If you’ve been tuned into London’s throbbing indie-electronic music scene, chances are you’ve heard of PVA. The South London “band of besties”, have been cultivating their sound for eight years now and have set the city’s underground venues alight with enlivened percussions that prompt the tapping of frenzied feet. Now, after a three-year-long recording process, the trio – Ella Harris, Josh Baxter and Louis Satchell – have finally found their musical watershed, with a new album releasing today, dubbed No More Like This.
While distilling their restless, punk-fuelled energy into the ten tracks, PVA’s latest offering signals a shift towards a softer, more sensual sound, successfully building on the band’s sonic and emotional range. It still places the alt-rock rhythms and experimental electronica fans know and love at the forefront, but this time fuses these with R&B, hip-hop and soul influences and amplified vocals that “slip between fragile whispers and urgent declarations”. Band members turn their hands to multiple instruments, aiming to artfully manipulate and experiment with each composition rather than perfect it – and the result is riveting. Using the moon’s lunar phases as an extended metaphor, the music tells a story of moving on, casting away what no longer serves you and finding consolation in the promise of brighter days ahead. It seeks to bolster the unique bond the band have unlocked between themselves and devoted listeners, rather than tirelessly pursuing virality.
Recreating the sensation of “dancing in the studio”, the songs instinctually took shape from “playing, messing around [and] making wacky computer sounds” together during a string of sweat-inducing sessions at The Room Studios in South East London. The resulting tunes are a departure from PVA’s usual style in the best sense – while sonically softer, lyrics still pack a punch, with angry and grief-riddled contemplations rooted in their lived realities. “More radical and more accessible” songs such as the opening torch track Rain, as well as Boyface and Anger Song, grapple with romance and realism while the album also offers a quiet and raw reflection on the lives of modern youths. According to the band, the record’s arrangements are their richest and lushest yet, as they deem the music to be “something bodily, obsessive and lived-in”, while it effortlessly expresses “harder emotions through smaller gestures”.
Their upcoming world tour, however, is no small gesture. PVA – which received much of their early acclaim from the pulsating energy of their live London shows – will take No More Like This to the stage next month, beginning in Bristol. Still promoting the thrill of live music and paving the way for further artistic collaboration, PVA find balance in the new evolved, enigmatic sound they’ve honed, and excitement for fans to hear it for the first time today.
Below, we chat with the brand about their evolving sound, the secret to their enduring friendship and the story behind their most ambitious album yet.
1. Where does No More Like This sit within the story you’re telling with this new era?
Ella Harris: No More Like This is an album that moves through phases – like the moon, like us. It’s grieving lost time, it’s looking ahead, it’s walking home from the club with your shoes off.
Louis Satchell: I’ve seen it as finding clarity in a stressful situation that you’ve now finally reflected on enough, like when someone goes all quiet and collected just before they are about to unleash hell on a mother fucker.
2. What has experimenting with instruments taught you about each other’s strengths?
EH: We love playing everything, even if we’re not that great at it. The moment you connect with an instrument, even if you’re just strumming an open string, you show a side of creativity and flow-state that doesn’t usually exist in the world. Sitting in a circle and tapping into that together in a jam is… honestly super witchy.
LS: Ella is sick at the bass guitar and Josh is equally sick at the hi-hat.
3. How did artists like SOPHIE and Arca influence your sound?
EH: They showed us how queerness and radical ideas can sit alongside electronic music and create sonic utopias – something to look forward to.
LS: Was a bit of a harder one for me to grasp, but yeah, why wouldn’t you try to push things forward and create some of the loudest sounds imaginable. It’s harder than you think to create something entirely new, but if you’re willing to stick your neck out, you might actually do it.
Josh Baxter: SOPHIE is a huge influence on me in terms of production and creativity. She has definitely instilled the idea of being bold and making strange and beautiful music.
4. What is your favourite place to go out in London?
EH: Any karaoke bar.
LS: Howl at the Moon.
JB: Ormside (Projects).
5. What is your favourite memory from making No More Like This?
EH: Every night in Hither Green recording the album, we’d break for dinner. We were staying literally across the road from the studio, so us and G (Kwake Bass) would sit, eat, and chat about the music we love. G has so many stories about putting music at the centre of his world – and, amongst all the industry BS, still striving for creative vision and integrity. We listened in awe. It really inspired us to keep going, even if people don’t get it at first – to keep holding that light in your heart and pushing on. The music industry can be fickle and obsessed with trends and virality, and after a few years out of cycle, we really needed to hear that. He basically said: as long as the music you’re making serves you, and connects you with people, keep on it. That stayed with us. It brought us to a place where we feel even more inspired by the process – creating and performing for people.
LS: Keepy-ups in the car park on our breaks. Observing the prowess of Kwake, who’d often dip into their mind palace, to come back with the secret sauce. Recording Ruby K doing some outrageous bits on the cello.
JB: Seeing Anger Song come to life was really exciting. I was talking to G about wanting to explore some sample drum and bass vibes, so he whipped out his sampler and we jammed out on the track for like two hours on loop. It was so fun and created these extra rhythms and vocal chops.
6. Your shows are known for their intensity – what do you each look for in the energy of a great performance?
EH: When everything feels unconscious and intrinsic – like it’s just flowing through you. And when the audience is moving like a wave.
LS: Something that makes me feel different from when I showed up.
JB: Make me feel something, (to) reach a heightened state together.
7. What’s on your rider?
EH: Fridge magnets – so I can always have a memory of all the places music has taken me. My fridge at home is basically a scrapbook of years of touring, and I love it.
LS: Berries and nuts because I’m a squirrel.
JB: Cheese and grapes.
8. If you could only describe No More Like This in three words, what would they be?
EH: Indented, fated, lunar.
LS: Empowered, bestial, breathe.
JB: Play that again.
9. What keeps your collaboration fresh eight years into making music together?
EH: As our friendship deepens, the ease of the music flowing out of us is so refreshing. It feels instinctual now, and really comfortable. It’s one of the most rewarding relationships of my life – a space to grow, supported by others who are also growing and developing as creatives. I didn’t really know the guys before we started the band and now they’re like brothers.
LS: The longer time spent together, brings about a deeper understanding of each other, all our ticks and icks, desires and fears. Reaching these different levels of understanding is incredibly fulfilling and creatively inspiring. That’s even before trying to imitate all this fire music we keep stumbling upon. Like where’d it all come from?
10. What part of this new era feels the most exciting for you as a group?
EH: That we can change, develop and grow as musicians and people in this industry – and be accepted for it. It’s always daunting switching things up, but the people who’ve stuck with us for eight years are being so positive about the fresh sounds. It makes us really happy.
LS: I think we’ve had quite a bumpy ride and long may it continue. That said, I’m super excited about a new balance I feel. The constant resetting has calmed and a clearer momentum has assumed form. I hope that with each album, we will offer a deeper exploration into the worlds we want to build.
JB: We have found a process that really works for all of us to collaborate well. I’m very excited to see where this leads and how it will be challenged and morphed and we continue.
‘No More Like This’ is out now on all major streaming platforms. Photography by Jak Payne.
