Indie Rock from The Fiends

The Fiends are a four-piece alternative indie band from Swansea in South Wales, a group who’ve built their shared sonic vision around a fusion of post punk energy, shoegaze-leaning atmosphere and melodic indie rock. Formed in 2020, the band have been making an impact through emotive songwriting and sonic contrast, where stacked guitars and driving rhythms meet expressive vocals that swing between delicate delivery and intensity. Across their work, The Fiends channel themes of disillusionment, determination and fragility, resulting in songs that feel at once internal and outwardly explosive.

Over the last few years, The Fiends have been drawn to the tension between grit and melody and with their music, they move through brooding contemplation into widescreen, anthemic energy. That identity began to sharpen with their debut EP Mazel Tov in 2023, a release that showcased their unique songwriting and performance talents. It set the tone for what was to follow,but it was last year’s Lazarus EP that marked a clear step forward in both ambition and confidence.

Venturing further into a darker atmosphere and more expansive in execution, Lazarus revealed a band pushing harder into their own potential, developing their songwriting while expanding the scale of their sound. Immersive textures and hook-driven alternative rock collided in a way that suggested a group rapidly finding their stride.

Alongside their recorded output, The Fiends have earned their reputation where it arguably matters most for a band of their nature, on stage. Their live shows have become known for intensity and impact and that reputation has already translated into significant support slots for acts including Peter Hook & The Light, The Snuts and The Lottery Winners, alongside sold out hometown shows that have struck a chord with their growing local following.

Following a US tour that included appearances at SXSW 2025 and the New Colossus Festival, as well as performances in Los Angeles, The Fiends return with their new single titled “Sonder,” a track that takes its emotional and conceptual cue from the idea that every passerby carries a life as vivid and complex as your own. The song reflects on those moments of stillness in public spaces, waiting outside a shopfront, sitting on a bench, or watching the world drift past from a bus window, where thoughts begin to drift outward and attention shifts to the strangers around you.

“Sonder” explores that quiet awareness, the realisation of just how many individual lives intersect without ever truly touching. It opens up questions of connection, difference, and shared humanity, suggesting a need for greater curiosity towards others and beneath its reflective lens sits a wider message about empathy in modern life, where difference in culture, religion and opinion often separates rather than connects.

Jumping straight into a lively indie rock scene, the track launches with bright lead guitar notes, crashing chords and pattering drums to inject an instant energy. With smooth vocals gliding above the intricate arrangement, picture painting lyrics float through the energising soundscape to deliver memorable melodic lines as the echo of backing voices overlap in the chorus. Wrapped up in an anthemic fabric of pop-tinged rock music, “Sonder” sees The Fiends lay down an epic musical moment that’s infectious, invigorating and thematically profound.

Rising to a thrilling crescendo of soaring lead guitar and rolling drums, the track swells with energy before flowing into an enthralling final chorus to leave a lasting impression of the song. With “Sonder,” The Fiends once again put their ability to turn thoughtful ideas into expansive alternative rock on full display and we can’t wait to see what comes next from this exciting band on the rise.

Listen to Sonder below

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