A chat with Revulva
Words by Hannah Powell. Images provided by Revulva.
Known for their catchy tunes and get-down-and-groove music, Wellington band Revulva has gotten everybody into jazz.
Fresh off the release of their self-titled album, Yo Vocal chats to front woman Phoebe Johnson about the band, her songwriting, and the trials and tribulations of being a twenty-something in 21st century Aotearoa New Zealand. Spoiler alert - life can be likened to a lonely gannet.
What’s been happening?
Well… we’ve just put our debut, self-titled, self-produced, banger of a record out into the world!
How has the last year treated you in music?
It’s been a lot of hard work, and honestly, I burnt out probably around the second single - which ironically was followed by a third single about the glamorisation of burnout.
It’s been new territory to spend so much time on the planning phase, when we are usually such a ‘doing’ band - playing shows, recording music, hanging out. The last two years we have only really seen each other at the end of the year to get together to rehearse and record. So it’s been hard to keep up the momentum with the end goal in sight - but today, holding the record we made together, all that time planning makes it all so worth it. Also pretty weird to hold in my hands something that nearly broke me.
For those who don’t know, what is your sound, and who’s in the band?
It’s been a long road trying to hone in that perfect sentence to describe the sound - but it’s funky, soulful, exciting, improvised, and will drag you into the chaos/fun. To keep it snappy I’ve been telling people we’re a soul/funk band, and letting them come to their own conclusion when they come to the shows…
We have Lily Shaw on backing vocals, flute, and tenor saxophone - fresh off touring with the Teskey Brothers. Hector McLachlan on keys and backing vocals - also a Teskey Brothers alum, and Revulva day one. Tobias Leman on tenor saxophone, and occasionally spoken-word poetry. Zane Hawkins on guitar, also a bloody legend when it comes to tracking. We recorded half the album in his basement studio. Mysty Cooke on trumpet, and helping me tackle social media (it frightens me). Kaito Walley on trombone and percussion, you might have seen him in some other small bands like TOI, L.A.B, and Bret Mckenzie’s band. And last but not least Lennox Grootjans on drums, and occasional design.
Congratulations on your new self-titled album, ‘Revulva’! Tell me more about the process behind it, especially as an 8-piece band.
We’ve been playing together for five years now, and this album represents the finessing of our transition from live band to our refined record version. The four minute version of Revulva, rather than the sometimes 12-minute live version.
I write the songs by myself in my room on guitar or piano, and then bring them to the other members to arrange as Revulva. With eight people we can sometimes come up with pretty hectic ideas that are epic live, but too overpowering for a recorded version. We wanted to make the slickest possible version of these 10 songs - and I’m really proud to say we have.
We initially got together to record three songs (Bush Bash, Heroin Chic, and This Town) at the Surgery with Dr. Lee Prebble in late 2022. This Town got dressed up really quick, and we toured it that summer on the This Town Ain’t Big Enough tour. After that, we had a brief hiatus while Lily and Hector toured with the Teskey Brothers. This gave me time to work on more songs for the album, and think hard about what I wanted the album to be. Also gave me a chance to save some more money.
We got together again for a week of rehearsals, refined existing arrangements and learnt the new songs - some written just the night before we got together for the first time in almost a year! The next week recorded all the rhythm section, and horns. The next 6 months (time flies…) we recorded many bvs, percussion, extra vocals, strings, solos - all at Zane’s studio underneath his house. We would be nowhere without Zane Hawkins!
Who are you inspired by in music, and who influences your process, direction, or experimentation?
We’re all really inspired by music from the late 1970s - Herbie Hancock, Steely Dan, Minnie Riperton, Prince, which really shapes the musicality and funkiness we’re always striving for. I’m also inspired by the likes of the Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense is forever a resource to look to for move on-stage antics and theatrics.
In terms of songwriting, I hear you’re inspired by the trials and tribulations of being a twenty-something in 21st century New Zealand. Can you tell me more, and how do these themes and experiences translate to the album?
Each of the songs dabble in something that’s happened to me in the last five years. Sometimes that could come in the form of a ‘bottle-episode’, writing about that time all my exes showed up to the gig and it felt like small-town dating had turned spaghetti western… or road rage incidents in Kilbirnie, Wellington, or even that moment when you look up and realise all of your friends have left the city you grew up in.
On the music side of things this translates to each of the songs being pretty unique, and having their own process for coming to life. This means that it’s been pretty hard to nail down the exact sound we are, when the mix is so eclectic! But I hope that it all sounds like Revulva in the end.
Being a woman in a male-dominated jazz field - thoughts and feelings? How are you going against the status quo?
Coming through the jazz school in 2016 I was confronted by how masculine the jazz scene was, and the indie scene too. I was always gas-lighting myself into believing it wasn’t an issue, that I was making it up. But the longer I’m away from it the more I can see the issue; both retrospectively and currently.
I’m really stoked to see more women entering the program, and more female staff leading the school. When I was in jazz school there were no female staff, and two players in my year.
Revulva is always about having women at the front, and talking about my experience as a woman in the scene and also just a woman in my mid-twenties. More and more since starting the band I’m so stoked to see that there are heaps of badass women and non-male musos dominating the scene. I don’t think we’re really breaking from the status quo in that way - and that’s a great thing.
Something I love about our set that I don’t see too often is the sexuality, humour, theatrics, and honesty of the lyrics.
Favourite song on ‘Revulva’?
I want to say Nigel, but we’ll have a chat about that below…. Or Compromise! The two songs we were lucky to record with a string quartet in Zane’s basement studio (with Ellen Murfitt, Hayden Nickel, Lauren Jack, and Emily Paterson). The strings for Compromise were arranged by our own Hector McLachlan on keys in the band, and Nigel’s strings were arranged by Liz Hocking. Liz has guested in Revuvla several times when subbing for Lily. Liz’s flute solo rescued Boing Flip from not making the album, and her strings on Nigel nailed the bitter sweet tone of the song.
What’s the story behind the closing track, ‘Nigel’?
Nigel was inspired by a BBC article I read about a lonely gannet from Mana Island (off the Kapiti Coast) who died among concrete replica birds.
The song was written during a time where I looked up after a busy period and noticed that suddenly all my friends and my community had left Wellington. I was suddenly working full time, a lot of the bands I had played in throughout my early twenties had wrapped up as people had moved overseas and I was experiencing a “what am I doing here, why haven’t I moved on?” moment.
This song is basically feeling like Nigel. But as I get into my later twenties, I come to love my own company and really relish in those moments alone.