“IT’S KIND OF WHOLESOME, BUT THERE’S A LOT OF BRAINROT”: A PINT WITH THE PAV”
By Resonate | March 4, 2026
It’s been a busy night for Bristol-based Welsh alternative rock outfit The Pavilion, who have rushed straight from their rehearsals to have a chat with Resonate Magazine over some pints of cider, a J20 and a Guinness and blackcurrant at The Golden Lion pub. Following the release of their second EP, Faces In The Crowd, in the summer, The Pavilion is beginning to take the indie world by storm.
Formed in 2023 by frontman, Rhys Smedley, whilst he was studying film at uni in Bristol, The Pavilion, with its original line-up, played extensively across the city. Wanting to take things to the next level, and break their music outside of Bristol, the band travelled up to Manchester (and attempted to sleep in a tent for the weekend…) to record Faces In The Crowd, in November 2024.
However, when the band members amicably made the decision to part ways mid-way through the project being mixed and mastered, Smedley wasn’t ready to let The Pavilion’s chapter end. Recruiting guitarist Iwan Morris, bassist Dan O’Connor, and drummer Josh Vallis, originally to play the new material alongside him live, everything finally clicked for The Pavilion, and the members became a mainstay.
Since then, they’ve cultivated a dedicated following online, beginning to play in cities away from home for the first time.
The Pavilion now finds itself on track to continue growing at this much faster pace. “I guess it’s been a long time since I moved to Bristol, and I realised I wanted to be in a band. As soon as I started doing it, I knew that’s all I wanted to do. So when things went wrong, and life conspired to stop me from doing it, I didn’t wanna just let it die. I found a way around it. I just wanted to keep the connection to the story of what I’ve already done. I wrote the songs, but the band itself is its own thing, which I wanted to keep alive. If I went under a different name, I feel like I’d lose the momentum in myself because I feel like I’ve built so much of it up. If I let go now, it would be like starting from scratch, and all that energy would be pointless.” Smedley explains, taking a sip of cider.
As Josh gets up to grab Dan his second J20 of the night (orange and passionfruit, of course), the others reflect on the band feeling like a real friendship group and the moment they knew this lineup was the right one. “It was when we all first rehearsed together that we all just clicked. I think there were a few humps, but once we were there, it was just like we all became one.” As Josh returns with Dan’s J20 and another Guinness in hand, he reflects on how he joined the band “It wasn’t even just about the music, we all just gelled really well. I had met [Rhys] a couple of times before at some other gigs, and when you asked me to play drums, it just went really well. We just giggled and cackled, and we didn’t play much music.”
A new lineup means a fresh sound to old songs. It’s an enjoyable experience for longtime fans to see The Pavilion live in 2025 and notice the subtle changes to the band’s older tracks. When hit with that classic question of “what does each member bring to the band?”, the boys pass around the mini microphone and use the phrase “he cooked” many, many times. Being a friend of Rhys from his hometown, Iwan knew The Pavilion in every previous form. “I ditched everything I thought didn’t work and just amplified the good parts.” In the words of the whole band, “he cooked.” The band describe Iwan’s energy on stage as “if Carl Pilkington was Welsh and played guitar”. The guitarist embodies a sense of nonchalance, his sunglasses and laid-back approach to the live shows bringing a particular kind of coolness to the set.
“I try to enjoy myself as much as possible, and I think that’s reflected in our performance, I just have a good little time,” laughs Dan, who brings the energy, zest and attraction (his words). In Rhys’ words, “he’s like a wholesome little dog on stage”. The closeness of the band members is evident throughout my time with them, and their energetic performances feel like watching a close friendship group on stage.
“We all actually hate each other.” Rhys jokes when describing the relationship as a collective within the band. “I feel like every band ever has said that. Gonna hit you with a candid answer: ‘really good’.”
“We are locked in, we’re like a padlock. When playing the drums, you gotta have a bass you can bounce off of and get that rhythm locked in, and we had that from day one,” exclaims Josh while rolling a cigarette.
Listen to The Pavilion and their energetic, anthemic sound, and you’ll instantly recognise their influences from classic indie bands such as Catfish and the Bottlemen and The Backseat Lovers, with the track Lonely Winter in particular drawing most inspiration from the latter, the frontman’s powerful vocals passionate, raw and urgent as they build up towards a big, indie rock driven release. You only need to spend five minutes with Rhys to know The Backseat Lovers is his favourite band of all time.
The band also credit Coldplay (minus Dan who isn’t the biggest fan) as a big inspiration – specifically the early stuff. “We listened to so much early Coldplay music on our trip to Brighton [where they supported Sick Days], Dan loved it,” the band joke as Dan rolls his eyes.
Rhys reflects while gazing at Iwan: “The only reason I started making rock music was because of Coldplay. It’s quite a full circle that this guy’s in the band now because without this guy, I wouldn’t be making this music. He introduced me to everything.”
Dan pulls a complete 180 when talking about personal music taste and inspirations: “I’m into the underground rap scene in the UK. As well as bands such as Blackfish, Pinegrove and TV Girl as bass inspiration. I listen to music for energy when I’m on my way to work or sitting at home or when I’m doing work anywhere.”
As a drummer, Josh gives credit to Jack Bevan of Foals and Arctic Monkeys’ Matt Helders, but “when I was about 12 or 13, I found Twenty-One Pilots and just seeing a drummer doing what he was doing. His name’s Josh, and I was like ‘holy shit I can do that because my name is Josh!’ and that was it, that was my logic.” Josh continued to give a long list of his favourites, including Elliot Smith, Jeff Buckley and Ben Howard. Iwan, like every music lover right now, gushes over Geese: “At the moment, I think Geese are the best band in the world!”
Just a few months after releasing their second EP, The Pavilion are showing no signs of slowing down and are already working on new material with a bit of a switch-up. “The new music is a lot heavier, but it’s not like we’ve gone from indie rock to fucking punk.” jokes Josh.
All the members bring fresh elements and emotions not only to the live performances but also to the recording process, showing the band’s evolution in every aspect. Josh says, “When I first joined, I felt like I was learning covers of the original songs. But with the new stuff, it’s written together; it’s far more interesting, and the process is more intricate. When people who have been listening to The Pavilion for a while hear the new songs, they’re gonna hit more than the old ones. They’re gonna feel like ‘wow, that is on in my ears right now!’”
The “people” Vallis is really alluding to are the most important part of The Pavilion’s new chapter: The Pav Pad.
Over the past few months, Smedley has been utilising TikTok to build the band’s community. Whether he’s asking for 2.3 seconds of your time or showing off his latte art, if you’re on the indie band side of TikTok, you’ve probably seen him on your For You page. He explains: “I was just putting whatever I could think of, even if it’s just coffee. A lot didn’t work, but once you try enough things, something will work.” Iwan adds, “I swear, you throw enough shit at the wall, one sticks.” By posting silly videos on the band’s TikTok page, they gained 1800 followers in a week, leading fans to discover and stick around for the music, not just coffee.
Whilst sitting in an interesting pub, the band discusses another interesting place: their dedicated fans who reside in “The Pav Pad.”
“It’s a group of people that found us through TikTok and wanted to speak to us, and now all they do is talk together. So basically, the idea behind The Pav Pad was to build more of a community behind our music so that we could give people exclusive content, and all meet each other” Rhys briefly explains the WhatsApp group the band set up to connect with their rapidly growing fanbase. “It’s kind of wholesome to be fair, but there’s a lot of brainrot”, Josh laughs.
Band member Rhys’ social networking skills and propensity for approaching anyone have helped the band gain significant support and headline slots at venues across the country, including debut shows in cities such as Nottingham, Brighton, and Swansea. Their desire to do more shows means it’s becoming relatively easy to catch The Pavilion live. With a battle of the bands gig with Underdog in January (The Pavilion plays in Heat E at the Thunderbolt on the 23rd), and noises about a “proper” headline tour at the beginning of 2026, we all should become faces in the crowd for The Pavilion.
The Pavilion’s new EP, Faces In The Crowd, is out now.
Special thanks to The Golden Lion on Gloucester Road for allowing us to shoot the cover and interview the band in the pub.
WORDS BY LUCIA BROWN