“We were kind of a jam band and everyone had other projects,” says multi-instrumentalist, electronics operator and vocalist, Richard Pike. “But personally I wanted to get more serious about songwriting and production and I really was heavily into computers at the time, when laptops weren’t as common. I made it a mission to figure out how to record and was very interested in mixing live performance and electronics and how to pull them all together.”
A completely instrumental album, Make Me Love You contains a lot of textural elements without ever being excessive. Multi-tracks of live drums, guitar and bass meet up with glitch electronics, keys and various other effects. There are moments of rhythmic insistence and masterful instrumental interplay, as well as plenty of gentler, reflective moments.
“I think when you make a record things form before you,” says Pike. “When you have one track that gives you this or that mood, you kind of want the next track you write to contrast that or to follow on from that. [Make Me Love You] had this intuitive process of, ‘These sound great. What else does the album need?’ It took a really nice shape in that regard. I think it feels like it’s got a nice flow to it.”
These days PVT consists of Richard, Laurence and electronic musician Dave Miller, who joined shortly after the release of Make Me Love You. The trio are scattered through various parts of the world and work on new music separately, experimenting with different ways of generating songs and sending ideas back and forth via email. Interestingly, while the band members all lived in Sydney during the construction of Make Me Love You, the process wasn’t much different.
“It was bits and pieces,” says Pike. “We’re still pretty much going by the same process, which is giving each other files and then pulling things together and jamming a bit and getting the bits we like from that and then eventually getting together and playing it in the same room with the electronics. There’s an idealised way that a band writes something and then gets in a room and plays it, but that hasn’t really happened that much since the ‘60s when everyone was multi-tracking. If you read about The Rolling Stones making Exile On Main St, they went to a villa in the south of France and jammed for six months while partying and then eventually cut it all up into a record. I feel like, because we work with electronics, that’s pretty much how we operate too… Maybe with less drugs and wild parties.”
PVT’s second album O Soundtrack My Heart was a notable progression from Make Me Love You, movinginto darker, more forceful territory.2010’s Church With No Magic marked the first appearance of vocals on a PVT release, which continued on 2013’s Homosapien, perhaps their most accessible release to date. But despite the diversity, they’ll draw from each of their releases at the upcoming Melbourne date.
“It’s really nice to have four records to choose from, and we’re also going to play some new material. It makes it easier to get a set together – when you’re a young band and you’ve only got one album, well you have no choice but to play that album and that album dictates the shape of your live set. But when you’ve got more to choose from you can shape it into some kind of bigger thing. Having said that, we can’t exactly play heaps from Make Me Love You, but there will be a few.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
