Blackpool-based rock outfit Rendered has been appearing on our pages since 2023 and has treated us to three folksy efforts exploring the world of football, modern malaise, and loss.
By Graeme Smith
Their latest single, If a Boy, Still Believe, takes on fatherhood and was written after band member Christopher Phelan had welcomed a son into the world. Songwriter Dale Ball is a father too and added his own experience to create a gentle and thoughtful number that channels the classic rock of Roy Orbison and Nirvana. If that sounds like an odd combination, I assure you it works, feeling both calm and edgy at the same time. The track feels like it will burst into heavy rock at any moment, but keeps things stripped-back and constrained.
Joining Dale and Chris on the track is bassist Dave Sadler. It was part-recorded at Dale’s home and part-recorded at Berlin Recording Studios, a family-run studio that’s been going since 1984, opened by John Sykes’s stepfather, Ron and now run by his son, Steve.
Rendered are currently hard at work recording and mixing an album and I’ll be keen to hear it when it’s out. I hope you will be too.
If a Boy, Still Believe is out now and you can give it a listen below.