Pulo Revé are one of AltCorner’s bands of the year as their blending of genres such as Post-Hardcore, Punk, Jazz and even Classical makes for a fresh take on their chosen style. Reminiscent of Enter Shikari and Letlive, Pulo Revé released an EP entitled ‘The ép’ this month as they gear up for a year of touring and finalizing their debut album. We were lucky enough to have a chat with them and here it is…
Hello Pulo Reve, How are you today?
Osh: Not at all bad, saw La Dispute at KOKO last night which was special, and I’ve got a lot of packing to do today before I head off to Athens for a month. But yes, very well.
Laurie: Hello, I am very good thank you very much, sir.
The minute i pressed play on your EP, your sound completely blew me away…it was reminscent of bands like Enter Shikari and Letlive but still sounded so fresh, how did you arrive at your sound?
Laurie: At the time of writing the album I was losing interest in a lot of the metal going around. Chugging an open note all the time wasn’t really doing it for me so I felt it was the perfect time to put out there was I thought was missing. Luckily we managed to detach ourselves enough from bands we really enjoy to write something different, taking things somewhere between post-hardcore and prog. Saying that we weren’t thinking of Enter Shikari of Letlive but maybe they’re just ingrained into our brains.
Osh: That’s really kind of you to say. Obviously, we listen to those bands (Enter Shikari are from our home town, so we’ve grown up with them, and Letlive. are a great band), but I would be a little reluctant to say that our influences lied solely in bands from similar genres as ours, whatever that is… We’re all into Jazz, Prog, Blues, Soul, and Motown stuff, as well as Indie, Folk, and Ska. One thing we never liked from being in bands before, was how difficult it was to fit on bills with Metal bands with our slightly left-of-field sound, so rather than tone that down, we thought we’d totally embrace it, so either they love us, or are shocked out of the genre-bound mindset. Ultimately, we’re all playing what we want to, and trying to experiment in areas which are less explored nowadays.
Rob: Yeah, We’ve got quite a wide range of influences that often cross-over between our members, so its not difficult as a band to be enthusiastic about trying something a bit different. We’re in the preliminary writing stages of a piece based on an african bembe rhythm which should be quite interesting when its done…
Your songs sound as if they are very personal and meaningful, is that the case? and if so, how is it to sing these songs live?
Rob: Osh deals with most of the lyrics, but again we all have our input from time to time. Even though Osh is the primary lyricist, its quite easy to get caught up with the emotive nature of the songs. I’ve certainly felt a bit choked up upon hearing some of the material, while much of the material focuses on fairly ubiquitous human emotions of love and loss and rejection, which we’ve all felt. Its quite cathartic in a way.
Laurie: Osh has just finished a Philosophy and English Literature degree meaning his lyrics turn out to be very meaningful but no one has a clue what he’s on about, which is just how I like it. I love seeing Osh perform, he’s allergic to the stage and clearly enjoys what he’s doing, he’s great at playing with the band too.
Osh: Thanks man. I think a lot of musicians are either not really confident in their messages, don’t have any, or fear that meaningful lyrics might be considered pretentious or superficial. Ultimately, as long as you are honest about what it is you’re singing about, you can mostly avoid that. Some people will always find it difficult listening to people open up, but for those who are bored of homogenised, club-scene, often offensive nonsense that gets pumped into our ears nowadays, hopefully we can offer an antidote. Yeah there are elements of human emotions, as Rob says, but there’s also an attempt at an meta-examination of the genre and lyricism itself. Playing them live is fantastic for us all, I think. I find it incredibly helpful to understand what it is I’ve been writing about when I can fully expel all the emotion attached to the words themselves.
Max: The music we’ve made means a lot to us, we’ve worked so hard on perfecting it over the past year or so, so when we play live, we always give it everything we have.
How did Pulo Reve come together and why did you choose your name?
Laurie: Max and I set out to do this about 7 or 8 years ago, it was perfect as escapism from school and we’ve never given up. Over the years we’ve bumped into different people and have now found a line up full of talented and passionate musicians. In terms of our name, it’s either an anagram of Pure Love, or Osh researched into different languages and landed on Pulo Revé. It’s fun to say, and it’s personal to anyone who finds a pronunciation they’re happy with.
Max: We wanted our name to stand out from a crowd of a lot of ‘Verb The Noun’ and single word band names, something more interesting which has a deeper meaning, something that will stick in peoples heads.
Osh: It’s funny, because the name is still taking shape even in our minds; I’ve been adopting multiple meanings, based on increasingly tenuous multi-lingual translations, which you can track down yourselves, or make up your own, that’s fine with us. It’s an anagram of Pure Love, but I never even liked that band, I can’t speak for the rest of the guys there. Currently, at least for me, I’m just enjoying hearing people trying to pronounce it. It’s really interested having a name which doesn’t really precede us with meaning. Existence precedes essence… we don’t want our name to hasten an image before we can lay one down for our listeners.
How has the response to the EP release been so far?
Rob: Great responses almost unanimously from everyone whose reviewed it. Couldn’t be happier.
Osh: I’m really flattered by people loving what we do. We met so many people during our little tour, it all felt very friendly, and we have new friends now.
Laurie: It’s been positive so far, we’ve been getting the kind of feedback we’d hoped for so I guess things are on the right track. I just can’t wait for people to hear the album we’ve got coming out in September.
Do you currently have a record label, if not is there any plans to do so?
Laurie: Nothing so far but it’s early days, hopefully we’ll get someones attention. Right now i’m just enjoying playing with the guys and messing around, getting a record label is definitely important though.
Osh: There are certainly plans to sign, we have a record coming out in September, as Laurie says, but who knows if we will have found anything by then…
Do any of the members of the band have any hidden talents?
Laurie: I’m actually really talented at drumming, so I’ve been keeping that very well hidden. Other than that, no I’m completely without any talent whatsoever.
Osh: I’ve been skating since I was 9 years old, and I’m also working on my Research MA in philosophy, but I’m not sure how talented that makes me.
Rob: I take my lacrosse pretty seriously, and am about to spend the summer coaching in New York. But then again I go on about it all the time so hidden is perhaps not the right word.
What are your plans for the rest of the year?
Laurie: Playing more shows, releasing the bally album! Probably writing some more songs in the meantime.
Osh: I’ve been flirting with the idea of doing some really unexpected covers, I never liked covers before, but I have a couple of ideas, so you might see that. We’re also going to just really experiment with some new sounds/instruments/styles and see what comes from that. Also, I wouldn’t mind getting a tan.
Where do you want to be in 5 years time?
Laurie: It would be great to be touring in 5 years, doing some serious festivals. Getting in the studio a bunch more would be fun too. Whatever happens as long as we’re still going i’ll be happy, getting recognised takes a while although hopefully not 5 years.
Osh: Yeah, all of that. It’s difficult to say more than the general “We’d like some recognition and success.” Because ultimately that’s the truth, but really that’s only because we love playing and meeting new people. I think we’d all be kidding ourselves if we thought we’d be making any money within 5 years… as long as we can keep on with it, that’s perfect. Festivals are the next step for us, we hope. I’ve never had the opportunity to jump off a festival stage, and I’d like to do that. In 5 years, I’d like to be beginning to change our genre, even if its just rumbling under the radar, a cult following is all you need to inspire others to try their own things.