THE BANSHEES

Silent Nightmare/ Chasing Pablo

The Banshees are an English band hailing from Liverpool and formed by Singer/Songwriter Vinny Pereira and Session Guitarist Paul Anthony Holligan in 2018.

The two members met at a party in Liverpool through a mutual friend who had been trying for some time to get the pair of musicians to finally meet. After spending all of the evening playing around on two acoustic guitars and talking, the pair decided to form a new band with their own sound, ethos and landscapes about how they see music and The Banshees was born.

The pair decided to finally put their own stamp on what music from the North West of England should be about. Using the natural rhythms and grooves of the Mersey Beat era, with the lavish melodies and grit of the sound scape that naturally came out of what Manchester had to offer to the North West mix.

With regard to their latest release The Banshees channeled their unleashed lockdown demons into new track Silent Nightmare/Chasing Pablo– and the result has some serious groove.

The surreal purgatory of lockdown at least stimulated some really wonderful projects, and the new single from The Banshees is no exception. Hailing from Liverpool, the band already have some weighty support slots under their belts, having shared stages with the likes of Noel Gallagher, Inspiral Carpets, and ex-Beatles drummer Pete Best. It’s no wonder they’ve gained the approval of indie icons like these, with clear influences on their work from The Strokes, Johnny Marr, The Cure and New Order. Merseyside is hallowed ground when it comes to producing exciting indie acts, and The Banshees have followed suit.

This track has the indie post-punk flavour of The Rapture, and paired with Vinny Pereira’s smooth vocals reminiscent of Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos, it’s a winning combination.

The band wrote the song out of anger and frustration, and have said that ‘lyrically and musically it will take you on an emotional journey’. The result is chaotic, simultaneously joyous and danceable whilst also reflecting the uneasiness of the times it was written in. The way the guitars seem to chase each other adds to the ominous funk of the track. I’m a sucker for a good bassline, and this track really does it for me.

No-nonsense lyrics like ‘If it’s not yours don’t take it/ if it’s not right don’t do it/ an if it’s not true don’t fake it/ an if ya don’t know, shut up shut up’ have played on repeat in my head for the past week, which is probably a good thing, as that’s pretty good advice. More broadly speaking, lyrically Silent Nightmare/Chasing Pablo is a dark commentary on this anger and frustration, an apt unleashing of the way we have all been feeling over the past few months.

A lot of bands have tried to channel the emotional strains of the pandemic into their work, but The Banshees have set themselves apart with Silent Nightmare/Chasing Pablo. Particularly at a time when the future of the UK’s music industry is under threat, bands like The Banshees continue to demonstrate that the energy and passion for creating great music persists.