Pain Gain strike gold on genreless third single “Prizefighter”

“A big part of it was wanting to step outside of electronic music to experiment with something less controlled and more alive”, the trio of genre rejectors tell BEST FIT. Not indie rock, nor expansive pop, though somewhere in the ether of in-between balladry. A slow build of synths and layers of vocals culminates in a dramatic crescendo on “Prizefighter”, with singer Chloe Kaul’s words floating above the noise: “You want me to stay / But you never can say / That it’s just a phase / That we’ll make up someday.”

Pain Gain is the collaborative project of Chloe Kaul (Kllo), Hamish Lefevre (SWIM), and Samuel Cooke (CRUSH3d): “We’ve all worked together separately before, but this was the first time we decided to make something together from the ground up.” In 2023, they took to the beachside forests of southern Australia. What first began as a temporary escape soon evolved into something greater. “We weren’t sure if we were ever going to put them out, we were holding on to them for a long time,” they admit. “We also spoke a lot about how it would work with the three of us doing other projects. In the end, we felt so strongly about the project that they had to exist.”

“Prizefighter” is at the crux of Pain Gain's self-titled debut LP, due 10 July via Play It Again Sam. But it wasn’t realised until the very end of the time Kaul, Lefevre and Cooke spent together: “‘Prizefighter’ started because one of the tracks had accidentally been left recording on a tape machine. We then reversed and pitched the recording. That loop became the foundation of the whole song. We made it on the last night we were together knowing we wouldn’t see each other for a while after that, so we decided to finish it that night while things were fresh.”

Their retreat into the Australian woodlands became a makeshift studio for the band. As melodies drifted through the spaces they shared, lyrics were forged in late-night conversations around the fire. The intimacy of the recording process is not lost despite the grandeur of the sound, and that intimacy remains an important part of the project for Pain Gain. “A lot of this record is very intimate. When we made this record we made it for ourselves in our headphones, and the song still feels like it belongs there.”

On performance plans, Pain Gain are playing it cool. “Not yet, but it’s something we’re talking about,” they share, adamant that “Prizefighter” would “thrive in a live setting.” With just under a month to go until the full album is unleashed, hungry fans won’t have to wait too long for more. Needless to say, the band have set the stage for a melodramatic introduction.