Pain Gain
- bizzarre
- 11 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Australia’s Pain Gain share new music video for single "Prizefighter" taken from their self titled debut album Pain Gain out now via Play It Again Sam.
Pain Gain, the collaborative project of Chloe Kaul (Kllo), Hamish Lefevre (SWIM), and Samuel Cooke (CRUSH3d), share their self-titled debut album Pain Gain via Play It Again Sam/PIAS. along the third single of the album.
Formed in 2023, Pain Gain began as a deliberate left turn. Shedding their established electronic identities, Kaul, Lefevre and Cooke retreated to the beachside forests of southern Australia, armed with guitars, modular synths and a tape recorder. What began as a temporary escape soon evolved into something far more profound: a complete recalibration of sound, process and purpose. The result is Pain Gain, a debut album that trades velocity for gravity, moving fluidly between indie rock melodrama and expansive pop balladry while rejecting genre as a fixed idea.
That philosophy, that pain can be instructive and even transformative, runs throughout Pain Gain’s work. Embracing a tactile, imperfect process, the band favored single takes, analogue experimentation, and the accidental beauty of mistakes. Songs emerged organically: melodies drifting through kitchen conversations, lyrics shaped by late-night reflections, and ideas bleeding across rooms in a house that became a living, breathing studio.
Across the project, vocalist Chloe Kaul delivers lyrics that cut deep, exploring personal upheaval with unflinching honesty, while the band’s collaborative dynamic ensures no single voice dominates and each member shapes the music with equal weight and intent. It’s three distinct voices finding unity in vulnerability and shared experience as they explain:
"We went away together with only the intention of starting something new, we never expected that we would end up not only with an album, but one that feels as cohesive and collectively personal as this. It's a record that looks for beauty in friction, and finding a new start in the wreckage of something past"
Individually, the members of Pain Gain arrive with established global reputations. Chloe Kaul has achieved global acclaim as one half of Kllo, amassing millions of streams, touring extensively across the US, UK, Europe and Asia, and earning praise from outlets including Pitchfork alongside support from BBC Radio 1, while continuing to expand her sonic world through a growing body of solo work.
Hamish Lefevre has carved out a global reputation as SWIM, an independent force in electronic music whose releases have topped the ARIA Dance and Vinyl charts, selling out iconic venues from Melbourne’s Forum Theatre to KOKO in London and building a devoted international following through relentless touring and a prolific catalogue. Samuel Cooke, as CRUSH3d, has emerged as a defining voice in the new wave of Australian club music, known for his unmistakable productions, sold-out tours across Australia, Asia and Europe, and a cult reputation built on high-impact releases and unpredictable, must-see live sets.
Despite arriving from distinct musical paths, Pain Gain is less a reinvention than a shared language discovered. Rooted in instinct and play, the project became an immersive, almost familial experience for its members, one that ultimately shaped a record concerned with transformation, and the clarity found in its aftermath.
Photo by James J. Robinson
Pain Gain is out now via Play It Again Sam / PIAS
