mexico, Virginia, and Japan.

Moving around the world as a kid, she said she “gravitated towards music a lot in my childhood because it was the easiest way to make friends quickly.” She sang solos in the elementary school choir and played the keytar in high school.

Pursuing music in college did not occur to her until her jazz band teacher, who got a master’s degree from Berklee, encouraged her to apply to the music school.

“I was like, ‘That’s kind of a crazy reason to go to college. I should just be an engineer or do something more normal that my family has done,’” she said.

McSwain graduated Berklee in 2022 with a degree in songwriting. During her time there, she was a resident assistant and booked venues for her friends to play at. All of this, she said, gave her a good sense of the city and some of its hidden gems.

It became the catalyst for her online content three years later.

“I already did the research. I already know the city. I can just put it online,” she said.

A mission to build up Boston

“My name is Emi McSwain and I’m on a mission to do every single fun thing that the city of Boston has to offer.”

This is how McSwain introduced most of her Instagram Reels showing the fun activities she embarked on — from highlighting small business, to going to college hockey games, to sharing music from local artists, to visiting museums and restaurants with great deals.

Prior to her bike accident, she had posted something every single day since September, a goal she said she had in order to grow her social media presence. McSwain currently has over 36,000 followers and her posts average tens of thousands of views.

“The first time that my Reel did really well, my mom and sister were sending me screenshots,” McSwain said. “I think my mom was on my Instagram more than I was just because it was so exciting.”

Some of her most popular videos include visiting the Copley Square Farmers Market, getting $1 oysters at the Granary Tavern, uncovering a secret lunch place in the North End, and what it’s like to do laundry in her Allston apartment.

Her newfound following has made her work life at a local grocery store more interesting — people recognize her from her content and she happily shares fun things to do that weekend.

“It definitely has made Boston seem so much smaller and it seems way more like a community than it ever has before,” McSwain said.

Music career with Air Traffic Controller

When she was 16, McSwain signed up for an app she described as “Tinder for musicians.” Eight years later, David Munro contacted her after finding her on the app and seeing her work at Berklee.

McSwain bonded with Munro over their military backgrounds, with Munro previously serving in the U.S. Navy as an air traffic controller — which inspired the name of his band.

“It’s been awesome. I love everybody in that band,” McSwain said. “It really couldn’t have been a better happy accident.”

Boston-based Air Traffic Controller is an indie pop band founded in 2009 that features singer/songwriter Munro, drummer Adam Salameh, bassist Joe Campbell, guitarist Bobby Borenstein, and multi-instrumentalist Steve Scott, according to the band’s website. McSwain joined the band shortly after her graduation in 2022 as a vocalist and keytarist. 

The band has over 300,000 monthly listeners, with their most popular song “This Is Love” sitting at 45 million streams. They have won several awards for their 2016 album “Black Box,” and were highlighted by Boston Magazine and Billboard Hot 100 Fest.

McSwain said the band has 11 of 12 songs completed for their sixth studio album that she said she hopes will be released late next year.

McSwain’s bike accident

On Monday, April 28, McSwain said she had “a feeling of indestructibility” after being in a slump period. She was riding her electric bike back home from two yoga classes with a grocery bag full of fruit for smoothies.

She said the next thing she remembers after that was three days later, when she learned she had crashed her bike and sustained two brain bleeds, two fractures in her skull, a broken sphenoid bone in her skull, and hearing loss in her left ear. Later, she suffered from Bell’s palsy that paralyzed the left side of her face.

The crash happened one block away from her apartment at the intersection of Cambridge Street and Highgate Street. Her bike — which she bought two weeks before the accident — her phone, and her AirPods were stolen from the scene and her car and house keys were missing.  

McSwain stayed at Boston Medical Center for days and stayed with her mother in Bedford for two weeks afterwards.

Not being able to look at screens for too long, McSwain said her mom read aloud many private messages from her followers on Instagram — some were nurses that comforted her, some had Bell’s palsy in the past and offered advice, and one person sent money for a bike helmet.

“It was this whole community of strangers who took the time to write these insanely long messages and well wishes,” McSwain said. “It was just crazy how diverse and how thoughtful strangers could be to another stranger.”

Now, she is going through physical therapy, her hearing is almost back to normal, and she has been helping Air Traffic Controller in the studio with vocals. She had to take a break from posting on social media but said she felt like she owed her audience content after receiving so much support.

“Even though I knew people weren’t expecting things from me, I had an expectation for myself, and I just didn’t feel like I looked like myself and I didn’t know how to get back in touch with the me who posted online,” McSwain said.

McSwain moved back into her apartment in mid-June and has started posting regular content again. Before the accident, she worked on a solo album that she said will release in early 2026. She will also be featured on a song on Boston-based hip-hop group STL GLD’s upcoming album.

Moving forward, she said she wanted to highlight all the different activities Boston offers during the summertime.

“I just want to experience it and show all the free, fun stuff,” McSwain said. “There’s definitely no shortage of ideas in that regard, but I’m also going to try to show a little bit more of me and my life along with it.”

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