Music Review: Faces Are Hard To Find by Pilot Run

Faces Are Hard To Find is the debut EP from Colchester based band Pilot Run. Made up of Bruce Teatheredge on lead vocals and guitar, Matt Curd on bass and backing vocals and Craig Thompson on drums, the band met at school and have played on various projects together.

Joining forces with a fellow three-piece band, together they became Street Light Youth. In this band, they played extensively around Essex and were fortunate enough to play at Download Festival in 2006.

Pilot Run is a recently created project which came around just before the pandemic so they are yet to play live, however, they received radio play from BBC Introducing for their debut single Ghost of Me.

Kicking off the EP is Among The Dead. This track is extremely personal to frontman Bruce. Describing the day he received a message to say that his friend was in the hospital and in a bad way, Bruce was able to see his friend just before he passed away the following morning. Among The Dead was his way of recognising how the unfortunate event affected him.

An atmospheric soaring opening comes to land on crashing guitars and pounding drums. The dynamics of this track are outstanding. No two sections stay at the same level for long and you find yourself constantly moving from high to low.

Haunted Head continues with the emotion of the first track but with a harder edge. The track focuses on how the events of the first track effected Bruce’s mental health and how he needed to take the time to be sad so he could process what happened and come out the other side.

This track is anthemic through and through. The instrumentation is hard-hitting and aggressive and brings counterbalance to the tracks vulnerable lyrics.

Used To You takes the sombre undertone of the first two tracks and brings them centre stage. With feelings of melancholy, a whisper-soft vocal accompanies heavily grounded instrumentation.

Bauta is a track that does not mess around. Telling the listener that we need to take accountability for our actions on a global scale, the track is about thinking ahead to what we will leave behind for the future generation.

Crunchy, crackling guitars open the unapologetic track which is a startling contrast to its predecessor.

An underlying feeling of anger and resentment is present in Bruce’s gravelly vocals which riles up the listener right up until its explosive ending.

Final track Coloured Lines is a gentle closer for Faces Are Hard To Find. The feeling of vulnerability is back but this time it seems to come from a place of a love long gone.

Coloured Lines has a hypnotising calm that makes you instantly feel at ease. A complete contrast to what has been heard on the EP so far, this change in pace and volume acts as a great show of versatility from the three-piece

Faces Are Hard To Find is an emotionally expressive release that will leave you in awe right until the very end. Pounding drums, razor-sharp guitars and the ever-present raw emotions are only the beginning of what you can expect from this EP.