Liverpool quartet Pale Rider make an impression with their debut single ‘I Run On Rain’, a slab of thundering space pop laced wth stomping drums, fuzz filled baselines and psych scored licks that is redolent of early Verve with a playful snarling lyrical edge. Watch the video below.
Recorded in one five-hour session, its sound is teetering on the abyss between nihilism and a vast, steely ambition, there’s a scope and here that marks it out as quite different from the guitar band throng. Formed in 2017, Ben Russell (vocals, guitar), Fran Codman (lead guitar), Louis Dutton (bass) and Sophie Thompson (drums), Pale Rider
bonded over a love of The Stooges‘s Fun House, The Black Angels and wild space-rock.
Ben Russell said: “The song came from thinking about lyricism, or art in general as an objective thing, and how we decide what is profound and remarkable and what isn’t. ‘Confidence in the nonsense…a meaning in the nothing’ was born from this idea. The verses are kind of like a surreal tongue-in-cheek play on this concept, and are sang with gusto and conviction to imply some hidden meaning.
“I think the video, all VHS footage from our recent escapades, are a good indication of how frenzied and deranged our stage show’s becoming.”
Sophie Thompson said: “Me and Ben are from Carlisle but have lived in Liverpool and love Liverpool’s music community but it was class to escape that side of things and play in Manchester and experience a new audience. There was a load of people who traveled over to see us and it was a great night and I think the video captures that a bit. We’re a new band but it felt like already there was a momentum with people from Liverpool and Manchester heading over to see us. I think we’re very much a live band at the minute and our power and presence comes into fruition live – and that kinda comes through in the video.”
Fran Codman: “It was boss to go in the studio – we’d had the tunes for a couple of months, taken them to dirty dungeons round Liverpool but to lay them down in Elevator was a good experience and now we’ve played in Manchester and a headline show in town and there’s a couple of more prominent support slots coming up in Liverpool which feel like we’re moving in the right way and we’re gonna take things up a bit. We’re still in our infancy but the last show in EBGBS we took the fucking roof off and when we play with Phobophobes in March it’s gonna be even heavier.”
Tour dates:
Pale Rider play with Phobophobes at Liverpool’s Shipping Forecast on Thursday March 15
The Lucid Dream at Manchester’s Band on the Wall on Friday April 6
Liverpool Sound City on Saturday May 5 at Hangar 34
