The Stray Pursuit

The Stray Pursuit is a young Swansea-based alternative rock band. Taking their musical influence from bands such as Stereophonics, Kasabian, and The Enemy.

Their eclectic individual music taste makes each song distinctively their own; with guitar-heavy riffs and powerful, catchy vocals.

The four-piece consists of the lead singer, Aaron Morgan; lead guitarist, Dylan Evans; bassist, Fred Wilkinson; drummer, Ben Lewis, and they had their first gig in November 2018.

They sold out the famous Swansea music venue Sin City in March 2019 with their debut single release show of “Out of This World”. Since then, they have released 3 more singles and have featured on This Feeling’s ‘Big in 2020’, playing gigs as far as The Dublin Castle, Camden.

The band started as Aaron & Fred both got on the wrong bus from college and ended up an hour away from home. After getting chatting the pair discovered they were in rival local bands.  But when Fred invited Aaron over for a jam, they soon realised they worked very well together. Aaron invited Dylan, who was in his previous band, and Dylan brought Nicky. Ben joined the band in April 2023, as the founding drummer Nicky Bevan, sadly lost his life (due to mental health problems) in December 2022.

As a result of the pandemic, and Fred finishing university, the boys took a hiatus until June 2022. Since then, The Stray Pursuit have been in the practice room working relentlessly to perfect new tracks and tighten up their enthralling live performances.

The boys have been in the studio recording their first EP at Longwave Studios with Romesh Dodangoda in Cardiff. They plan to release their debut EP by December 2023. They are also in the process of booking a tour, so stay tuned for the coming months!

Band members and instruments played:

Aaron Morgan; Frontman & Rhythm Guitar
Dylan Evans; Backing Vocals & Lead Guitar
Fred Wilkinson; Backing Vocals & Bass
Ben Lewis; Drummer.

Hailing from/based?

The band is collectively from South Wales. Ben is from Ammanford, which is just outside Swansea. The other boys are all from Swansea, more specifically, Aaron is from Townhill, Dylan is from Clydach and Fred is from Gendros.

Musical influences for each band member:

Aaron – Blues, Motown & Soul – Elvis, Ray Charles, Kelly Jones
Dylan – Guns ‘N’ Roses, Bon Jovi, John Mayer,
Fred – Royal Blood, Idles, Foals, DMAs, White Lies
Ben – Foo Fighters, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Killers, Avenge Sevenfold
For fans of:

Kasabian, Catfish and The Bottlemen, The Enemy, Himalayas, Green Day…

Upcoming live date:

September 1^st – Via Fossa, Nottingham (with The Fiends)

About the song:

It’s about someone struggling with insecurities and self-consciousness and trying to overcome them. Hence the lyric “My fear, all over my skin”. I wrote the song in the summer of 2021 on a 4 stringed acoustic guitar. – Quote from Dylan (Lead Guitarist).

 In their own words:

Our energetic live performances and crowd interaction as well as heavy guitar riffs that speak to you like lyrics, are what we attribute to our consistent sell-out shows of local music venues. 

Our founding drummer passed away in December 2022, aged 20. We have always tried to write songs and lyrics from the heart, but now it has a real purpose. It has given a deeper and more poignant perspective to our song writing.