The Prodigy

One minute Pendulum were conjuring up their hard-hitting brand of dubstep in a tiny home basement – the next they were relocating to the UK, becoming bonafide dance superstars.

Still, as far as Gareth McGrillen is concerned, it’s finally conquering their native Australia that the band consider their greatest achievement yet.
“It’s pretty amazing to think that we’re already at the tail end of the ‘Immersion’ tour,” McGrillen says of the band’s third studio album. “But it’s good to wrap it up back at home in Australia because it’s always been a long way away and touring is hard because of that. It was just sad that at one point we were massive all over the world but we had no influence on our own country.”

Before Pendulum set off on a well-deserved holiday, McGrillen says there’s nothing quite like playing to a home crowd. “But before anything happens, we’re definitely having a bit of a break. I’m still excited about this tour, though, we’ve got a massive set and loads of screens and the visual element is actually literally triggered off by the music itself.”

In fact, as McGrillen says, before the entire ‘Immersion’ cycle comes to a conclusion, Pendulum are releasing one last single off the album. “‘The Island’ is a track that we did just because we wanted to try something different – it’s basically house music at a tempo Pendulum had never tackled before. We believe we now have the creative license to be able to do it! For me personally, though, I love the collaboration we did with In Flames [‘Self Vs Self’] – they’re such an inspiring band! Their music is widely different to ours but we have a lot more common than you’d think!”

‘Immunize’ — featuring Liam Howlett of Pendulum’s supposed long-time rivals, The Prodigy — is another favourite of McGrillen’s. “We always heard stories how much they hated us, or how much we hated them… It took a while for both bands to realise it was all media stirring up bullshit and generating animosity, so we put an end to it after we had a chance to actually hang out with them at the Big Day Out in 2009 ... Hopefully it will just put an end to lies that both of our bands have been putting up with for years.”

Pendulum headline Summafieldayze on the Gold Coast January 2. summafieldayze.com