2. PENDULUM
Members:
Rob Swire (Keyboard, vocals, drums, bass guitar, production
Gareth McGrillen: Bass guitar, backing vocals, production
Ben Mount: MC
Perudur ap Gywnedd: guitars
KJ Sawka: Drums (Paul Kodish formerly)
Origin – Perth, Australia but relocated to the UK in 2003
Years active: 2002–2012, 2016–present
Albums: Hold Your Colour (2005), In Silico (2008), Immersion (2010/2011)
3. Origins: 2002-2007
Original Pendulum members Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen were in numerous rock
and metal bands before forming Pendulum in 2002.
Paul Harding joined in 2003 and the band made their first track “Vault”.
In 2004, they made their first compilation appearance on “Jungle Sound: The Bassline
Strikes Back!”
In 2005, Pendulum released their debut album “Hold Your Colour”, which charted in
the UK and Australia (which was later golden certified in Australia.)
2006 had Pendulum gain three new members: Ben Mount, Paul Kodish and Peredur
ap Gywnedd.
4. In Silico: 2007-2009
12th May 2008 saw the band releasing their second album, “In Silico”.
This release contained different sounds compared to their debut album as it contained
more rock elements whilst maintaining their electronic elements.
The album was relatively successful as it charted at 2 on the UK Albums Chart and at 9 in
the Australian Albums Chart. The album reached No. 16 on Billboard's Top Electronic
Albums chart in the United States. After the release of the album, Paul Kodish, for
unknown reasons, left the band, making him the first official former member of the
band. In November 2008, three songs from the album In Silico were used in the
soundtrack of Need for Speed: Undercover.
At the end of the year the band filmed a live DVD on 4 and 5 December 2008, at
the Brixton Academy. This was released on 12 June 2009.
5. Immersion: 2009-2011
Pendulum again toured Europe in 2009. During this tour they announced that they
were working on their third studio album, Immersion. It was announced in
December 2009 that Pendulum would be touring for their new album in May 2010.
In January 2011, Pendulum released a Deluxe Edition of Immersion via iTunes which
contained the album's original 15 tracks and a collection of remixes of
"Watercolour", "Witchcraft" and "The Island" by other artists
including deadmau5, Tiësto and Chuckie. Both the UK and US store were also given
the music videos of those three tracks in the release. More remixes were released in
the UK store along with extra videos, as well as a trailer of footage from their live
show at Wembley Arena, 28 May 2010.
6. 2011/12 – 2015: Hiatus
On 29 March 2011, Rob Swire revealed that there would be no "new album" for a while. He added that there would be "def new material" later in the year.
In 2011 Rob Swire and fellow member Gareth McGrillen announced in multiple interviews that a project called Knife Party had been created. The side project is not
linked in any means to Pendulum and consists of electro house and other genres.
Pendulum played at the 2011 Download Festival, Oxegen, The Eden Sessions, Glastonbury Festival, T in the Park, as well as many others.
The band took a break from touring in 2012 in order to take part in side projects.
On 3 January 2012, Pendulum announced that they would be taking a hiatus from touring while thanking their fans for the last several years. They went on to state
that they might create a new record in 2013. Swire stated that Pendulum is on hiatus, as Knife Party is now his primary project.
On 16 June 2012, Rob Swire announced that there will be no further Pendulum live shows and there are no plans for a new album in 2013. El Hornet and MC Verse
would still perform under the band’s name, but only DJ sets.
On 22 August 2013, in a series of Tweets, it was revealed that along with a Knife Party album, a possible Pendulum album may also be released in 2014. El-Hornet,
who does the DJ sets, confirmed the album in a speech at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC. The possibility of Pendulum performing live again has still been ruled
out.
On 13 July 2014, Swire stated that work on the new Pendulum album will begin around September and could be released early 2015.
On 16 December 2014, Knife Party did an AMA on Reddit which some fans inquired the duo about how the Pendulum album was coming along. Rob Swire stated
that, although they aren't working on it yet, they have some old material from previous albums that can be re-worked and finished into something new, which is
however, different from all previous work Pendulum have done so far. Rob Swire also stated that he personally didn't want to make a new Pendulum album but
rather work on something else with Knife Party or create a new project altogether, since he lost heart for the project.
7. 2015/2016 - Present: Reunion and Ultra
Music Festival Comeback
On 20 July 2015, the 10-year anniversary of the release of Hold Your Colour, Rob Swire
took to the Pendulum Twitter page to celebrate, thanking the fans for their support and
changing the profile picture to that of a birthday cake underneath the Pendulum logo in
its original font.
On 26 July 2015, Rob also uploaded two videos to his personal Twitter page of old
Pendulum studio files playing on his computer.
On 22 August 2015, Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen joined El Hornet and Ben Verse
onstage at V Festival in Hylands Park, Essex for the Pendulum DJ set. This marks the first
time either of the members have performed under the Pendulum name in four years.
Rob later tweeted after the performance that the experience was "fun, and also weird."
On 16 December 2015, it was announced that Pendulum would reunite as a live band at
the 2016 Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Florida. The band closed the music festival as the
latter half of a joined performance with Knife Party. The band performed new live
versions of songs such as deadmau5's Ghosts 'n' Stuff, with deadmau5 himself
performing live alongside the band, and Knife Party's 'Begin Again.'
