Pyramid Song

Drawing from a rich tapestry of musical influences, Whates often integrates these inspirations into his work in abstract, nuanced ways. Yet, with Small-town Fiction, he sought explicitly to honour the artists who shaped his musical identity, leading to a setlist interspersed with instrumental covers from genres such as alt-rock, electronica, and post-rock. Pyramid Song was an inevitable choice, not just for its personal significance to Whates but also for its deep-rooted connection to Freedom by Charles Mingus (another of Whates’s formative influences), as acknowledged by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. "It felt right to trace this song's lineage back to its jazz roots," Whates explains.

Their rendition of Pyramid Song aims to capture the track's ethereal essence while paying homage to its jazz influences. With an opening section that nods to Coltrane's A Love Supreme, the cover goes on to feature the band’s trumpeter, Phil Cardwell, channelling Yorke to deliver a fragile, vulnerable melodic line, and a wistful saxophone interlude from Pauli Lyytinen. Whates adds, "My approach was to transcribe and transform, but not to stray too far from the original; to maintain the song's core whilst exploring it through a jazz lens."