Slowrush are a Bordeaux-based Anglo-French trio who deliver alternative pop numbers featuring timeless tunes, verses, choruses, and bridges, all in convenient three-minute packages.
Guitarist, pianist and lead vocalist Tim Pike draws on years spent listening to classic melodic British artists such as Blur, XTC and Joe Jackson. His son Dorian Pike is on drums (also a member of local post-everything band Subrev), bringing a refreshing millennial touch to proceedings, citing influences descending from Radiohead, including Squid, Everything Everything and Black Midi. On bass, Olivier Rols has an enviable track record in local bands and is equally at home playing rock, jazz and even punk!
Slowrush's main news is the release on Friday April 23 2026 of their sixth four-track collection, Pianoforte. The E.P.'s piano-driven songs (hence the name) hark back to the halcyon days of Ben Folds Five and vintage Billy Joel, as well as being inspired by more contemporary acts such as Youth Lagoon.
True to their signature style, Slowrush have tapped into a quirky local tale for the EP’s lead track, “Stiltwalking to Moscow,” which recounts the 58 days spent in 1891 by Arcachon baker Sylvain Dornon walking on stilts from Paris to Moscow, with the sole aim of highlighting and preserving the Landes tradition of stilt-walking! A video illustrates the song’s lyrics in a literal yet gently humorous way, almost making you want to put on a pair of stilts yourself.
The track “Hey, Mr. Bertolucci,” in which the piano-bass-drums trio creates a hypnotic atmosphere, tells the story of how a Parisian avenue was transformed for a film shoot set in May 1968. The song is thus a letter addressed to the director, Bernardo Bertolucci, a polite apology for potentially appearing on screen in modern clothing! A music video shot in the band’s rehearsal studio accompanies this song.
“Salt of the Earth” is an instrumental track built around a cassette recording of a sermon by evangelical pastor Robert Fairnie, dating from the 1980s and captured and preserved by a member of a church in Fraserburgh, northern Scotland. Fairnie, Tim’s grandfather and Dorian’s great-grandfather, thus continues his role as an unexpected bit-part player in the Slowrush story, having previously appeared on the cover of the band’s previous EP, The Story Starts…!
Finally, “Half a World Away II” draws inspiration from Dorian’s extended stay in Chile, the musical project he built from scratch, and the friendships he formed there. The long coda features the closing moments of the last performance by this ephemeral project, Aventuriere, as well as a few snippets from an evening with friends in Santiago. The emotional depth of the track is amplified by Élise Rols’s haunting vocals on the choruses.
In the meantime, we kindly suggest you check out Slowrush's previous release, The Story Starts..., across all streaming platforms.
These releases follow on from debut E.P. The Parallel World, which came out in July 2020 and is also available on CD; the standalone singles 'Overnight' and 'Urban Experiment' (the latter featured in Spotify's influential Courant Alternatif playlist); 2021's The Neighbourhood E.P.; This Used To Be The Future in 2022; and last year's Navigation & Time. Throughout, Slowrush have always made a point of covering oddball local themes such as the mysterious story of disgraced silent movie star Max Linder, the worthy purpose behind the bronze 3D map sculptures positioned at various locations in Bordeaux city centre, the murky past of the passenger hovercraft industry in Pauillac, and what it's like to visit the spot where the Greenwich Meridian and the 45th Parallel North converge in Puynormand... the centre of the northern hemisphere!
Slowrush are also a living, breathing, real-world band whose entertaining live set has already been experienced at various venues in Bordeaux (Bordeaux Rock festival, Pik Nik Zik, l'Arche...), La Teste-de-Buch, Saint-Jean-d'Illac, Saint-Aubin-de-Médoc, Chamouillac, Saint-Loubès, Mérignac and Pessac... More dates to be announced soon!
You can follow the band’s adventures on Instagram (@slowrushband), Twitter (@slowrushband) and Facebook (@slowrushbdx)!