Raf Rundell

Raf Rundell devoted many years to behind-the-scenes roles inside the British music business before stepping forward publicly with his own distinctive fusion of disco, soul, funk, and indie. Following several modest earlier releases, he unveiled a fully formed statement of his aesthetic on the 2018 album Stop Lying.

Born in 1974 in Stoke Newington, London, Rundell moved into music employment while still a teenager. At 18 he secured his first position at a record label, rising eventually to press officer. More than a decade passed in that capacity until he met Joe Goddard of Hot Chip at a Greco-Roman Soundsystem party. Rundell then floated the idea of a three-piece called the 3 Bears with Goddard and Joe Mount of Metronomy, and the trio cut a handful of rough demos. When the credit crunch forced the label to close in 2008, Rundell found himself without work. The sudden availability of time let him revive the Bears project; Mount’s expanding Metronomy schedule soon reduced the group to a duo that adopted the name 2 Bears. They issued their debut album Be Strong in 2012 and the follow-up The Night Is Young in 2014, both on Southern Fried Records.

In 2016 Rundell released the solo mini-album The Adventures of Selfie Boy, Pt. 1 on the relaunched 1965 Records. After two years of touring that project and continuing to play shows with 2 Bears—including a residency at London’s XOYO—he returned to the studio. The result was his first full-length Stop Lying in 2018, an album that leaned more heavily into indie and funk elements. In 2020 he issued the new single “Monsterpiece” and quickly followed it with remixes by Joe Goddard and Harvey Sutherland. The next year he repeated the pattern with “Always Fly,” recorded in collaboration with Terri Walker; the Always Fly Remixes EP contained dubby reworkings by Bruise and DaM-Funk.