(Interview) PAVÉ: "We're having fun playing with sounds again and discovering ourselves as artists and writers."
- Kirsty Bright
- 19 hours ago
- 9 min read
With a packed Saturday at Takedown Festival, we took to the Total Rock Cafe stage as there was one band we needed to catch. PAVÉ. With their latest single “If It Hurts” out the week before, it saw its live debut. The reaction to the single by the fans has surprised the members, as they discussed during our interview. “People have said how it’s helped them feel something.” While it may be something different for the group compared to their heavier past discography, it works. Proving sometimes a change of direction works, while hesitant to go that route, the end result has seen this as their fastest-growing track so far.
We caught Alanya and Kevin after their set to discuss their performance, what they’ve learnt through the recording process, and the standards they hold themselves to.
Speaking of lively, we caught your set earlier. Not only was it very lively, but you put that packed room to work (laughs).
Alanya: Thank you. (laughing) Yeah, we were very shocked by that.
Kevin: It's our first time down here and our first time playing Takedown Festival, and when we first started setting up, it was quite quiet, but then it suddenly filled up. It’s been a lot of fun today.
Your new single “If It Hurts” was released March 27th. What has the reaction to the release been like?
Alanya: It's been a really positive reaction. We weren't sure what to expect because it's a pop song, so for us it's been a little bit different. It's still got the heavy guitars, but we weren't too sure because we've been doing a lot of the heavier stuff. We've been getting such a positive reaction, and it's been the fastest-growing song release for us so far.
Kevin: People are saying how it’s helped them feel something and commenting that the song has hit them in the feels, sort of thing. (laughing)
With regards to comments from fans or new listeners, do you like reading them? Or do you just let them happen?
Alanya: We let them happen, but when someone says that they connect to a song, it sticks with you. Those sorts of comments are the ones that make you realise the importance of what you're doing and that you shouldn't just be putting anything out for the sake of putting it out.
Is that a conscious decision, and seeing where it performs well too, do you see that as a trend?
Alanya: We do get a lot of comments on YouTube. We see that our music algorithm trends in places like Brazil.
Kevin: I've heard this is taking off in Argentina as well. Especially on streaming platforms, not sure why (laughs).
Alanya: Yeah, it is doing quite well in Australia too.
When it comes to creating the new single, do you go into the process with, 'This is what it's going to sound like,' or do you have a set of songs you aim to pick from, or is it just going with the flow?
Kevin: It's got a set of songs, like we're always working on songs, ideas and demos, and this one was just at the point where it had been ready for so long. We finally had an opportunity to record at Abbey Studios, Co-op, live from Manchester. So we thought this song was more suitable for an environment like that. You know, it's very instrumental. It was very basic – basic for us. It's just like guitars, and instrumentally it's a lot more stripped back. So the post-production was kind of something that we could do after, but in terms of when we usually record with a producer, it was not. We’ll then do all the instruments and production with synths and stuff while we're there. So, this song, because it was more stripped back and just our instruments when it was a demo, we thought, 'Right, we'll go in with this one; it just lined properly production-wise.'
How long does it typically take from the recording to the release date itself?
Kevin: Well, we started writing it last March. It's been around a year. But the music's been ready for ages.
Alanya: We were going to release this a little bit sooner in the year, right? Like, sometimes it's just not landing. And we always say if a song isn't feeling right, we don't want to perform it. People aren't going to connect to it. If we're not even connected, we went through so many different melodies with that and the lyrics, even down to the wire. The second verse of that song changed, like days before we sent it off to producers.
Kevin: We just thought that it wasn’t sitting right. We thought we could do much better. So we said, you know, when we release it, it’s out there forever.
Are you hard on yourself with this, expectation-wise?
Kevin: When we were listening to it, we just thought we could do better.
Alanya: We just wanted to do it justice. It's more or less that we're hard on ourselves. And I think it's just that we know that, like you said, it's going to sit there forever. So we didn't want to rush it and just get it out for the sake of getting another song out because it had been a while since our last release. And we were like, you know what, we're actually just going to take our time with this and get it perfect.
It's quite an emotional song. When you release a song like that, and it has a depth to it, do you feel like you want to explain what it's about? Or do you think it takes away from what people can interpret and apply to their own life?
Kevin: What I'm learning is ambiguity. We like to be ambiguous with it. Because you can attach your own meaning to the words, you can find your own meaning. We have a meaning behind it, and we've explained it as well, but we want you to go guess.
Alanya: We have explained it, but I also think, like, where the opportunity is for people to just have their own meaning behind it.
And it's nice to come up with their own interpretation and the emotional connection to it.
Alanya: Exactly, and we, from the start of us performing, had always sort of agreed that we were never really going to be the band that sort of over-explains what a song's about before we perform it.
Sometimes that can take away from the first listen too once they hear a back story.
Alanya: Yeah, exactly. And now I'm thinking about when I’m live on stage, I'm not really one to say this song is about this and that. I'm going to just sing it, and you're either going to connect to it or you're just going to enjoy it or maybe you're not. (laughs) As you feel what you feel. Because, otherwise, especially if it's a personal song, people are going to think about me and my situation. So yeah, I think it's important to us that we can just make sure that it stays with the person.
And do you feel a little bit like, not responsibility per se, but also like, Oh my God, you guys are actually connecting to our stories that we've already recorded and put out there?
Alanya: I think about this a lot for sure. This is the first time that a lot of people have been so fast in saying that this song's helping them or it has made them feel something. They've all connected to it, which is really special, especially because we weren't sure what people would think about us releasing a slower song. So the fact that people do connect to it, we're like, Okay, this works; it's really nice.
For people who caught your set today, how would you guys describe yourselves to newcomers today?
Alanya: I'd say our live sets are fun. They're very welcoming to everyone. We want to make sure that everyone can be included in some way.
Kevin: Energetic.
Alanya: Yes, as I like to be energetic and come off sweating. It was a little bit like, ah, everyone's ready. I think there were a few people that were singing some of the lyrics, and we were like, 'They know what's coming,' especially in “Crowded Isolation”, where we asked for the mosh pit. Before it happened, I knew some of them. I love when they do that to us.
Kevin: I had seen these guys that have never listened. I saw two guys standing at the door and then one turning to his mate, going, 'What's happening?' And you could just see him say, 'Mosh pit', and he just went, 'Right', and he just started making his way through the crowd, you see, and then right in there getting stuck was great. (laughs)
How would you describe your sound to someone new? Right now, how would you define yourselves as artists?
Kevin: I'd say we're heavy rock, a lot of teetering on metal, almost.
Alanya: Heavy rock with a lot of emotion, and we try to be fierce within the music, like the guitars, and melodic. It's something for everyone, something to rage to.
Because of how your sound felt today, it’s clearly built well for a live stage.
Alanya: Yeah, we even had someone today saying that, like, they love the set and it sounds even better live than recorded, and we try and write for that.
How do you go from a studio to a stage and think, how is this going to happen on the stage?
Kevin: A fun fact is usually some songs are all for a set. For some songs we just think we need something a bit more energetic. So, some songs have come from us thinking we just need tracks that are a bit more lively for the stage. Because you just stand there and you think, 'I would rather be jumping right now.' Obviously, you pick the moment for that. A festival is a different situation.
How do you create that list for events like today where there are a lot of fans but you also want to capture new people coming in?
Alanya: I think for events like Takedown Festival, we want to make sure that they're fun and energetic. Obviously, we had the slower song in there because we've just released it. We don't usually have any slow songs in our sets, especially for festivals. I think when we are writing a set list, we try and think about the journey it takes people on, so we wanted to start off like, 'This is who we are; we are loud, and we want to move.' ' Then we can have a little slower period together, and then before it ends it's like, 'Okay, this is the last chance to move with us, so we're going to give you the biggest chance to mosh with the heaviest guitars.'
Kevin: I think about the songs and the energy that they have, and you start up here. You can't just bring it straight down. You can't just bring everyone's energy up and then bring it straight down. So you've got to think about where you're taking them.
Alanya: And even like today we changed the set list order from how it was on tour last week just because we were like, 'Some songs feel like they should be earlier or later on in the set,' so it's a learning curve experience of playing those songs live or just getting in a room as well in rehearsals. Sometimes we're like, 'We need to change it around,' so there's a lot of thought that goes into it.
Kevin: I guess it's the connection that we're feeling with the crowd and the feedback that we're getting.
With the fans' comments in mind, do you know the fan favourite that you know you have to play?
Kevin: Fan favourites are always kind of quite surprising; they're deep dives, they're like going way back.
Alanya: Like, what are you doing? No, that song's not even in the pool. (laughing)
Kevin: Songs that are like five years old.
Alanya: We’re like, 'Why are you doing this? But there are some fan pages. "Prophecies" is one that people ask us to play a lot, which is another, slower one. We love it; we only do that for headline shows.
Do you feel like you have to play it if everyone wants it, or do you feel disconnected to them?
Kevin: We wanted to play it; we just don't have time. It comes down to the duration, as we've only got 30 minutes, so the set's got to be like this.
Do you have any festivals this year?
Alanya: This is our only festival currently. The year is still young.
Kevin: We've got support dates with our Black European.
Alanya: Super excited for those ones.
Kevin: And Malavera.
Alanya: Malavera in Bristol in May as well.
Any new music album or EP on the horizon?
Alanya: We've just been in the studio, and we've sort of written our heaviest. I think we're having fun playing with sounds again and discovering ourselves as artists and writers. .And these songs that we've written are inspired by life. So we're excited for them to come into the set.
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