Pendulum
"I think we're very lucky it's 2010. If it were any other time, audiences wouldn't respond as well as they do now."—Rob Swire
Pendulum are an Australian-British drum and bass and electronic rock band founded in 2002 in Perth by Rob Swire, Gareth Mcgrillen, and Paul Harding. Harding was a veteran DJ while Swire and Mcgrillen were members of the rock band known as Xygen. After hearing Konflict's "Messiah" at a rave, they were inspired to enter into the drum and bass genre. In 2003 the band relocated to the United Kingdom.
What followed was an album, Hold Your Colour, said to have changed the face of drum and bass. And then they got inventive.
In Silico (2008) seemed to cross drum and bass with a conventional rock band, causing a serious backlash from their fanbase, the integration of styles on Immersion (2010) pacified most of this and offered greater crossover than ever before.
But chances are, unless you're a drum and bass fan, you know them for the song Propane Nightmares.
Unlike most drum and bass DJ acts, Pendulum are known to put on spectacular live shows, equally at home supporting Iron Maiden or playing DJ sets in underground clubs.
- 2005 - Hold Your Colour
- 2008 - In Silico
- 2010 - Immersion
Influences:
- The Prodigy, Konflict
Pendulum Members
- Rob Swire - vocals, synth, producer
- Peredur ap Gwynedd - guitar
- Gareth Mcgrillen - bass guitar, DJ
- Kevin Sawka - drums
- Paul 'El Hornet' Harding - DJ
- Ben 'The Verse' Mount - MC
Former members
- Paul Kodish - drums
Song tropes
- Break the Cutie: "Witchcraft" is about a man coming home to find his girlfriend brutally maimed.
- Cult: The subject of Propane Nightmares. The cult in the music video is based on Heaven's Gate
- Epic Rocking: A surprising number of their tracks clock in at over 5 minutes (on Hold Your Colour, only one track is under this, and by only 7 seconds).
- Special mention must be made of the album closers: "Still Grey", "The Tempest" and "Encoder", which tend to feature false endings and synth-heavy codas.
- Precision F-Strike: One that went unnoticed by the censors in "Visions"
"I'm gonna be a fucking superstar."
- Protest Song: "The Vulture".
- Missing Episode Averted with "Ransom". Originally slated for release on "Immersion", it was partially previewed and became a fan favorite, but was dropped for the final release due to the band believing it didn't fit with the sound of the album and "got boring after the intro". It appeared to be Lost Forever due to the final version's project files being corrupted, but eventually reached the light of day as it was released as a charity single in April 2011 to benefit earthquake aid appeal for Japan.
- Subliminal Seduction: The main melody of "Granite" is consistent through the song until near the end, when a different melody is played for the last 52 seconds. Playing the song backwards reveals that the ending melody is the main melody in reverse.
- Take That: "Show Down", which is an attack at the "fans" who labeled them sell-outs for dropping their traditional Drum And Bass sound in favour of a more sophisticated electro-rock one.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: "Encoder" is essentially one big long lyrical one of these. Rob Swire tweeted that it was about leaving unworthy friends behind.
Misc tropes (videos and other stuff)
- Badass Bookworm: Rob Swire. As well as providing all the vocals and synths on their two most recent albums, he also produced them, and this interview shows just how complex a task that was.
- Also remember that their live shows run their instruments through 13 computers, giving a sound very close to that on their records, but with nothing pre-recorded.
- Badass Beard: Rob Swire's got quite a cool goatee.
- Bishonen: Kevin Sawka.
- Large Ham: Ben "Verse" Swire.
