Interview: Pvris

In the last year you’d be hard pushed to find a new band that’s received quite such a frenzied reception on both sides of the Atlantic then Pvris. Almost overnight the outfit from Massachusetts seemed to become the darlings of social media and blogs the world over with every man and his dog falling over each other to claim them as their new favourite band.

The release of Pvris’ stellar debut album ’White Noise’ only served to dump a whole lot of petrol on Lynn Gunn and her band’s explosion to prominence, with critics everywhere joining in the clamour already being made by fans. All of this meant that by the time Slam Dunk rolled around a few weeks back, Pvris were far and away the most anticipated act of the weekend. The band made wowed a packed Millennium Square crowd with their UK festival debut at Slam Dunk North look effortless, and were still in ecstatic mood when Already Heard caught up with Lynn, Alex and Brian backstage shortly afterwards.

AH: Now that was an impressive way to make your UK festival Debut.
All: Thank you!

Alex: I had a blast.

Brian: It was awesome

Lynn: It was really, really cool. We didn’t really know what to expect, but any expectations we had were blown out of the water. We’re so grateful for that.

AH: What did you think of the new huge outdoor main stage in the middle of the city?
Lynn: It was so sick.

Alex: It was amazing, I’ve never played a show like it.

Lynn: It’s definitely better than a dirt field!

AH: Had you heard much about the festival before you arrived?
Brian: Yes.

Alex: Oh yeah.

Lynn: All of our friends had played it. We kept seeing them post about it, and I would see them and think “I really want to play that’”.

Brian: I can’t believe we’re here playing now, it’s crazy.

AH: In the run up today you were easily one of the most anticipated bands, is that something you were aware of?
Lynn: No

Brian: That is really cool

Lynn: We did a tour with Lower Then Atlantic a few weeks ago, but that’s it here.

Alex: They’re actually playing right now.

AH: How blown away were you by just how positive the reaction to ‘White Noise’?
Lynn: We were very stoked.

Alex: I couldn’t believe the amount of people who liked it and spread the word about it.

Lynn: We didn’t know what to expect. We were all individually already proud of it, but we didn’t know what to expect at all or if people would even like it. I guess it seems they do!

AH: How long was the time period between you finishing ‘White Noise’ and it coming out?
Lynn: It was almost a year

Brian: We were on a tour with Mayday Parade, Tonight Alive and Major League, and we released the record while we were out on that tour. We were in Canada?

Lynn: Seattle

Brian: Oh yeah, we were in Seattle when we got the CDs. We couldn’t believe we actually had them in our possession.

Alex: That was the day when we like “Wow we really do have an album”.

Brian: So by that point it was really cool to just have it out and be able to distribute it.

Lynn: Because we had started recording it exactly a year prior to starting that tour. It was so cool just to finally have it out.

AH: Stylistically and sound wise the record is huge and very different to any other albums that were already out there, what were your plans for what you wanted to create when you hit the studio?
Brian: What we wanted to do when we went in there was, well her and Blake (Harnage of Versaemerge, producer of White Noise) together are geniuses when it comes to writing.

Alex: And making crazy sounds.

Lynn: Yeah we worked well together. (Laughs) Our main focus was on making the best songs that we could make. Not putting ourselves in a box or limiting ourselves to fitting into a certain category or pleasing a certain group of people. We just did whatever we wanted. Our biggest goal was just to make the best songs we could possibly make and not give a fuck what people thought.

AH: One of the things that makes your sound quite unique is how sparingly you used guitars on the record, using them almost as additions to the synth lines. How did that effect your approach to writing?
Lynn: With writing for us, a lot of it is done on our computers. I used Logik, I used Reason and we all used this App called iMaschine. So we were all sending each other ideas rather than being in the same room.

Alex: She works on her computer full time on Logik and stuff, and she’ll write something and say “well this is what I want it to sound like”, and then we’ll go into the studio and build around that.

Lynn: And the guys would add their little spices on to it.

Alex: And it would sound killer before we even got into the studio.

AH: How hard was it for you Lynn trying to capture those huge emotive vocals with no crowd to feed off of?
Lynn: Hmmm, no actually I think it’s easier. You’re not self-conscious or worried so you just go for it. I think that got the best out of me.

AH: So given how crazy the response to ‘White Noise’ has been, how the hell do you follow it up?
(All three laugh)

Lynn: I think we might be able to talk about that.

Alex: We’ve got some news and we’ve got some good stuff coming.

Lynn: We do already have enough material for a new record and I do think those songs will top these ones without being able to say too much.

AH: Is that one of the benefits of having to wait a long time between writing and recording a record, it gives you time to get a head start on writing the next one?
Lynn: Yeah I think it definitely helped with that. But at the same time it’s also kind of a burden because when you’re done with this (new) album we’ll then have to write a third one.

AH: With how much the band has exploded in size in the last year, has it made it harder to both find the time to write and write songs from a similar perspective?
Lynn: I feel if anything we’re more inspired now. I feel like all of us are always working on something in the van, or I’m always on my laptop and writing.

Alex: She’s constantly just working and thinking of ideas and lyrics. It’s cool.

Lynn: We’re all going through different stuff right now and different obsticals to when we were writing this record so it helps to create new things.

AH: Do you ever feel pressure to live up to expectations when so many people are tipping you for big things?
Lynn: We try not to think about it.

Brian: We really don’t think about it, we just get up there and play our music. We are hearing it a lot more, but we’re having fun and enjoying everything.

Lynn: We don’t see too much of what’s going on on the outside of the band, we’re just in ourselves. We tend not to think about how many people are talking about us, or how many people are coming, we’re just kind of “in it”.

AH: A lot of American bands who come and play Slam Dunk for the first time are often reminded of Warped Tour, what do you think?
Lynn: I think it’s cooler then Warped Tour!

Brian: Definitely because we are in the middle of a city right now.

Alex: I like how its spread out through the town, how you can walk up the street and see some stuff, maybe go into a store, and then go into a stage.

Brian: At Warped Tour you’re stuck out in the woods or in a field.

Alex: And you’re in that area for quite a while with nowhere else to really go to. Not like here.

AH: Finally, it seems like fans in the UK already love Pvris, are you going to come back and reward them with a headline tour any time soon?
Lynn: It’s all already planned out, we just can’t say when yet. But it’s gonna happen.

Brian: I can’t wait!

Lynn: We’re really excited about it.

‘White Noise’ by Pvris is out now on Rise Records.

Pvris links: Website|Facebook|Twitter