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“Sounding excellent, a nice fusion of the different things that they have been interested in over the last few years” – John Kennedy, Radio X
“It’s a song that’s quite hard to find fault with, plain and simple, it’s just a lot of fun to listen to.” – Gigwise
“This band just keep making you want more by constantly outdoing themselves.” – The Pentatonic
While summer may now be a fading memory, Bath’s premier rock n roll trio, The Family Rain, are giving their fans something to celebrate with the release of their brand new EP ‘Machete Western’, available now from Distiller Records.
To accompany the release the band have also dropped a storming new lead track, ‘Loud and Clear’.
Produced by studio legend and frequent collaborator Tom Dalgety (Pixies, Royal Blood, Rammstein), ‘Loud & Clear’ is an anthemic blast of noise and finds the three brothers – twins Will (bass/vocals) and Tim Walter (drums) and older brother Ollie (guitars) – drawing on everyone from Led Zeppelin to the Black Keys to Queens Of The Stone Age, to create a hard-edged rock sound that both pays tribute to their influences while resolutely looking to the future.
““These tracks really embody the feeling in our camp,” declares Tim on ‘Loud and Clear’ and the EP. “They’re forward thinking. Even though a song like ‘Loud and Clear’ might have a glam rock feel, if you listen really closely the beats are like this loop of angry gorillas – really big Dalgety-produced drums – that go underneath the track creating heaviness in a whole new way.”
Accompanying the track is a seedily cinematic video, shot in their home county of Somerset.
“We filmed the video in a nicotine-stained town hall that hasn’t been redecorated since the 1970’s, the copper mirror ball has been spinning there for decades waiting for its moment to shine” The band recall. “The aesthetic is based around the Wim Wenders film, ‘Paris Texas’, with the green and red lighting and the general tone of isolation/madness around love, the visual language is pretty direct.”
The ‘Machete Western’ EP is a product of the Walters brothers expanding sonic pallet, as they’ve been inspired by the genre blending stylings of acts like Paramore, Gorillaz, Warmduscher and, their south west comrades, The Heavy to push themselves in their songwriting and the influences they bring to their sound. This openness is reflected in the fact the band not only worked with Dalgety on the EP (he produced 3 tracks) but with south-western electro duo Bad Sounds (Arlo Parks, KAWALA), who produced the title track and previous single ‘It Ain’t Easy Being Mean’.
“We were all thinking that with the next thing we’d do we would venture out a bit,” explains Will of the urge to build up on the band’s foundations as they sought to move forward. “So we’ve pushed ourselves to just go and explore because we know we are at our best when we are breaking new ground. The thing that keeps us working together is that our shared attitude has always been seeking rather than repeating.”
However, this was no baby out with the bathwater moment, if anything The Family Rain have taken their musical offspring and given it an invigorating jacuzzi, as on the new EP the band’s signature blend of sweet melodies, muscular riffs and hard beats has been melded with electronic enhancements, expansive atmospheres and guest appearances.
The band have been taking some of their new music out on the road with recent shows with the likes of The Last Internationale and Taipei Houston and appearances at Supersonic in Paris, and in November they’ll be heading out on the road as the main support for Declan Welsh and the Decadents.
Machete Western EP track listing
1. Machete Western
2. Loud and Clear
3. It Ain’t Easy Being Mean (feat. Dylan Cartlidge)
4. Karaoke
5. Eric Idle
UK LIVE DATES
30.09.23 – Heartbreaker Festival – Southampton
04.11.23 – Lions Den – Manchester (Supporting Declan Welsh)
5.11.23 – The Sunflower Lounger – Birmingham (Supporting Declan Welsh)
07.11.23 – The Louisiana – Bristol (Supporting Declan Welsh)
08.11.23 – Leicester University – Leicester (Supporting Declan Welsh)
09.11.23 – Omeara – London (Supporting Declan Welsh)
10.11.23 – The Joiners – Southampton (Supporting Declan Welsh)
11.11.23 – Komedia Studios – Brighton (Supporting Declan Welsh)
12.11. 23 – The Horn – St Albans (Supporting Declan Welsh)
14.11.23 – Oporto – Leeds (Supporting Declan Welsh)
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