INTERVIEW: NIALL DOHERTY
This week, an act described as a “quiet giant” by their team is about to make a great deal of noise.
Led by mastermind Rob Swire, Pendulum are set to headline Milton Keynes Bowl on August 9, topping the bill for the first time at a venue where they’ve previously supported the likes of The Prodigy and Linkin Park.
Pendulum changed the game back in the noughties, breaking boundaries with their blend of electronic and heavy music and now, their first album in 15 years is about to hammer home their importance once again.
Due on August 22 via Mushroom Music, new full-length Inertia features Bullet For My Valentine, AWOLNation, Scarlxrd and more. The record sees the band reunite with Korda Marshall, who is managing director, international at the label. Pendulum are also working with Red Light Management, with James Sandom and Al Mills helping steer a campaign designed both to celebrate their legacy and look ahead to the future.
Marshall, Sandom and Mills took time out from the hectic campaign – which also features a run of outstore dates in September – to discuss Pendulum’s return with Music Week…
It was announced back in 2023 that Pendulum had signed to Mushroom Music. As wwe approach album release day, can you fill us in on what has happened since?
Korda Marshall: “It's two areas, really. One is in terms of Mushroom and Virgin Music Group, that relationship has developed phenomenally over the last two or three years. We're having a lot of successes and working more closely with the Virgin teams worldwide, it's grown into a strong international relationship. Specifically with Pendulum, we put out five different tracks and we're approaching over 120 million streams with the tracks that we put out to build the market. We’ve done various tours, they toured Australia on an arena tour and they did Download the year before last. I’ve also been working closely with the new manager situation. I've known James Sandom for many, many years. I'm a big Red Light fan, and Al and James are doing brilliantly. Then we've got the Milton Keynes show, 30,000 tickets sold out in the middle of August, and then we're going to drop the new album, which is a phenomenal record. Rob's an amazing talent."
James Sandom: “We were first connected with Rob about two years ago and were immediately intrigued and interested because of the very unique place the band occupy. The pipes aren't exactly full of drum’n’bass metal acts and we were both really compelled by that. Rob really resonated with what we brought to the table together.”
Al Mills: “He really appreciated that we could come at it from the angle of it being band-focused, because Pendulum, even though it is Rob, from a live perspective, it's a band. Being able to talk about building a live plot and mapping things out, we were coming at it from the angle of a band. That was our unique selling point in that regard, from the rest of the acts on the roster and Red Light’s background as a company.”
Pendulum sign to Mushroom/Virgin in 2023 (Rob Swire and Korda Marshall pictured third and second from right)
Why was this type of deal the right one for Pendulum at this point in their career?
KM: “Well, they had a history with Mushroom before the Warner scenario and they've got a big history with me. It’s making sure that Rob’s got all the teams of people around him that he wants, that he needs, and that make this work. It's always difficult interfacing an independent attitude and process into a major label structure. I've been on both sides of the fence at Warners and Atlantic, bringing labels in, like Transgressive, or farming labels out, like Infectious going into different major labels. We take a lot of care and attention. They're a really good team, the Virgin team.”
JS: “They’d already signed to Mushroom, maybe a year before we came on board. I've worked with Korda in various forms, dating back as long as 20 years ago, so it's nice to reconnect with him when Mushroom’s on an uptick. It's really great to be working with a label team where you have a real priority artist and you feel the dedicated energy around it.”
A lot of the early Pendulum music was a moment in time and we had a lot of phenomenal amount of success
Korda Marshall, Mushroom Music
Korda, what are your main memories of first working with Pendulum?
KM: “Well, I was shouted out at by the American execs, ‘What the fuck are we doing, spending all that money on a hardcore drum & bass act?!’. I'd just signed Seasick Steve, and it was like ‘What are you doing, signing a five-string blues guitarist and then now you've gone and signed a hardcore drum & bass act, why have you given them all this money?!’ I said, 'Because they're fucking brilliant and we love what they were doing creatively.’ A lot of that early Pendulum music was a moment in time and we had a lot of phenomenal amount of success very early on.”
What are the key pillars of making sure this campaign is a success?
KM: “Attention to detail. I think it's really important. I mean, I've got a great team around me. Madeleine O'Gorman is my general manager, she's integral to making the whole thing work. Then there’s Sarah Richardson on the PR promo, it’s bringing in the right people, Barbara Charone's team, making sure the Virgin promotion team are focused. I've got Emma Clardy who helps on the A&R side to make sure that everything is loud and as well mastered, well cut and well put together as possible. The formats that we're putting out have been really carefully thought about or coordinated with Virgin for the release date timings. We were going to go on the August 29, but obviously Sabrina Carpenter has announced an album. We were trying for a No.1 record. I think with Wolf Alice [releasing The Clearing], it's going to be a tough call, but we've got a really good, strong retail plan that the Virgin retail team put together.”
JS: “There are a few aspects that have been fine-tuned in the team. There's a new booking agent, Sol Parker at Wasserman. It's always great as a manager to be able to come into something with enough of a runway to be able to affect the trajectory longer term, it's a bit like a footballer that signs and then has a preseason. We've had a year to put a strategic live block together with Sol Parker that will run the whole way through next year and maybe beyond and see us play all our key markets around the world, both in hard tickets and festivals.”
Al Mills and James Sandom
Do you have targets in mind in terms of what would make this a successful campaign?
KM: “If we get over 500 million streams, I'd count that. I'd say a No.1 record, but the vagaries of the charts kind of take it away. I think that the context of making sure that we turn over every stone, and that we do as good a job as we can, and then I’ll feel proud.”
JS: “I always find it odd to set objectives. It’s obvious you want every campaign to achieve commercially, critically, creatively. But really, for any manager of any significant artist, the true barometer of success is the artist's happiness, if they're happy and they feel that their own objectives are being fulfilled, and there are new criteria and new opportunities, those are the real objectives. Obviously we want singles to poke through and stick around and soundtrack people's lives, but I don't think there's any particular metric or number attached to that. There's a young audience too, I would say maybe 30% of the audience weren't there the first time around.”
AM: “Generationally speaking, the young generation lean in towards a darker and heavier sound, and I think that's reflective of where the world is at currently. Pendulum aren't necessarily touching on political or social themes, but I think the darker, heavier aesthetic and sound, younger people are really gravitating towards that.”
Young people are really gravitating towards a darker, heavier aesthetic and sound
Al Mills, Red Light Management
They are such a huge live proposition. How’s it weighted in terms of where your focus is between live and records?
KM: “I think that's all very old language, really. We try to coordinate things in terms of the artist’s unique authenticity and in terms of brand value, you know? We consider ourselves brand managers in that, in that sense. Rather than trying to sell bits of plastic, we're selling dreams and emotions.”
JS: “It's all part of the same entity. We live in a time where a number of artists are multi-disciplinary, multi-genre and where there's a degree of audience nostalgia. It’s nothing to be ashamed of if you've meant something to a certain group of people and you can bring them back 10, 15 years later. When you bring them back, you've got to make sure you give them the best experience they've ever had.”
AM: “It’s about being reactive to it, as well. In one of the initial conversations we had with Rob, he said to us that he would never play Tarantula again. He was like, ‘We've overplayed it, I'm sick of playing it, I never want to hear that song ever again.’ We were, like, ‘It's one of your biggest songs, but fair enough.’ We played Piece Hall in Halifax a month ago and it was an incredible crowd, seeing so many kids, children on parents’ shoulders, it was a cross-generational, family-based audience. We were trying to figure out what the encore would be and they came out with Tarantula. We were like, ‘That's incredible’, but that was them reading the room, recognising that there was a generational span of fans. It was definitely the right move for that show.”
When you bring original fans back, you've got to make sure you give them the best experience they've ever had
James Sandom, Red Light Management
The charts are filled with a lot of returning acts at the moment. What do you think that says about the state of the musical landscape in 2025?
JS: “The reason why there are so many hugely successful returning artists is because they deserve to be there. They lived in a time where building loyalty, engagement and a real immersive community around an artist was easier because it was more transactional. You engaged in a real way. But I do think a lot of these artists in different genres and different spaces have not been knocked off their perch because no-one's come along, there's no competition.”
AM: “We did a festival in Athens a couple of weeks ago with The Prodigy and that's a package that has happened numerous times before, but it was Pendulum’s first time ever playing in Greece, so there’s still innovative ways of presenting those packages, getting these career artists in front of new crowds.”
Milton Keynes Bowl is a landmark show for them. What do you think it says about where Pendulum are in 2025?
JS: “It’s the biggest hard-ticketed live show in their history. It's an amazing flag in the ground for us and for this chapter. They're a bit of a quiet giant as a band. I don't think in commercial terms, people realise the worth of Pendulum and Milton Keynes Bowl speaks to it.”
PHOTOS: Derek Bremner, Phoebe Fox
