Pendulum is an Australian drum and bass band founded in 2002. Pendulum originally formed in the city of Perth, Western Australia, by Rob Swire, Gareth McGrillen and Paul "El Hornet" Harding. The band was later expanded to include members Ben Mount, Peredur ap Gwynedd and KJ Sawka. The group is notable for its distinctive sound, mixing electronic music with hard rock and covering a wide range of genres.

Their debut studio album, Hold Your Colour, was released in 2005 to positive critical reception. While Hold Your Colour was mostly of the drum and bass genre, the succeeding albums In Silico and Immersion saw experimentation of other genres such as industrial rock and electronic rock.

In 2012, the band went on hiatus as Swire and McGrillen concentrated on their side-project Knife Party. In 2015, the band reformed and released the remix album The Reworks in 2018. The band have since released the EPs Elemental (2021) and Anima (2023), and in 2025 released a fourth album titled Inertia.

History

2002–2007: Formation and Hold Your Colour

The band began their career in Perth, Western Australia as a trio of DJs. Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen had been in several rock and metal music bands, while Harding had been the drummer in a punk band during the mid-1990s. Harding had been active in the Perth drum and bass scene since the late 1990s, DJing under the name "El Hornet". Swire and McGrillen had performed local DJ sets and intended to start a record label. They first collaborated during The Perth Producers night at The Drumclub and decided to continue to work together under the name Pendulum.

The first track the trio produced was 'Vault', which would be released in 2003 on 31 Records. It resonated with mostly UK fans of the genre, which prompted a move to London in the same year. The band also recorded and released 'Spiral / Ulterior Motive' the same year, and in 2004 made their first compilation appearance on 'Jungle Sound: The Bassline Strikes Back!', with several songs featured and Harding in charge of mixing the album's second disc. The band was offered an album deal by Breakbeat Kaos, Fresh's label, which resulted in their debut album Hold Your Colour in 2005. The album charted in both the United Kingdom and in Australia and was certified as a golden album in Australia.

Following the success of their 2005 debut album, their label Breakbeat Kaos re-issued the compilation under the name Jungle Sound Gold, the front now saying "mixed by Pendulum". The band disapproved of this as they had neither given permission nor been informed about the release, and Pendulum later ended up leaving the label.

In 2006, the trio became a sextet after introducing Ben Mount as their MC, Peredur ap Gwynedd as their guitarist, and Paul Kodish as their drummer. At this time McGrillen began playing bass guitar at live shows and on some studio recordings.

2007–2009: In Silico and Live at Brixton Academy Pendulum's second album, In Silico, was released on 12 May 2008. This release contained different sounds compared to their debut album, as it contained more rock elements whilst maintaining their electronic elements. The response to this change was relatively positive from critics, but was called "a little dated" by The Guardian. 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.Brandle, Lars. Billboard: The International Newsweekly of Music, Video and Home Entertainment120.42 (18 October 2008): 47. In November 2008, three songs from the album In Silico were used in the soundtrack of Need for Speed: Undercover. The song "Tarantula" was featured in the video game MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. "Tarantula" also later inspired the release of the track "Centipede" from their spin-off band, Knife Party.

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 17 April 2009. Sometime afterwards, Paul Kodish left the band for unspecified reasons.

2009–2011: Immersion

Pendulum once 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. The release date of the album was announced to be sometime "in May" during the live preview party at Matter, and was then announced to be released on 24 May. Pendulum previewed their album Immersion at the Ear Storm night at London's Matter nightclub on Friday 22 January. "Salt in the Wounds", a track from their new album, was Zane Lowe's Hottest Record in the World on BBC Radio 1 on 25 January 2010. On Zane Lowe's show, it was also announced that he wanted to join the band and the first single from the new album would be called "Watercolour". This single also received its first play on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show on 8 March 2010, and was his Single of the Week for that week. In December 2010, "Watercolour" was found to be featured in the soundtrack of the 2010 hit game "Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit". On 1 April, the music video for "Salt in the Wounds" was released. The video is unique in that it is, according to the band's website, "...the world’s first 360° interactive music video."

"Watercolour" claimed the No.4 spot in the UK Singles Chart, making it their biggest hit to date. On 21 May 2010, the band headlined the annual Radio 1's Big Weekend festival which was held at the Vaynol Estate, Bangor, Gwynedd. The second single from the album, "Witchcraft", was released on 18 July and charted at No.29 in the UK Singles chart, making it their third highest charted single in the UK. The third single from Immersion was "The Island", and just missed the UK Top 40 at No. 41.

Rob Swire had stated that if it had achieved greater success than "Witchcraft", he would have released a song entitled "Ransom", which was taken off Immersion before the album's release. Swire revealed the original files for "Ransom" were corrupted, and that he had no plans to recreate them, therefore it would not be released. However, on 6 April 2011, Pendulum released "Ransom" as a single via their website with all proceeds going to the Help for Japan fund after the tsunami. "Crush" was released as the fourth single in January 2011. 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.

2011–2015: Knife Party and hiatus

On 26 October 2010, Swire announced that a new record was in the works. This new record was set to be heavily punk influenced. The next album was expected to be a significant departure from usage of drum and bass tempo, for a faster tempo in the form of punk, and a slower tempo in the form of dubstep.

On 29 March 2011, Swire revealed that there would be no "new album" for a while. However, he did add that there would be "def new material" later in the year.

Pendulum opened for Linkin Park on several selected dates during the band's 2011 "A Thousand Suns" North American tour. They also headlined their own tour supported by Innerpartysystem who are also an Electronic Rock band.

Pendulum played at the 2011 Download Festival, Oxegen, The Eden Sessions, Glastonbury Festival, T in the Park, and V Festival, headlined Global Gathering, an exclusive London show at South West Four and finally headlined the first night of Bestival on the Isle of Wight.

Pendulum headlined at Rhythm & Vines 2011 in Gisborne, New Zealand. They also were one of the headliners on the Main Stage line-up at the LovEvolution 2011 Dance Festival and Parade in Oakland, California, which had over 50 DJs and 15 or more parade floats.

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. Six months later on 16 June 2012, Rob Swire reiterated that there would be no further Pendulum live shows and also withdrew his plans of releasing a new record in 2013, as Knife Party had become his primary project. El Hornet and MC Verse, meanwhile, continued to perform DJ sets across the world using the alias, while the remaining members of the band began to partake in various side projects.

In 2011 Rob Swire and fellow member Gareth McGrillen announced in various interviews that a project called Knife Party had been created. The side project is virtually unlinked by any means to Pendulum and consists of electro house, dubstep and other club genres. Knife Party has since become the duo's primary project.

The following year 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 later confirmed the album in a speech at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., and said "don't rush us".

On 13 July 2014, Swire stated that work on the new Pendulum album will begin around September and could be released early 2015. Yet 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 weren't working on it yet, they had 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, one he can have "control" of, since he "lost heart for the project", having no real desire to make drum and bass anymore and fusing it with rock, while again ruling out a live band tour and gave no further details on release dates.

2015–2019: Hold Your Colour anniversary and reunion

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. This was the first live performance of the band without MC Ben Verse. The band performed new live versions of songs such as Knife Party's "Begin Again" as well as deadmau5's Moar Ghosts 'n' Stuff, with deadmau5 himself performing live alongside the band.

On 16 December 2016, Pendulum was confirmed to be performing as a live act at Nova Rock festival 2017. The band also posted an image to their Facebook page teasing a possible return in 2017.

Pendulum also performed in their hometown Perth to ring in the new year at the 10 year anniversary of the Origin NYE festival.