Reven Interview/Review

The group Reven and I have been talking about doing an interview for a while now, and we finally got around to getting it done. The band came up with an interesting idea...let’s do it like a listening party. You listen to a song, then ask us questions about it. Well, we sort of did it that way, only more of a long distance listening party. I listened to a song (or two) and e-mailed Jake questions.

When I received the 7-song CD, I listened to it a few times as I was doing other things, just to get a general feel for the album in general. I thought...good alternative rock, then upgraded that to “alternative metal” based on the fact that the singer’s voice is heavier than most alternative rock. But this is not really a band that can be defined by a genre label. Their songs and stylings are more diverse than that. So then I sat down and listened more closely to the 1st song. Thus began the listening party:


Ok, I just listened to "40 Day Low." On the surface, if I had to label Reven, I would say "alternative metal." However, I hear a lot of funk in that intro, and there are many interesting changes in rhythm and tempo throughout the song. Which leads me to wonder the age-old question interviewers always ask bands...yes...

Who are your influences?

"Alternative metal" is a new one for us!! "40 Day Low", was a complicated one for us, we argued about that song for weeks, BELIEVE ME!! That song was a BITCH to arrange!! And we could give the age old answer and list all sorts of bands from the popular to the obscure. And to be honest, we (as individuals) listen to and are influenced by completely different bands from one guy to the next. But when we write a song, we never want to say let's do this part like Tool or let’s strum this like Metallica. As a matter of fact, we tend to scratch songs if they remind us of a particular band, no matter in what writing stage we're in on the song. We tend to start with a riff and whatever mood it creates, we take it from there....

Listening to "Think" and "Black," I noticed that your songs vary a lot in style. What is your writing process? Do certain members of Reven tend to write all the songs or do you all pitch in ideas and come up with something from there?

"Think" was written in like 2 hours, it didn't need much change from it's original written form. The lyrics were finished in like 10 minutes and BAMM, just like that, "Think" was done. It was also the second song we ever wrote as a band. "Black" took a lot of push and pull!! The way you hear it on the CD is completely different from the first form it took. The arrangement took a while as well. "Black" also doesn't have any lyrics on the chorus, which is kinda weird for song writing but fuck it, it's our song, we can write like we want to!! We all really love that song. It starts off a bit nice and fluffy and then gets mad at you at the end!! Kinda like an ex-girlfriend. Our band "works" when it comes to song writing, no one ever says, "that sounds too weird, lets play it like they do on the radio". We all write music, EVEN OUR DRUMMER, and then we throw it in a pot and cook it up. Sometimes the heat gets turned up and your meal is served quickly and sometimes we have to let it simmer and cook nice and slow, either way, it's turkey time!! We have songs that sit on the burner for weeks until the mood is struck again and then we go back to work on it. There's gotta be the right aura in the room to work on some songs, you know?

As I listen to “Run,” I’m thinking, I wonder why so many more songs are written about pain and anger than about happiness. As someone who has occasionally been known to write poetry, I know that I tend to write about things that hurt me or made me angry. Do you find that to be true when you write lyrics?

I forwarded this to Joe... ...here's what he had to say:

In my personal experience, when you're hurt or angry the only thing that seems to be there, for comfort, is pen and paper. The way to get thru the suffocation of every day life. Paper seems to listen with infinite attention. And my pain and anger seem to be the only thing (sometimes) that makes it on paper. The happy sappy shit just has its own canvas. But just for you I will come up with a love song ............wait ? what is love? lol

Anymore: I like the way this one is structured. It slowly builds in intensity. Then near the end it drops back down then quickly builds back up into a shredding guitar solo, then dips back down again at the very end. It’s nice when songs break out of the traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge/solo-verse-chorus structure. Is this something you do consciously or do you just “go with the flow”?

Anymore was the first song we ever wrote as a band and we still really love that song very much. I'm glad you appreciate song structure because most of our music doesn't follow suit if you listen carefully, except for "Run". We used to structure our songs "outside of traditional suit" on purpose. We all seem to want to do it different every time. Now, it seems we don't even make a conscious effort to make things different, it just kinda happens. Most of our songs end completely different than the beginning. Some of the songs I speak of aren't on record yet, but they will be this summer.....

Ok, “Wash Away”...another one with interesting structure. Where most bands would put a guitar solo in the bridge, here the guitar riffs during the chorus and the vocals are muffled. The bridge begins with something of a military cadence on drums with an eery “ooooh” over it. That dies out, then slowly the bass comes in alone, then the high-hats join in, then finally the guitar and drums get back into the rhythm of the song. Earlier you mentioned Tool, a band know for building their songs more on complex rhythms than on catchy guitar riffs. Do you guys play around with the rhythm a lot when writing a song?

Wash Away was our toughest song to write so far. Tempos and rhythm are a huge part of song writing, usually we get it where we want it right away, but sometimes we have to play it on stage or in rehearsal 1000 times before one of us says "the tempo seems a little fast" or slow or whatever. We don’t care too much about a catchy guitar riff, we go tend to go for a certain feel. A CD full of catchy songs gets old quick, however if you FEEL what is coming out of the speakers, you tend to hang on to that a lot longer...

Last song: “Walk on By”: The “bridge” on this one, with the la-da-da-da part, made it occur to me that several sections of Reven’s songs sound like something that might have just popped up in a jam. Do you guys sometimes just jam on a song until somebody does something and y’all go, “Hey, that sounded cool! Do that again!”?

YOU CAUGHT US!! But the actual answer is yes. We will work on a song and sometimes a jam pops up in the middle of it, sometimes it fits perfect and sometimes not. If it works and it's a little off of the rest of the songs feel, we’ll keep it. If it's too obvious, we trash it. Going into your rehearsal space and jamming is a good way too start learning everybody's weird little habits, it's cool. Also, if we find ourselves stuck in a rut, we jam! Sometimes we jam a drum stick into Steven's eye (he doesn't like that much).

Ok, I caught Reven live at Sam’s recently and you had just gone through some changes in lineup. You had a new drummer and your former drummer had switched to guitar. Have these changes made any difference in your style?

Of course, the changes in line-up creates a different dynamic man, we're all fucked up now, jk. But it takes time to let things simmer so we can start cookin' again. It's really nice having people like STEVIE and HENRY VAN DELDEN, that can switch up instruments on the fly, you know?

Also, that night at Sam’s, you introduced a new element...you did a really cool percussion intro to one of your songs with bongos and drums. Is experimenting with new instruments something you plan to continue?

Actually, we plan to continue it. The thing you saw at Sam's was a VERY primitive version of the percussive throw we have now. We love it mucho, mucho!! And we do plan on bringing new elements into out mix. I cant wait for the new record to come out!! It's gonna be insane! Some piano, organs, bongos, you might even hear a triangle!!!

I am curious about the name Reven. I learned at Sam’s that it is not pronounced like “Raven” or “Reeven” but like “Rev-en” with a short “e” as in “reverend.” Where did this name come from?

It came from a chemically induced night!! ha! Reven plainly said is never spelled backwards!! But it means a lot of different things, to some is the opposite of never (forever). I like to think it represents the duality of man! But we leave it up to the listener. The real meaning will be told after our 6th or 7th album!

You also recently made the finals in the Emergenza Festival. (Congrats!) What was it like participating in Emergenza? Was the competition fierce?

YEAH!!! Emergenza has been a nail biter!! We are all anxious to make it into the next round. It's been tough, there are some REALLY talented bands competing and some of them have been doing it for a while, we've got our work cut out for us. June 9th is the City Finals, we're selling tickets for them, and it's being judged by industry professionals so I guess you could say everyone will have to bring their A Game!


So, there you go. This was a really fun way to do a cd review, show review and interview at the same time! Good luck with the new lineup and the Emergenza finals, guys!!

You can check Reven out at http://www.myspace.com/revenrocks.