It’s the sign of a special band that’s noted for it’s wild oceanic live performances, ones that billow like the roughest of seas, that they can strip it back and make a three minute song which retains that excitement yet is radio ready.

Pale Rider are that band.

Still in their infancy – the Liverpool quartet have but five gigs to their name – yet when Liverpool’s iconic Parr Street Studios come calling you know they’ve pricked the interest of the city and its music fans.

Recorded in one five-hour session by producer Chris Taylor (The Coral), their debut single I Run On Rain is a furious titan of rock & roll magik which has captured the imagination of the North West music press.

Underpinned by a fuzz-fuelled bass line the track crashes like a steely wrecking ball before detonating into a heavyweight lightning bolt of guitar pangs and blistering vocals. The track reaches it’s zenith with a drenching of heroic instrumentation conjuring imagery of The Verve‘s Nick McCabe tackling Prince‘s Let’s Go Crazy. Scroll down to listen to the track…

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.

Early live gigs alongside Lucid Dream and the Captain Beefheart Festival in Liverpool led to Getintothis declaring them ‘Liverpool’s best new band’ while Louder Than War  tipped them as New Band of the Day, adding: “Pale Rider are uncompromisingly addictive, nail bitingly ambitious, they’re creating future sounds for the Space Age of today.”

It’s more than just the exceptional tunes with this band, they have political conscious too with drummer Sophie Thompson appearing on the panel for Safe Gigs for Women (with Frank Turner) when Pale Rider sold out EBGBs at Independent Venue Week.

The band will return to the Merseyside festival circuit with a slot on the Main Stage this weekend at Liverpool International Music Festival in Sefton Park and the main stage at Liverpool Calling alongside The Wytches and Pulled Apart by Horses, whilst last weekend they were warmly received on their support slot with Joy Division and New Order‘s  Peter Hook at Middlewich Fab Festival.

Picture credit: Lucy McLachlan