Liverpool trance artist AMOS & RIOT NIGHT joins Grant Trowbridge and Lucy Starr on ‘Pieces,’ a driving single born from personal loss. Listen now
Trance has always been the genre that processes pain at 138 BPM, and Liverpool’s AMOS & RIOT NIGHT understands that better than most. The producer and DJ, real name David McClelland, has released ‘Pieces‘, a heavyweight new collaboration with UK trance producer Grant Trowbridge and fellow Liverpudlian singer-songwriter Lucy Starr. It is a record forged in genuine hardship, written after McClelland lost his grandmother and a long-term relationship within days of each other, and it channels that upheaval into one of his most complete productions to date.
The track does not wallow. Instead, ‘Pieces’ pairs soaring melodic writing with a darker, driving undercarriage, the kind of tension that has defined the harder end of the modern trance sound. Starr’s vocal carries the emotional weight, orbiting a hook about slowly putting a life back together, while the production beneath her pushes relentlessly forward. The result works twice over: it is a peak-time weapon built for festival main stages, and a headphone record with real narrative depth.
From Songwriting Session to Full-Throttle Production
The collaboration came together in stages. McClelland began shaping the song in writing sessions with Starr, working outward from its central theme of reassembly rather than retelling his losses literally. Trowbridge came aboard afterward to help push the final production over the line, sharpening the low end and giving the arrangement its driving edge. Sonically, the record nods to the classic, tougher strains of the genre while keeping the melodic identity that has become the AMOS & RIOT NIGHT signature.
That signature has been earning serious co-signs. McClelland’s uplifting, high-energy style, shaped by early heroes like Paul van Dyk, Aly & Fila and Sean Tyas, has landed his records on flagship labels including FSOE, VANDIT and Subculture, with Tyas himself serving as a longtime production mentor. His tracks have drawn radio and club support from Armin van Buuren on A State of Trance and van Dyk on VONYC Sessions, and he has cracked the Beatport trance top 10 on three separate occasions. ‘Pieces’ arrives as the latest step in a project that has been steadily climbing the scene’s ranks since McClelland took it solo in 2019.
Why ‘Pieces’ Lands in This Trance Moment
The timing is smart. Trance is enjoying one of its healthiest stretches in years, with the harder, darker sound dominating festival stages from Luminosity to Dreamstate while vocal-led records pull the genre back toward its emotional roots. ‘Pieces’ sits exactly on that fault line. It has the drive to satisfy the tech-trance faithful and the songwriting to connect with listeners who found the genre through its anthems.
McClelland also brings live pedigree to the release. He played the Shine Ibiza closing party in 2023, taking the decks directly after Paul van Dyk, and made his Luminosity Beach Festival debut the following year, two bookings that signal exactly where his profile is heading. As one third of Liverpool’s Evolution Events team, he has spent years building trance infrastructure in his home city, and ‘Pieces’ feels like the work of an artist who understands the scene from every angle: the booth, the dancefloor and the promoter’s spreadsheet.
Above all, the record is a reminder of what this genre does best. Trance turns private grief into collective release, and ‘Pieces’ makes that alchemy explicit. McClelland took the worst week of his life and built something designed to make thousands of hands go up at once. That is the job description, and on this evidence, he is very good at it. ‘Pieces’ is out now across all streaming platforms.
